Mum selling partners car as deceased

brendanb581

Hi all

After a bit of advice really 

My mum bought her partner a car for around £3000 about 8 months ago, she has proof of payment also.

 He has now sadly passed away but we would like to sell the car to get my mum her money back for it. The v5c is under his name? They are not married either so is this going to be tricky?

Can we just sell or do we need to move the car to her name first? She doesn't have a driving license so could it be moved to my name?

Ideally we would just like to sell it as quickly as possible

Thanks

Torry_Quine

If it's his car then her paying for it is irrelevant. Who will now own will depend on a will or the law of intestacy.

McKneff

She can't sell it. It isn't hers to sell. 

If no will, the car will belong to his wife/children/siblings.
Taking it over is theft

lr1277

You might be better off asking this on the death, funerals & probate board. Or you could ask for this thread to be moved to that board.

The fact that your mum’s name is not on the log book will be a problem for (some) buyers.

My initial thought are, does your mum have any documentation showing it was a loan? If not it will be treated as a possession of the partner.
Did the partner have a will? If so the car goes to whoever is specified in the will.
If no will, then the partner’s assets will be distributed according to intestacy laws.

The beneficiary who gets the car may agree that the car should be distributed to your mum. In which case a deed of variation needs to be drawn up.

But I am not an expert and you may get different advice from other posters.

AdrianC

The V5C is nothing to do with ownership - and it says as much in big letters on the top. It is purely who is responsible for keeping the car taxed etc.

If she bought the car for him as a gift, it's his car - and the money is part of his estate.
If she bought the car and allowed him to use it, it's her car - and her money.

EssexExile

If you are just asking the technicalities of selling it then I don't see a problem. I assume the address on the V5 is your mother's address so when selling people will understand why the name on it is not hers.

brendanb581

AdrianC said:

The V5C is nothing to do with ownership - and it says as much in big letters on the top. It is purely who is responsible for keeping the car taxed etc.

If she bought the car for him as a gift, it's his car - and the money is part of his estate.
If she bought the car and allowed him to use it, it's her car - and her money.

How does she prove if it was a gift or not?

Aretnap

AdrianC said:

The V5C is nothing to do with ownership - and it says as much in big letters on the top. It is purely who is responsible for keeping the car taxed etc.

This may be true in a narrow technical sense, however in practice any court which ended up looking at it would probably start from the presumption that on the balance of probabilities, and in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the registered keeper was the owner. Simply because in the large majority of cases the registered keeper and owner are one and the same. 

If the OP's mum claimed that she was in fact the owner it would then come down to what evidence, if any, she could offer to show that she had intended the car to be a loan rather than a gift.

OP - did your mum's partner make a will? If so, her first point of contact need to be with her partner's executor (if that's not her). If not, she has problems which may well extend beyond the car as without a will an unmarried partner has very little right to the deceased's property. 

AdrianC

brendanb581 said:

AdrianC said:

The V5C is nothing to do with ownership - and it says as much in big letters on the top. It is purely who is responsible for keeping the car taxed etc.

If she bought the car for him as a gift, it's his car - and the money is part of his estate.
If she bought the car and allowed him to use it, it's her car - and her money.

How does she prove if it was a gift or not?

How does she (or the heirs) prove that about any of their possessions?

Keep_pedalling

She has proof that she purchased the car, unless someone has proof she gifted it to him, it does not form part of his estate so no one else has a claim on it. It is the same with any property they purchased jointly.

user1977

brendanb581 said:

AdrianC said:

The V5C is nothing to do with ownership - and it says as much in big letters on the top. It is purely who is responsible for keeping the car taxed etc.

If she bought the car for him as a gift, it's his car - and the money is part of his estate.
If she bought the car and allowed him to use it, it's her car - and her money.

How does she prove if it was a gift or not?

Which does she think it was? You said "my mum bought her partner a car", which sounds like a gift, not "my mum owns a car which her partner used to drive". If it was part of his estate, has she inherited it anyway?