Want to know who gets to keep the car when you divorce? Household budgets are tight, forcing many families to make difficult financial decisions. Some families have become single-car households, carpooling or using public transportation to get around. If the marriage ends in divorce, the couple must decide who keeps the car. Property division in divorce is one of the most highly contested issues in a divorce. The answer is based on the property laws in the state of residence. Speak to one of our family law attorneys for a free attorney consultation and find out what property is yours!
Property Division In Divorce
Since it is determined at a state level, property division in divorce can be a tricky thing. If the couple is in agreement about how property will be divided, they are permitted to make these decisions on their own. However, retaining a family law attorney is the best way to ensure that property is divided according to the law. A trained and experienced divorce attorney will let you know about the roles of property division in divorce and how to get you what you deserve!
Most states follow common law guidelines regarding property. If one spouse purchased and paid for the car completely, that individual is the owner. If both spouses have their names on the title, each is considered 50 percent owner. In states that follow community property laws, property acquired during a marriage is divided evenly during divorce. This excludes property that was an inheritance, gift, or obtained before the marriage. Community property laws view spouses as equal contributors to the marriage so the court strives to distribute property equitably.
Though this process sounds simple, it can be very complicated, especially when both spouses want to keep the family vehicle. In a community property state, the individual who makes the strongest case will be the winner. For example, the individual can emphasize that the vehicle is needed for commuting purposes because public transportation is not available and walking is not feasible. A stay-at-home mother could stress that she needs the car to drive children to school and transport them to activities and medical appointments.
If one spouse made a more substantial down payment on the vehicle or made most of the loan or lease payments, that could sway the court to award the car to that person during divorce. If the car was owned by one spouse prior to the marriage and that individual made all loan payments, it will probably be awarded to that person. However, the other spouse may be entitled to something of equal value.
Fights over the family vehicle can turn ugly, with one spouse taking it and not returning it. To prevent the situation from reaching this point, talk to a family law attorney. This legal professional knows how to handle the fair division of individual and marital property in divorce without the situation ending in an argument. Speaking with one of our attorneys for the free family law help that you deserve is as easy as picking up the phone and giving us a call!
So I have a vehicle in my name only and one in my name and my spouses. In a divorce can that car rightfully be given to her to be trusted to make the payments. Or will the car need to be put in her name only. She has a addiction problem and I don’t trust her to make the remaining payments. Help. What do I do.
Vehicles are one of the most common property issues during a divorce, and there are certainly some complications regarding them like the one you mention.
When the divorce is finalized, a Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage will be entered by the court that lays out the separation of property, debts, and obligations of each party. One of these would deal with the vehicles.
The vehicle that is in both of your names should be handled one of the following was:
1. Sold and the proceeds/amount owed as her responsibility;
2. The outstanding loan refinanced and taken out of your name; or
3. She is awarded the car and also given the sole responsibility to make all payments and indemnify you and hold you harmless from any liability related to the outstanding loan and the vehicle.
Now, for #3, there is (obviously) some issues related to this if she doesn’t make payments, etc. If she didn’t make payment and it was repossessed, it would be possible for the bank to go after you as well. But this is where the indemnification clause kicks in – even though the divorce judgment doesn’t stop 3rd parties (the car loan) from going after you, she could be taken back to the divorce court and held in contempt of court unless she took care of whatever needed to be done to ensure that you were not held liable (either by forcing her to make payment, or refinance, or something else).
Those are your best options and what is typical in this type of situation. We can provide more details if you’d like to speak with one our expert divorce attorneys.
I divorced my ex-wife in 1996 in Wyoming. My vehicle was purchased and titled in Maryland. I was awarded my vehicle in the divorce but my ex-wife is shared on the vehicle title. I do not know where she is located and she would probably not sign the title any way.
How can I get her removed from the title so I can get rid of the vehicle?
If you are unable to get in touch with her, you may be able to simply contact the secretary of state where title rests and bring them a copy of the judgment and ask that a new or amended title be produced. I’m sure they will charge you for that.
But, you should expect that a copy of your divorce judgment is probably not good enough all by itself. You will want what is called a “certified copy” of your divorce judgment. You would need to contact the court where you were divorced, have the case number, date of divorce, etc., available and ask them how you can obtain a certified copy of the judgment for dissolution. There is typically a fee for this, and since it is relatively old, the files are probably kept in an off-site storage facility if they have not been scanned into a computer database yet. This means it might take a few days for them to order and receive the file and then certify it, copy it, and mail it out to you. Hopefully this works.
