Cars and Divorce

Cars tend to be a much simpler marital asset to split in the divorce process. Typically, in a divorce, the spouse keeps the car that he or she primarily drives. For example, a couple has two cars and the wife primarily drives the SUV while the husband primarily drives the truck. The wife will keep the SUV and the Husband will keep the truck. This is the simple part of the process it gets more complicated if the title of the car is not in the name of the party who is keeping the vehicle. When this happens the title will need to be transferred over to the receiving party. Normally, the settlement agreement will contain a number of days the party will have to transfer the title after the divorce is finalized. When transferring the title of the care be aware there may be additional expenses or taxes that will have to be paid. If the car still has a car note and the other party’s name is still attached to it, the car note will need to be refinanced. The refinancing of the loan will allow for the party who is not retaining the vehicle to be taken off the loan. The refinancing of the car note similar to the transfer of the car title will normally have a deadline attached to it in the settlement agreement. Similar to other marital debts, the bank will not be held to your settlement agreement as they are not a party in the case. Therefore, to avoid your credit score or the bank coming after you for failed payments it is best to have your name taken off the loan. Normally, attorneys will include “hold harmless” language in the vehicle agreement as well. Further, the language in the vehicle part of the settlement agreement will hold each party responsible for the expenses associated with their respective vehicle. Therefore, if one of the parties fails to follow through their part of the agreement on the vehicles, then the other party can file a contempt action against the non-complying party. For example, if the husband fails to refinance the car loan so the wife’s name and the bank came after the wife for failed payments then a contempt action could be filed. If you are ready to talk with a divorce attorney about your case, give us a call toll-free at … to set up a consultation with one of our experienced Marietta Family Law attorneys.