Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

This was a mistake! Never buy a car with someone else like this. First, are you a co-owner or a co-signer? If you signed the application for a loan, then you are a co-borrower and co-owner of the car. If you only signed as co-signer, then you do not have ownership rights and you only promised to pay the lender if the ex-girlfriend did not make the payments.

If yyour name is on the title/registration as a co-owner, get your girlfriend to sign over her rights in the car to you. You can then get the car and can sell the car or make the payments if you want to keep it.

If you are only a co-signer, you can see if she will sell you the car for the balance of the payments. In that case, you will need to do a three-way chat (you, your girlfriend and the lender) to get the title signed released temporarily so it can be signed over to you in its entirety and re-recorded.

Repo is a BIG mistake. Regardless of whether you are co-signer or co-owner, you will still be liable for the car debt. The car lender will take the car, sell it at auction (where the lender will get very little money for it) and then come after you for the balance of the loan.

Judgments, if the lender gets one, last for 10 years and can be renewed for 10 more years. They earn interest at a rate of 8% per year. Although there is no wage garnishment in NC, the judgement creditor can try and collect on the judgment for as long as it lasts . You will not be able to buy another car or get a mortgage with the judgment outstanding. So find a way to resolve this other than repo - sell the car if you are not upside down (more is owed than the car is worth). Or get the car and make the payments. Bankruotcy would only be a last resort if you have a lot of other debt or if more than $10,000 is owed for this car.