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The attempts to screw us over continue.

Synaesthete's picture

I don't know who's familiar with the vehicle situation around here. Long story short, bm was given the van in the divorce (and dh kept his car). They didn't transfer the title from his name to hers before the divorce was final (which would have been easy) and after it was final, the bank wouldn't transfer the title to her name unless she was approved for her own line of credit. Half because she doesn't work and half because she's lazy, to this day she has never been approved and so the van is *still* in dh's name. We don't want it, but there's nothing we can do so she's just been making the payments. There was a huge ordeal last year because her plates expired after she moved out of state. She couldn't renew them because her name wasn't on the title. dh couldn't renew them because we lived in another state then, and we also didn't want to because it was the only thing we had to motivate her to put it in her own name.

We registered it for her early this year because we moved to the same state as her (she and dh are both from this state and his family is here) and because she wouldn't let dh claim the kids on his taxes if he didn't (first she wanted us to split the money with her, so she was just looking for a way to use it to her advantage) and if we didn't claim the kids, we would have owed several thousands in taxes. So we got bullied into that.

This year, she's talking about how she wants to buy a new vehicle so that she doesn't have to deal with dh about the plates (which is fine by us -- again, we don't want it) but she's also talking about it like she won't just trade it in (it's negative equity). She thinks that she's just going to abandon the van/stop making payments and just get a new one, which would leave us with an extra van payment we can't afford because dh's name is on the title. It's fraud, plain and simple, because she is obligated by the agreement to take the van and dh is not to be held responsible for it. She will probably try to whine that it was never given to her (a defense she's used from the get go) because it isn't in her name yet, but we have literally done everything we can to get it to her (called the banks, inquired about options, etc) and she is the one who's failed to do what she needs to do (get a loan or a co-signer) to get it in her name, and if she got a new loan for a new van in her name, well she can't really say she couldn't get the old one...

Basically, her crap will backfire on her very quickly if she really tries it and the taxes thing isn't an issue this year because we changed dh's with holdings several months ago so it wouldn't matter if she lets us claim them or not this year (which is good because she's also bragging that she isn't going to let him claim them). So we're protected on all sides from her bullshit. I just think it's appalling that she would willing make the father of her children pay several thousand dollars in taxes AND saddle him with an extra vehicle payment just so she can save a couple hundred bucks.

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Synaesthete's picture

Thanks for your comment, and I'm sorry you had to go through that trouble. Sad

She is ordered to take responsibility for the van, so legally there isn't much ground for her to stand on. She's been claiming it's dh's fault that the van isn't in her name, but we *can't* do a damn thing about it until she refinances. Because the agreement doesn't specifically say she needs to refinance it, she thinks she shouldn't have to. It says "(dh) must transfer the title to (bm)" so she thinks it's his responsibility somehow. I know a judge will tell her otherwise, and dh has acted in good faith from the beginning in terms of making the calls to try and have it transferred. I just think it's disgusting she's willing to attempt it.

She has always apparently put damage on it, so that's another reason we're keeping an eye on things. Until she actually tries it, all we can do is document and watch.

Synaesthete's picture

We haven't called the lawyer because we just found out about this plan last night. We also can't really do anything until she actually does it. We'll consult with the lawyer on Monday to see how he thinks we should approach it.

We couldn't just take it out of her CS/alimony payment, but if she really does just try to abandon it/leave us to deal with the van, we'll take her to court and she will be found in blatant, direct contempt. She'll be ordered to take responsibility for it and I suppose the judge could allow us to take it out of that payment, but we couldn't just start doing that without a judge's okay. Personally, I think if it gets that far and she's ordered to do either keep paying it or otherwise do something with it, she'll either "sell" the van (I say "sell" because she's upside down on it still and won't make a profit -- that's why she doesn't want to trade it in when she gets a new vehicle, because it's negative equity) or trade it in after all, not keep it.