Adrian wrote:
PM ("PM" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

Here's the situation:

Miss A and Mr B have lived together for around 12 years.

A couple of years ago they borrowed £5k from Miss A's parents to buy a
car. This was a verbal agreement; none of the money has been paid back.
This is a major bone of contention - the parents want their money. It is
unknown whether there is a receipt for the car.

The car is registered in Mr B's nameand was used by Mr B as the family
car. Miss A does not drive.

Recently the relationship between Miss A and Mr B broke down, to the
extent that Mr B no longer lives with Miss A. There is a huge amount of
bad feeling on both sides, and for the purposes of this post let's
assume a reconciliation won't happen.

Mr B has said he is going to keep the car. Miss A's parents want it back
as part payment for the debt due. The car is at Miss A's house and she
holds the V5 and one of the two sets of keys.

But the V5C is in his name?

Who owns the vehicle?

No way to be certain without it going to court, but I'd say that Mr B had
the strongest claim at the mo.

If Miss A's parents can prove they paid the money for it - say by
showing a bank withdrawal for the £5k at the time the car was bought -
can they claim ownership?

I wouldn't have thought so - the loan would be unsecured on the car, just
the same as the bank wouldn't be able to repossess the car if you
defaulted on the £5k unsecured loan you'd taken out to buy it.

What's the car worth now?

Can the vehicle's registered keeper be re-assigned to be either Miss A
or Miss A's parents - none of whom drive - without the consent of Mr B?

Registered Keeper is, as DVLA take every opportunity to remind, nothing
to do with legal ownership. They can apply to get a V5C in their name,
but Mr B will get a letter from DVLA saying "Do you agree?". If he agrees
or ignores the letter, they'll eventually get a V5C through. But they
still won't HAVE the car...

If they use those spare keys to "reclaim" it, then Mr B is going to ring
plod and report it nicked. Since his name's on the V5C, they're going to
go with that.


No, they will not. Mr B cannnot prove it is his, as he hasn't GOT the
registrations docs. Which is not in itself a huge case, but the docs are
not proof of legal ownership.


Unless he cn prove ownership..that he supplied the actual money, or that
the money was freely gifted to him by Miss A's parents, he has very
little he can do.

Plod will wash his hnds of it and say that until and unless civil court
establishes ownership, there is no evidence for prosecution.


Ive been involved in similar cases, and my string advice, not hampered
be being part of the legal profession, is to get the car in a safe
place, and tell Mr B that there is 500 quid for his signature on a piece
of paper signing it over to Miss A, or a bloody long court case that
will cost him thousands and lead to him losing it anyway.





None of the family are the kind of people to sit down and discuss things
rationally.

Naturally...

Strikes me the most sensible next step is to go Small Claims on him for
half of the original loan. Of course, since it was all agreed verbally
only, there's probably not a lot of point in that.

x-posted to uk.legal