in 1997, I bought a 1993 toyota celica in great condition from a dealer.

I used the car during college, and then in 2001 I moved abroad to study for a year. The car remained in the large driveway of my parents' house.

I moved back to my parents' house in New York for a year afterwards, and then I moved back to italy to join my italian boyfriend. Because I wasn't sure if the relationship - or the move for that matter - would be permanent or not, I did not sell the car.

it has remained in my parents' driveway since July of 2003. I have gone back to visit numerous times, and they have visited me here. I have not been able to drive the car during my visits because I did not keep it insured while I've been abroad.

in the last couple of years, my parents divorced and my father got remarried. He is buying out my mother's portion of the house where the car has been parked.

on my last trip home, I found out that my step-mother (who lives in the house with my father) doesn't want to see the car in the driveway. I told my father and my step-mother very clearly, and several times, that they were welcome to sell it then. Of course, the money would be mine, but I would give a fair portion of it to my father for helping me to sell it.

I have since discovered that he gave the car away - for free - to his housekeeper. He did not make any attempt to sell it at anytime.

I looked up the blue book value of the car (for private buyers/private sellers), and it says it was worth between $4,000 and $5,000.

I brought this to my father's attention, and he said that he's not going to give me a penny because the car was a piece of crap. I think that's his opinion, but I don't see how that pairs up with the blue book value or what is owed to me.

my father is wealthy. I'm young and not full of cash.

what are the rules in this situation? What should I be doing?

whose name was the title in, he could not sell or give away a car that is in your name, since you would have to have signed for it.

Next blue book is an est of a car in a specific condition. You can not know what years and years of sitting has done, tires dry rotten, seals in motors gotten dry rotted, gasoline in lines turned bad, A car sitting without being drove for years would have a much lower value along with sitting out.

You should have wondered why he did not have it towed off years earlier since you had just let it sit.

If you had wanted control of the sell, you should have been invovled in the sell.

The car was in my name. My parents both knew that I was holding onto the car as the last link I owned in the states. He gave the car to someone who I'm pretty positive is not legally in the united states. I am sure it was not given away with paperwork. I don't think the person who got the car even drives. I'm guessing that person sold it off for parts.

I told my father that if he did not want to be involved in the sale of the car that he should have said so when I told him that he could sell it. At that point, although it would have been more difficult for me to do because I am abroad, I could have gotten something for it. I definitely, definitely did not say that he could give it away for free.

It's true that I imagine the car not being used caused some problems to it. However, in 2003, it was working marvelously. In 2001, I invested $4,500 in it for repairs and fix-ups. My father had it completely covered with some sort of car covering (some car-tailored fabric).

Thinking of this logically... you were storing your car at your parent's house for 5 years. Did you pay them any storage fees? If not, if you press the issue, and your dad wants to play hardball, he can claim that you abandoned the property. At which point he can do what ever he wants with it.

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Originally Posted by linnealand

the car was in my name. my parents both knew that i was holding onto the car as the last link i owned in the states. he gave the car to someone who i'm pretty positive is not legally in the united states. i am sure it was not given away with paperwork. i don't think the person who got the car even drives. i'm guessing that person sold it off for parts.

i told my father that if he did not want to be involved in the sale of the car that he should have said so when i told him that he could sell it. at that point, although it would have been more difficult for me to do because i am abroad, i could have gotten something for it. i definitely, definitely did not say that he could give it away for free.

it's true that i imagine the car not being used caused some problems to it. however, in 2003, it was working marvelously. in 2001, i invested $4,500 in it for repairs and fix-ups. my father had it completely covered with some sort of car covering (some car-tailored fabric).

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My concern with the value of the car would be that parts freeze and rust - half of the mechanics in the World will tell you NOT driving often is worse than high mileage. I don't know.

At any rate - I still don't know how your father sold, gave away, whatever, the car, even used it for parts, without the title.

I couldn't just take a neighbor's car and sell it for parts without the title in NYS. You can't even get rid of a junker without the title.

I wonder if someone falsified your signature - ?

Also - and he obviously didn't do it - but your father could have (early in the game) sent you a letter that he was charging you to "store" your car on his property, charged you by the month, told you to remove it or pay or he would remove it - obviously he didn't do that.

Storing a car on someone's property whether your parents or not for that amount of time seems a bit odd that after they see you don't claim the vehicle should give them the right to dispose of it. You should have sold it years ago but since you thought things in Europe "won't work out" was not a good choice of actions on your part. If someone parked a car in my driveway with no insurance for that long I would dispose of it also. The story of just giving it away is fishy. Why don't you contact the DMV and see just how the title was changed and when the vehicle was supposedly "sold" to someone else. Just because dad said it was given away means nothing. You need to investigate this for yourself and see what happened. He possibly sold it for scrap and kept the money.

I just want to point out, the one time I scrapped a car, it wound up costing me money, since I had to pay to have it towed to the junkyard and the car was 16+ years old, so worth almost nothing for parts. Just saying, the fact that it's scrapped doesn't mean you make money.