crap! did we just screw up? Sons new car in OUR name!

[seekininfo]

our 18 yr old headed off to college Thurs.

the inlaws wrote him a $5000 check, loan for a car.

son picked out car. He had to get to school before he bought it. Wanted us to testdrive etc before purchase.

I signed the check under him to cash and pay for the car.

No biggie, EXCEPT, since son wasnt with us at purchase time, we put the car in hubbys name, plus for ins. purposes.

The car was $4800.
It never once crossed our minds that we were doing something wrong. Were we??
Our 341 was July 30th, now working on our 60 days.

PLEASE tell me we didnt just screw ourselves!
The car is 2 hours away at the college with son, check was made out to him etc.

[tcreegan]

a hassle, not a hurdle

Hello seekinfo,

Son was not included in BK ? If he was not included, then getting hubby's name on a car title for a short period would seem a minor problem. Get hubby's name off and sons name on. ASAP. Anyone asks, give them the honest reply.

Now, if you son was in the BK it gets rougher, The $$ given has to be counted as income. And the car value has to fit under the exemption amount with all the other cars.

But......this happened post-filing and post-341 right? I am guessing that if you don't bring it up, neither will they. Take your chances with the trustee not wanted to wait for a bunch of forms to get amended and reread.


Best of luck to you in this,

Tom in Colo

[OhioFiler]

I doubt you have anything to worry about from the BK court.

I'm surprised you didn't question this process before you executed it though. Did you discuss it with your attorney?

[Floridagail]

You are fine, Along as it was after file date, it doesnt matter.

[despritfreya]

Assuming you did a Chapter 7, after acquired assets (with a few exceptions) are not property of the estate. It appears this vehicle was "purchased" post petition. No problem.

If you did a Chapter 13, after acquired assets are property of the estate. However, you do not have an equitable interest in the vehicle. You have bare legal title as the $$ used to purchase the vehicle did not come from you and the true owner is your son. As a result, the fact that the vehicle is in your name is not a problem.

[seekininfo]

thanks everyone, son is 18 and NOT included in the bankruptcy.
YES, this was AFTER we filed and AFTER our 341. Filed no asset chapter 7

The reason we didnt question before we executed was that it happened so quickly.
Son was at college, we were there to pick up car, fastest way was to put it in my husbands name.
Didnt think a thing about it. Wasnt our money or our car. Plus with ins. we figured it would be cheaper for it to be in our name.
Couple days later, I was like, ummm, I hope this wont affact our BK in some way

we purchased the car Thurs. night. So as soon as we get all the paperwork, we need to put it in DS's name? what about ins. Can we ins. a car in his name?
ughhhhh, if I had thought ahead! I would have made him wait a couple months on buying

[eventsdj]

We had the exact same situation and our lawyer said DO NOT transfer ANY property before or after 341 till your closed.
Didnt matter that the car was in our name.. nobody cared. They WOULD have cared if we started moving property around... looks fishy.

[researchnerd]

In my state (GA), my son would have been required to have his own ($$$) insurance policy if he was on the title alone. They didn't care who paid for it, but it had to be his own policy, independent of ours.

If the title was in both my name and his, we could keep him and his car on our policy.

[BROKEDED]

To keep your child on your insurance, you may want to keep the car in your name or add your son to the title along with yours. You shouldn't have a problem keeping him on your policy, as well, as long as he lives with you or is a full time student.

Outside of that, insurance companies usually want adult children to get their own policy. Call a couple different insurance companies (not yours) to see what the norm is in your state.

I know that I was on my parents policy (NC) until I was......umm...23...and attending school out of state. I also totalled two cars out of state as well. The insurance company loooooved me.

[seekininfo]

we are in Ohio and his school is in Ohio. He already totaled one car(deer), hope this one is SAFE! lol