Car Loan Question - Friend passed away (owner of vehicle)

wisedave

Hello,

I have a bit of a sensitive issue I am trying to help with.  My friend recently passed away and he had a loan for the car he had.  

He had no will and no partner, just a could of daughters that are minors.

What can the family do with the car?  I don't know if he owes more than it's worth or not but we don't know what the process is to dispose of the car back to the lender.  An initial conversation with the lender it was mentioned they could give the car back + £18k.  Can't we just give them the car and keys and they can line up as a creditor during the probate period?

Does anybody know the process of how this is handled?

Many thanks!

MEM62

It is the administrator of his estate who should be dealing with this.  Who is administering the estate and is the estate solvent?  If it isn't do not get involved.  In that case, you can advise any creditors that the estate in insolvent and that nobody is dealing with it. 

fatbelly

The important factor is what sort of loan this is - if you are the administrator.

If not, advice above applies.

Your theory that the car is owned by the lender may be true if this is HP/conditional sale but is not true if this is an ordinary loan.

macman

If you (or the estate) were to just hand the car back, then it will go for auction and fetch far less than selling it to a dealer and clearing as much of the o/s finance as possible.
The car is just an asset of the estate, like any other, and the finance owing is a debt.

MEM62

@macman I think that the OP has disengaged as they have not responded to any previous reply.