To ask for this money?

[Bluebluebluebell]

Ex and I bought a car together a few years ago. Due to his needing it for work, we agreed that he would use it to commute but I would have priority over it at the weekend.

Now we’ve recently split, he wants to keep it. He is arguing that because he paid the insurance he has essentially invested more money into it. However my argument is that whilst this is true, adding me as an additional driver actually lowered the premium than if he was sole driver. This is because he is in a profession which is considered high risk whereas mine is viewed as low risk.

However we split costs for maintenance and service etc.

The car was bought for £20k and is now worth about £9-10k.

I think the fair thing would be for him to buy his share from me. Or we sell it and split the proceeds. He thinks I’m being petty and that what he spent on me over the years is way more than £5K but he’s not asking for that back. I think that is ridiculous as we have BOTH spent money on each other and gifts are different to assets like a car that we BOUGHT TOGETHER.

Sorry for the caps. I’m really pissed off with his attitude and making me feel like I’m being petty and unreasonable.

Am I really BU?

If the car is roughly jointly owned, the fair way to settle this is for you both to say what you would pay the other to give up the car. Highest bidder gets to keep it, and the debt on it.

(If they've bid more than 1-2K, they're probably an idiot though.)

One thing to check: is it actually possible to take one of you off the loan? I don't see what the loan company gets out of that, so not sure why they'd let you. If you can't be taken off the loan, then obviously there's a problem with letting him just have the car, even if he says he will make all the payments.

I don’t think one of you would be taken off the loan. I think you’d have to refinance by getting a . Second loan, in one name only, and paying off the first. They usually charge you one months interest as a penalty but that might not be much with interest rates being so low now

So whoever wants the car has to pay off the joint 10K loan, and possibly pay the other something on top of that, if both of you think the car is worth more than 10K.

Asking him to pay 5K means you're asking him to pay 15K for a car worth 10K, which is a bit unreasonable.

Suggest you offer to take on the loan and the car, and give him 5k. If he's got any sense he'll be delighted. He can get a 10k loan and then spend 15k on a car. You'll have 15k debt and a car worth 10k. But you think that's fair so that's ok

I originally voted YANBU but have changed it.

Iff he gives you 5K for the car then you would have to give it straight back to him to pay your half of the outstanding debt.

YABU and petty and spiteful really, let him have the car and the debt, he uses it for work. You can get a nice new car with your own 10k loan.

Bluebluebluebell

The truth is that the car is worth nothing and if the car were sold you would still be liable for the half remaining debt.

Personally, I would let him have the car and buy a new, small run about for 6 - 8k

But I suspect that this is what you were planning but with a 5k deposit.

It sounds petty from your side. You've both been contributing to, and using, a car that is now worth 10k. You have 10k left to pay for the car. If your ex gives you 5k for the car then you owe him 5k for the loan. What's the point?
Get another car and stop being petty.

I'm on the app so can't see any voting but I don't understand why people are telling the OP to ignore it, surely no one thinks she's going to decide what to do based on it.

This thread imo illustrates how stupid the whole vote button thing is.

This is a complicated situation where information is being drip fed, casting a vote is stupid and meaningless.

There's no right answer here, as with a lot of things in a relationship breakdown the best you can hope for is a compromise you hate the least.

Sell the bloody thing and split it 50/50.

And I'd say that as he put the majority of wear and tear and mileage he actually owes you more.

Wallywobbles

the point posters are trying to make is that there is no 50/50 to split.

I don’t quite get it. When we bought a car the dealer was very clear that cars cannot legally be joint owned. They have only one legal owner. So here, your ex was the legal owner and I guess he saw himself as that, because he paid the insurance and drove it most of the time. I suspect he never really saw you as joint owner.

If you both paid equally for it then basically you helped him buy a car on the condition that it was for shared use, and now that it’s not, you’d like some of your money back. But if it was in his name and he always paid the insurance I don’t think you do own as much as half the car itself, sorry.

To calm down the row, why not write down a list of exactly who paid what for the car: initial cost, annual servicing maintenance and insurance, so for example if overall you paid 30% of its total cost you ask for 30% of its current value.

(It’s also complicated by him using it a lot more than you but that’s too hard to work out!)

If the car sells for 15,000 in dealerships and you think it would sell for 10,000, I suggest a value in the middle. Of course, your mileage would affect value.

So, if the car is worth, say, 12,500 and the loan is 10,000, ask for 1,250 and ensure you are taken off the loan.