Tulsa, OK asked in Consumer Law, Business Law, Civil Litigation and Legal Malpractice for Oklahoma

Q: Can I sue my sister (the co-signer) for selling my car without my permission/knowledge? And the dealership?

So I leased a car that my sister co-signed on. I fell a few payments behind while in between jobs so she had made about 4 months of payments on it. Come November I had finally got started at my new job and had planned to resume payments within two weeks, but she showed up to my house demanding that I give her the keys and that since she’d been making the payment that it was her car. I told her that if she took it that it would be without my permission and that I would report it stolen. She took it anyways and when I went to the police station to file a report they told me that it was a “civil matter,” and there was nothing they could do. I found out today that she sold it to a local dealership without my permission knowledge. I thought I also had to sign off on resale because I’m in the title as the primary buyer.

1 Lawyer Answer
Joel Gary Selik
Joel Gary Selik
Answered
  • Legal Malpractice Lawyer
  • Las Vegas, NV

A: Yes. As she was only a cosigner and not an owner she had no rights of possession or sale (subject to anything that may have been included in the signed documents).

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