A friend of mine has asked me a question, and I'm not sure, so if anyone here has an informed opinion, I would appreciate it.

She bought a car last September for 1,200.

HEr boyfriend put it in his name, although he ackowleged it was "her car".

They have since split up, and she now wants him to return the vehicle to her so she can sell it. He has refused, and will not agree to either hand it over or sell it and give her the cash.

He is currently unemployed, has no known assets, and no cash to give her for the car.

Is there any legal recourse?

I said the Small Claims Court, but would a judge order him to hand over the vehicle when it is in his name, and would presumably dispute ownership?

She can prove she drew the money from the bank to buy the car.

Any ideas how she can resolve this without risking too much of her own money, or would it be better to simply write it off as a loss?

no ..... she has nothing in writing from her bf and presumably the log book and everything else are in bf's name ..... silly girl for trying to take a shortcut around insurance issues or similar

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The question is, can she prove that she bought the car? (proving that she withdrew the cash from her account would not usually be sufficient). About the only way of proving that is to produce paperwork to support it. Bill of sale, invoice, receipt etc. Without that, she will probably have to put the whole thing down to experience & hopefully learn from it.

pretty tenuous claim against bf on that basis
source of funds in this instance is also an irrelevance, as bf could/would just say it was a gift

although the registered keeper is not proof of ownership, the onus shifts to the 3rd party to prove otherwise - typically this is a finance company

btw, we don't have district judges in this country!

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Andylet me get this straight [1] she paid the total amount for a car they both where going to use[2] she registered the car in her boyfriends namewithout getting any signed documentation from himas to the true owner[3] she selected a guy unemployedwith no known assets and no cash[4] if the car was a Mondeo?I could give you the name of a good Shrinkand that would give her a super yankee????

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Thanks for the replies guys!

Sadly she was too trusting, and looks as though she will pay the price!

This was not to avoid paying extra insurance, he always drove and she was always the passenger.

She drew the money out, and paid in cash, but no receipt, nor written agreement.

I wondered if a judge would give her the benefit of the doubt if she could produce proof of withdrawing the sum of money paid for the car on the day, as presumably the previous keeper would remember the price he charged.


Tabasco,

Yes sad but true.

nah ... sorry old son and daughter of son, but not a chance; facts are all that matter; you got mugged; just be thankful it was not truly serious money, learn from it and move on

It's amazing how trusting we all were when we were younger. Sadly, as the years go by, experience teaches us to be more realistic than idealistic.
My advice is to always get some kind of paperwork to cover any purchase. If it is not an official invoice/receipt, make sure it is signed (with the name underneath), dated & specific in detail. File it & hope that you never need it!

HC
you are so right. i think Andy should just give the car back.LoL.
regards
jkd
edit. just kidding Andy

jkd,

:-) Damn it, sussed already!


HC,

Spot on, sadly in hindsight in this case.