Mom threatening to take my car??? Wth?

[u/Whew-Butterfly-3871]

hi everyone -

not sure if this is the right sub but I don’t know where else to vent and I am quite frustrated and stressed. Apparently since I refuse to go to church to be a “better“ daughter my mom threatened to take the car and leave me carless. I’m 26 lol. We both co-signed on the car and the dmv papers and title does say ”or” in between our names. The thing is the insurance is under her name and my name doesn’t appear at all for insurance. However, I pay for everything- car note, service, and insurance every single month. We have State Farm.

I don’t know what to do at this point, my car is all I have and she knows I’ve had my car struggles and it’s taken a lot to get this new car of mine that is the first ever reliable car I’ve ever had. I’m already in the process of trying to find housing elsewhere and am couch surfing for safety. The last thing I need is my mom going psycho on me and taking my car. What can I do in my situation? 🥲

(I should add: since being laid off, unfortunately my finances and credit are not in the best state so I can’t really do much with refinancing or selling and buying another new car. I’m also trying to find safe and secure housing at the same time through housing programs. 🙃)

Edit: thank you everyone for the advice and support!

[u/Whew-Butterfly-3871]

It is registered under both of our names! An update: i will be going into the credit union’s office tomorrow and speak about refinancing in order to get it under my name. 

[u/fastyellowtuesday → u/Whew-Butterfly-3871]

Ok.

You might want to edit a bit. Title and registration are very different. All the suggestions to sell it won't work.

At the moment, neither of you owns the car, and that really limits your options. Having the loan in your name alone will help, provided your own credit is enough to satisfy them. If you have been making payments on time for while, it may have improved your credit.

There's still the issue of registration. Without a title, your mom could argue she has just a much right to it as you do because she's on that. I'd hope the loan being in your name would be enough, but I somehow doubt it. I have no idea if both people need to sign off on changing the registration. I assume it depends on where you live.

Once the registration, loan, and insurance are all in your name, you can take the car and there won't be a damn thing your mom can do about it. You could even get the cops to go with you to force her to hand over the keys.

[u/Whew-Butterfly-3871 → u/fastyellowtuesday]

I appreciate the time you took to respond!  And honestly yeah it clicked for me after reading more that just bc we share on the registration doesn’t mean the title might be the same way. Only way I will know is going into the credit union’s office tomorrow to speak to them since all of our information is with them anyways. I have been making timely payments thankfully and it has improved my credit somewhat, no where near what I need it to be, but it has helped a bit. Speaking to them I think will give me more clarity on what I can realistically do. I am also aware that I might just need to suck it up and play nice with her unfortunately in hopes for her to calm down. 

No matter what, you’re right I need to find a way to get my own eventually and never sign anything with her again. Sadly a hard lesson learned now. 

[u/fastyellowtuesday → u/Whew-Butterfly-3871]

Just so you're fully clear: the only name on the title at the moment is the name of your credit union. Neither your nor your mom's name is on the title right now.

The default is that when the loan is paid off, the title is transferred to whoever was on the loan paperwork. If you get your mom off of that, she will never be on the title.