Mamabear8484
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
Seeking legal advice about possibly getting a lien on a vehicle for repair work.
Long story short- my husband's grandpa loaned us a truck around 4-5 years ago so my husband could continue running his construction business and so we had a vehicle to get the kids to and from school, dr appts etc... It has been our sole vehicle, and over the years we have put a couple thousand dollars worth of repairs into the truck. It's a 1995 Chevy and probably wouldn't even be worth more than maybe $2,000 if sold today. When he first loaned us the truck he told us to treat it like it was ours, and that we could use it until we were able to save up for another vehicle. The repairs were not anticipated, they were spread out over time, and again, it has been our only vehicle, otherwise we would never have put so much money into it.
About 2 years ago we had just about enough money saved to get me a cheap car, when the truck broke down on the side of the road. It had to be towed to a mechanic and we ended up using all the saved money we had to get it running again. I think it was a transmission problem and ended up costing like $1,500.
I won't go in to too many details, but the grandpa's son recently finished a 25 year sentence for attempted murder, and when he moved straight into their house with them, for obvious reasons, we stopped going over to their house. His grandpa would call constantly telling, not asking, my husband to hire their son, since he needed work. Not only is my husband's company very small with 0 employees, he most certainly isn't going to hire ANYONE who is a felon, and has spent the last 25 years in prison.
My husband never straight out said why he'd never hire him, he would just say he didn't have enough work. That's when his grandpa's tune changed and he started calling saying he needed the truck back soon.
He told us we needed to rent or lease a vehicle. He thinks you can rent a car for $15 a day and lease one for $150 a month (bc that's what the flyers say.) Not only are those prices ridiculous, but we have no verifiable income and our credit isn't good enough. We've looked into every option to get a vehicle and none are possible for us right now.
Fast forward to the beginning of September 2016. My husband's phone broke and while we waited for T-Mobile to send him another one, his grandpa apparently was calling a million times. My husband gets his new phone and there's several voicemails from his grandpa with the last one saying he's calling the cops and reporting it stolen. We also got an email from the (felon attempted murderer) son saying the same thing.
They did in fact call the police, and when my husband called and talked to someone at the police station they said we had to return the truck within 30 days (by October 10th.) He explained about all the money he's put into the truck and the guy said it had to be returned by that date whether or not we do the lien.
Is there a way we could do some kind of lien so we can at least try to get back SOME of the money we put into it so we can try to find some kind of cheap vehicle for us?
Is there any way we could keep the truck until all the lien stuff is figured out?
I'm disabled and can barely walk to our mailbox and back, I've got lots of doctor appointments, the kids have to go to and from school, and most importantly my husband HAS to be able to work, or we WILL end up homeless. We've got no friends or family around here that can help us with rides. Having no vehicle at all will be totally detrimental to our family.
Is there anything at all we can do?
Any advice you can give is appreciated more than you know.
We are located in San Bernardino County, California.
Seeking legal advice about possibly getting a lien on a vehicle for repair work.
Long story short- my husband's grandpa loaned us a truck around 4-5 years ago so my husband could continue running his construction business and so we had a vehicle to get the kids to and from school, dr appts etc... It has been our sole vehicle, and over the years we have put a couple thousand dollars worth of repairs into the truck. It's a 1995 Chevy and probably wouldn't even be worth more than maybe $2,000 if sold today. When he first loaned us the truck he told us to treat it like it was ours, and that we could use it until we were able to save up for another vehicle. The repairs were not anticipated, they were spread out over time, and again, it has been our only vehicle, otherwise we would never have put so much money into it.
About 2 years ago we had just about enough money saved to get me a cheap car, when the truck broke down on the side of the road. It had to be towed to a mechanic and we ended up using all the saved money we had to get it running again. I think it was a transmission problem and ended up costing like $1,500.
I won't go in to too many details, but the grandpa's son recently finished a 25 year sentence for attempted murder, and when he moved straight into their house with them, for obvious reasons, we stopped going over to their house. His grandpa would call constantly telling, not asking, my husband to hire their son, since he needed work. Not only is my husband's company very small with 0 employees, he most certainly isn't going to hire ANYONE who is a felon, and has spent the last 25 years in prison.
My husband never straight out said why he'd never hire him, he would just say he didn't have enough work. That's when his grandpa's tune changed and he started calling saying he needed the truck back soon.
He told us we needed to rent or lease a vehicle. He thinks you can rent a car for $15 a day and lease one for $150 a month (bc that's what the flyers say.) Not only are those prices ridiculous, but we have no verifiable income and our credit isn't good enough. We've looked into every option to get a vehicle and none are possible for us right now.
Fast forward to the beginning of September 2016. My husband's phone broke and while we waited for T-Mobile to send him another one, his grandpa apparently was calling a million times. My husband gets his new phone and there's several voicemails from his grandpa with the last one saying he's calling the cops and reporting it stolen. We also got an email from the (felon attempted murderer) son saying the same thing.
They did in fact call the police, and when my husband called and talked to someone at the police station they said we had to return the truck within 30 days (by October 10th.) He explained about all the money he's put into the truck and the guy said it had to be returned by that date whether or not we do the lien.
Is there a way we could do some kind of lien so we can at least try to get back SOME of the money we put into it so we can try to find some kind of cheap vehicle for us?
Is there any way we could keep the truck until all the lien stuff is figured out?
I'm disabled and can barely walk to our mailbox and back, I've got lots of doctor appointments, the kids have to go to and from school, and most importantly my husband HAS to be able to work, or we WILL end up homeless. We've got no friends or family around here that can help us with rides. Having no vehicle at all will be totally detrimental to our family.
Is there anything at all we can do?
Any advice you can give is appreciated more than you know.
We are located in San Bernardino County, California.