Otherwise, the normal way that things are handled when someone does not fulfill their obligations under a court order (and a judgment for dissolution is a court order), is to file a petition fro rule to show cause, also called a motion for contempt. This asks the court to enforce the order and make the person do something (like sign title) and if they don’t they can be held in contempt, held in default, and a court order can state that the secretary of state shall issue corrected title to you.
This process is obviously not cheap, especially across the country, so it is normally done for bigger things.
I was served a divorce paper about a week ago, my spouse is in the Caribbean while I’m in the US, NY. We got married in the caribbean through religious rights in 2015 and lawfully in the US in 2018. My spouse/ petitioner bought a car in 2016 (we were living together at that time) he was making all the monthly payments because I was a housewife (no kids). After I migrated into the US with my family leaving him behind, he was given a few assets to be the care taker of until someone decides to buy them. After asking for a divorce, he would not give the assets and took a few more things from me during his vacation here in the US (2019) such as jewelry, phone etc without confronting me and ask for it. I found out a few days later, asked him about it, he did mentioned he’s keeping it but did not return it. How do I get him to repay for those items?
Is the divorce filed in the U.S.? If it is, then you can go t court and ask for an equitable distribution of the marital assets. If it is filed outside of the U.S., you will be subject to whatever those laws are and however they are enforced. In any event, enforcement will likely be difficult being that he is outside of U.S. jurisdiction so that will make things quite difficult.
Give one of our experienced divorce lawyers a call for some more details.
So I just filed for divorce. My husband is trying to take the family vehicle from me and leave me workout a vehicle. During the marriage the vehicle was purchased and later on another vehicle was purchased by him for my mother. Do I have to surrender my vehicle to him because it’s in his name.
If you are married, the court will likely say that each of you should have a vehicle – this car is marital property. Unless the judge says so, you do not have to give him the keys at this point, with rare exception.
If this car is used for driving around kids as well, a judge would likely not take it away on account of that as well.
My wife has my car but it’s all in my name she kicked me out I’m now homeless with no where to live and no transportation to work what can I do to get my car back
A court order stating that she must turn over the keys would most likely be needed to obtain the vehicle. File for divorce and file a motion to turnover of the car keys and the vehicle. It’s possible the police would do something if you had the title, but many times they will tell you to “take it up with the judge.”
If you only have 1-car in the family and there are kids living with your wife though, be prepared for the judge to say no to your request since the judge will always do what seems best for the children.
Addendum: She has a car she bought herself.
If she has a car and you have a car, then you each should keep one of them, usually the one either of you is primarily driving and/or primarily paying for.
She has a car and I have a car. So she has a spare key takes my car without my permission gets loan taken out on my car and they take it. My car is in both our names. I think that she did it maliciously so I cant have a vehicle to work. She has 2 domestic abuse charges against her also. What do I do?
I am soon going through a divorce in Wisconsin. I had a car before i got married. I traded the car I got into the marriage for a new car and put the down payment. The wife now wants that car. I have been the payer of the the car. She has been earning money and stashing it away and traveling to her boyfriends she meet on line during our marriage. Any suggestions?
The vehicle ‘might’ be able to have some of the value “traced” to its pre-marital value and pushed in your direction during the dividing of the marital assets. But if it is ‘her car’ and you have another car, it is possible that one of you buys the other out or you each just keep your own car and pay your own car notes.
As far as her stashing money away, that is all marital property if acquired during the marriage and thus, subject to division during the divorce process.
If she has been spending money on trips, etc., with boyfriends, that sounds like what we call “dissipation of the marital estate” and she would have to “pay back” all or a portion of those funds (that can be proven) to the ‘marital estate’ when determining how much of the assets each of you gets in the end.
Using dissipation as a negotiating point is normal, but if it actually comes to getting a ruling on dissipation, this won;’t happen until trial, which is easily 18-months to 2-years in the future (in many courts). And because only a portion of it eventually goes to your side of the equation (its marital money, so half to you and half to her; usually), think about how much 50% of that total amount she spent is and if its worth dropping $15k to go to trial to obtain that half. Most of the time, it isn’t.
When the divorce is filed, you can quickly initiate discovery, which forces each party to turn over a few years of tax returns, bank statements, credit card statements, bills, paycheck stubs, etc., and then also allow for you to send subpoenas to banks, etc., to obtain them if she won’t give them to you voluntarily.
Best advice, since these are pretty complex questions that the majority of divorces do not deal with, is to actually get a local attorney that is has experience in complex division of assets during divorce, because there are a lot of details involved.