Hello,

I'm writing on behalf of my father in law. He signed to purchase a used car from a local dealership for $8,100. After defaulting on payments the dealership repossessed the car and we've found out that my father in law signed over the title to his land worth $80,000.

My father in law is currently in a nursing home and we do not believe he was in the right state of mind when signing over the title to his land for a car. We live in South Carolina - is this a for of Elder Abuse? Can a dealership take your land (which appreciates) for a car (that depreciates - a used car at that)? Please HELP!!

On Monday morning the very first thing you should do is find an attorney in your area who specializes in Elder Law. You have to get an attorney working on this immediately.

You can go to Lawyer, Lawyers, Attorney, Attorneys, Law, Legal Information - FindLaw and do a search in your area for an attorney who specializes in Elder Law.

If they took the land, they should sell it, take out what they are owed and pay him the balnace. But then he should have never turned over the land to them, most likely they threatened and/or lied to him.

Obvoiusly this must have been one of those buy here , pay here places I will assume.

But you need to get an attorney, have him taken to court to be declared un able to make his own choices, and sue on his behalf for the balance refund of the value of the land.

Also try getting the news papers and TV stations invovled, most used car dealers will not want news cameras on their lots

It is very rare that a car dealership will take other security for a car. So this deal does smell. But you will need to prove your FIL was not capable of signing a contract at the time. I think you need to consult an attorney to help with this.

Someone deleted my earlier response to your question so I will repeat it here. On Monday morning the very first thing you should do is retain an attorney in your area who specializes in Elder Law. If you don't know of one already, you can go to Lawyer, Lawyers, Attorney, Attorneys, Law, Legal Information - FindLaw and do a search for one in your area.

Thanks so much for your comments thus far. They've all been really helpful. We are going to work on getting a lawyer - Money is a little tight right now. So we were hoping to settle this at the magistrates court. Our objective is to get the land back in his name or somehow have the courts rule that the title transfer was invalid.

Did he actually transfer the title or did he put it up as security? That makes a big difference. If the title has changed, then it may make your task easier as they would have to prove they gave him reasonable remuneration for transferring title. However, if he just put it up as security, then they would have to sue him to get a hold of the land. At the hearing, you can argue that he was taken advantage of.

Thanks a lot Scott. We're not sure if he put it up as security or not. We do know that the title has definitely been changed and is now in the Car Dealership's name. It was then transferred and sold to another business.

It turns out that the family has hired a lawyer who originally had the case in 2003. He said that all he needs is an additional $500 so that he can do 2 depositions and that should be all we need.

We're a little concerned because we've been asking around about this lawyer and his name is mud. Even the County Clerk said that he's scum. So we are not comfortable giving him anymore money. On the other hand if $500 is all he needs to settle the land then maybe it's worth taking a chance? I don't know. I'm hoping we can settle this at the magistrate.