LegallyBlondeFL
New Member
Can I transfer Minor's car title w/o his signature? I became disabled & eventually became eligible for Social Security disability benefits payable under my work history,(not SSI.) 2 years ago, my drug addict ex who HAPPENS to have legal custody of my son on paper (long story, he's a snake in the grass), was evicted from his apartment. My son was in high schoo, 15 at the time, so he moved in w/me since I live a few miles from his school & his dad had no place to go but the next county north where he stayed with his grandfather briefly. My son refused to move in with his dad & great grandfather when the new school year started as was originally planned, because he didn't want to change schools or move, so I filed for custody at my son's request to stop his dad from FORCING him to go. I thought I was doing the right thing for him although my son's grades had already started to slip before he moved in with me. Anyway I never did get the custody legally changed because his dad answered my petition at the courthouse within the given time, but he never did file for a court date & I was told by the clerk it was up to him to take the next step, ofcourse he never did. Anyway, eventually I applied for Soc. Sec. Child's benefits under my disabliity claim because it became impossible for both of us to get by on my check alone & it looked like he was going to finish out school living w/me. Eventually SS sent a back pay check which I'd promised my son I would use to buy him a used car when he got his license. I took him to obtain his learner's driving permit shortly after he'd moved in after he had turned 16 because his dad never bothered to get him one when he was 15 cuz I got tired of driving him back & forth to his P/T job. I wound up paying almost 500 bucks for driving school lessons for him, since my condition & my nerves just couldn't take it trying to teach him myself. Finally, I granted parental authorization at DMV, & last May I took his lump sum check & bought him a used car. I had him sign one of those contracts from a driving school website stipulating my rules for him to abide by as a minor driver since I wanted him to bring his grades up, stay out of trouble, & explained to him that I was liable for all damages he may cause as he was still a minor. I went ahead & put the car in his name at the dealership, because I knew in less than a year's time I would just have to transfer it over to him when he turned 18, plus I was hoping to just have him responsible for his own insurance, but it turned out they wanted like over $1000 a month or something absurd if I didn't put my name on the policy, since he was a minor, inexperienced male teen driver & I at least had some kind of credit, & at the very least I owned my residence, a mobile home. The car needed a $1000 worth of work on an oil leak within the first month, & my son promised to pay it back to my boyfriend, but never really did only aking a few $50 pmts to him.Things deteriorated from there to make a long story short, he started out by violating almost EVERY rule of that little contract I had him sign, grades got worse, curfews were being violated, many incidents of having to go to traffic court for minor possession of tobacco products, new one now pending for his attendance in court on his birthday next month,he's still fighting a possession of weed & paraphenalia case in court, speeding ticket I paid but he now keeps refusing to do the online traffic school to finish the requirements of that ticket to keep points off his license, an accident in car in which neither driver was ticketed as there were no witnesses. Needless to say, insurance went up when 6 month renewal came up despite the fact the other guy had made no claims against our insurance, no injuries were claimed and the only thing our insurance reps did was take the action to get the money out of the other guy's insurance for damage to my son's car. All along I had been paying my son's cell phone & insurance w/his monthly SS check, but he recently dropped out of school & ofcourse that money is now cut off. I decided that was the last straw, took his keys away, & he in turn decided he didn't like my rules, wasn't going to live under "MY REGIME" anymore, & had friends take him to move into his druggie dad's efficiency that family had set him up in after he got out of rehab for like the ZILLIONTH time. As I'd been telling my son would happen, the school contacted the DMV to suspend his license for being a drop out (effective 3/30), but I think he can get it back next month when he turns 18, or sooner if he gets a GED, which he's been promising to do since January, but surely isn't gonna happen any time soon since he's not working & I've just discovered he's graduated from weed and now become a crackhead and heroin user since he moved in with his dad (acorn doesn't fall far from the tree.) I'm told by his own friends that he often does this stuff WITH his dad (now THERE's a surprise...NOT! ) Anyhow, the two a$$holes actually tried bringing the cops here to collect my son's car, & ofcourse the police sided w/me because despite the car being in kid's name, I have the right to forbid him to drive it since I pay the insurance, & as the person legally responsible for damages he incurs until he's 18, I told police he needs to bring me proof of insurance before I would even CONSIDER letting him have it. I also told them drop-out boy's license is pending suspension VERY soon, that I took his license away as I authorized him to obtain it, paid for it & that I have physical possession of the car's title that I am holding until he pays me or my boyfriend back all the money he owes for that $1000 repair bill. Plus he owes me for ticket I paid, about $200 cancellation of cell phone contract that's also under my name since he can't pay that bill, & ran the bills up over $275 EACH month in minutes overages for at least 3 months straight. To add insult to injury, the cop even talked me into LOANING the idiots 10 bucks cuz his dad said he couldn't leave as they had no gas or money to get any to get back home...(A$$WIPES). At least I used the policeman's authority while they were here to get the phone away from him before I had to incur the contract cancellation fee on top of these outrageous bills!I can't afford to keep paying the insurance at $365 a month, when what I need to do is add the car to my other policy (maybe 60 more a month w/multi car discount if I can remove kid completely as a driver since I refuse to have a drug problem move in w/me so he can cost me more money, things start disappearing/getting pawned. My vehicle needs some mechanical work done & recently I've been using the kid's since I'm still on the policy, but I want to cancel it before next billing cycle as I can NOT afford to keep paying the higher rates.The kid can't take it til he's 18, however, the tag renewal notice just arrived in the mail and I only have 25 days to try to get this car put in my name. My MH park will tow it in a heartbeat if the tag expires. I don't think he is entitled to it anymore,& SocSec had told me as long as I was using my son's benefits FOR my son, meaning I could pay rent, utilities, food for him out of it if I chose to, so I don't feel like the fact that I used his lump sum check which he was only eligible for BECAUSE of me in the first place is stealing it back from him. It was a gift at the time given in good faith that he would follow the rules of our little agreement, but he is obviously undeserving of it, and now I feel he would be a danger to society if he does come to claim it at 18 as he'll probably be driving with no license, no insurance, under the influence of drugs, etc.At best, I feel it will end up impounded & I actually need that asset to recoup some of the outrageous expenses I've incurred on behalf of this out of control basket case. I was just wondering, if in the past, I have been able to take a gift check from relatives made payable to him & sign it with "my name" for "MY SON" a Minor child,& cash it at my bank for him, can I do something similar on the title to my son's car? Can a minor own property like this without the parent having any rights to it if the minor didn't even actually PAY for it? I have the receipt but he signed the paperwork at the dealership since I told the guy to go ahead & put it in his name. I don't want any legal trouble from him by forging his name on the title, & now he's begging me to let him come home because he says he can't stand his crazy dad, has no place to go, & said since I don't trust him to live here he wants to sleep in his car. lol ...not funny but I have to laugh to keep from crying. Sorry for the LONG story, I'm sad, heartbroken, distraught & needed to vent!
PLEASE help, I only have 25 days left and I don't know if going through the court system would even be financially viable for this semi-wrecked car, or if it could even possibly be done w/in the limited time I now have before he legally becomes an adult.
PLEASE help, I only have 25 days left and I don't know if going through the court system would even be financially viable for this semi-wrecked car, or if it could even possibly be done w/in the limited time I now have before he legally becomes an adult.
