Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

Buying something with someone you are not married to is a big mistake as you have learned. Don't do it again. Your ex-girlfriend (or anyone who needs a co-signer) has lousy credit. What they are doing is looking for a sucker to pay their bills and after awhile they are going to default on the car loan leaving you holding the bag. This is why co-signing is always a bad deal for the co-signer.

You confuse being responsible for the debt with ownership of the car. These are two different things. Who is on the title to the car? That is who owns the car. It is whoever is listed on the registration. If you are not a co-owner of the car then you cannot possess it lawfully and if you do take it, its going to be considered theft. You have no rights to the car if you are not on the title regardless of whether you are paying for it.

Responsibility for the debt is a different matter. It sounds like you either co-signed or were a joint applicant. In such case, you are stuck paying for the car if you wish to protect your credit. If neither of you pay, the lender may repo the car at some point. If the lender does that, they may come after you for the balance owed on the car. And your credit will be toast.

You have the following options: (1) if you are on the title to the car, then you can pick it up. My advice then would be that you need to buy out the equity share of the ex-girlfriend so that the vehicle can be titled in your name once the payments are made or so you can trade it in. (2) if your name is NOT on the title, then you cannot have possession of the car.

Your options: (a) You can pay the car off and then sue your ex-girlfriend; or (b) you can allow your credit to be ruined and stop paying; or (c) get the ex-girlfriend to sell the car to you for what is owed on it and you get your own financing or get someone else to buy it for what is owed. In either case, your ex-girlfriend has to be willing to sell and if she is not then you cannot force her to do that. Nor can you force her to pay. There is no way the lender is going to release you from the title. This will have to be a new car loan and you have already stated that the ex-girlfriend has poor credit and has run out of victims to be co-signers for her financial irresponsibility.

Sorry. This should be a lesson learned. Never co-sign and never finance/acquire anything with someone to whom you are not married.