Tennessee
In May last year, my grandfather passed away, he had no will, and never re-married after he and my grandmother got divorced. He was living with this lady, but he wasn't married to her, and the house was his, as were two of the three vehicles they had. The family had decided at first that if she would let us have everything that was his from the house and property, she could just stay at the house, since she was taking care of her grandson because DCS took the kids fathers rights away, and we aren't the type of people who are going to put someone on the streets, especially since she was taking care of a kid. We didn't even get to tell her what our plans were, and she sold all of his belongings except for the house and cars. Obviously, we changed our minds about it, and decided to try to get back what we could, plus the house and cars, so following the advice of a local lawyer, my mom and my uncle went through probate. At this point, we have one of the vehicles, the title, tags, and registration of the second vehicle, and are awaiting the 30 days required before we can evict her. The issue is, that second vehicle is still with her, and she wont give it up. We talked to someone at the court house, who told us to have a police officer meet us at the house to retrieve the truck. Now, the title, tags and registration are in my mothers name, however, the lady was able to produce a title that had supposedly been signed by my grandfather, and the officer told us that essentially, we had to spend EVEN MORE money in the courts to get it back. The next day, the lady filed a civil suit against my mom, and a few days later, they were in court, but the judge threw it out because he said she filed the wrong type of suit. The local lawyer we were talking to decided to cease communications with us for some reason, so getting advice from them isn't possible. My question is how do we proceed. By all rights, that truck is my moms. I know that the title the lady has won't hold up, but the judge that handles the civil suits here has already made it clear that his courtroom isn't the place to figure it out. I mean, we could go tow it, and change the locks and ignition, but that would cost more than we can afford, and the police kind of advised against doing that... What are our options?
In May last year, my grandfather passed away, he had no will, and never re-married after he and my grandmother got divorced. He was living with this lady, but he wasn't married to her, and the house was his, as were two of the three vehicles they had. The family had decided at first that if she would let us have everything that was his from the house and property, she could just stay at the house, since she was taking care of her grandson because DCS took the kids fathers rights away, and we aren't the type of people who are going to put someone on the streets, especially since she was taking care of a kid. We didn't even get to tell her what our plans were, and she sold all of his belongings except for the house and cars. Obviously, we changed our minds about it, and decided to try to get back what we could, plus the house and cars, so following the advice of a local lawyer, my mom and my uncle went through probate. At this point, we have one of the vehicles, the title, tags, and registration of the second vehicle, and are awaiting the 30 days required before we can evict her. The issue is, that second vehicle is still with her, and she wont give it up. We talked to someone at the court house, who told us to have a police officer meet us at the house to retrieve the truck. Now, the title, tags and registration are in my mothers name, however, the lady was able to produce a title that had supposedly been signed by my grandfather, and the officer told us that essentially, we had to spend EVEN MORE money in the courts to get it back. The next day, the lady filed a civil suit against my mom, and a few days later, they were in court, but the judge threw it out because he said she filed the wrong type of suit. The local lawyer we were talking to decided to cease communications with us for some reason, so getting advice from them isn't possible. My question is how do we proceed. By all rights, that truck is my moms. I know that the title the lady has won't hold up, but the judge that handles the civil suits here has already made it clear that his courtroom isn't the place to figure it out. I mean, we could go tow it, and change the locks and ignition, but that would cost more than we can afford, and the police kind of advised against doing that... What are our options?
