How would you feel about accepting help from a parent when buying a car? It might sound like a good idea, but if you’re not on the title and loan information and the parent is, it could become a big problem.

In today’s story, one woman shares that her mother-in-law and her partner are both on the title and loan information for the car she drives. Now her mother-in-law wants the car, claiming she owns it.

Does the mother-in-law have every right to take the car, or is she completely out of line?

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for refusing an older car so MIL can take our newer car?

Hi, my partner(31m) and I(33f) have been together 6+ years, engaged and living together for 2 years.

My partner doesn’t drive, so I’m the sole person driving. Bc of this I put a lot of mileage and damage on my car.

He offered to buy US a new vehicle for me to use instead since mine had suffered damage that made it more expensive to fix than the car was worth.

That was 4 years ago.

She explains the breakdown of how they paid for the car and who is on the title and loan.

The agreement at the time was I would pay a percentage of the monthly payment, and he would pay the rest.

I am not anywhere on the title or loan information but am an approved driver on the insurance.

When we bought the car, his mom paid the down-payment of $3,000 for us as a birthday gift for him but she also is a co-signer.

She has since kept this car on her insurance and has paid for registration. We have otherwise paid for the car payment, repairs, tires, etc ourselves, and mostly my partner, I had to stop working for medical reasons 2 years ago.

Now there’s a big problem.

I donated my car to a program for families in need.

I recently was cleared to work again, and have 2 intern/apprenticeships lined up starting the 23rd.

Partner’s mother recently wrecked her own vehicle and without telling either of us, she purchased a much older, (2010) vehicle intending to register it in MY name so she could take the vehicle we have now.

Her reasoning is that the car we have is HERS since her name is on it.

She is NOT okay with this plan.

The car is less than a year away from being paid off and I intend to make heavy payments on it once I have full-time employment.

She has asked me to give her permission to register this 2010 car in my name so I am not “high and dry” without a vehicle when she rightfully takes our car.

I told her I was not comfortable with this especially when I had no say in the vehicle, no idea of it’s condition, no means to care for it alone, and felt it was financially irresponsible for me to take on such a responsibility without me having a garunteed income yet.

I asked why she wanted to take our car.

She didn’t like the answer.

And she simply said she wants it bc her car is broken and our car is in her name.

I pointed out it’s in my partners name as well and almost paid off so why couldn’t she drive this other vehicle and let us still keep our car.

Her response was that it was still HER car since it was in her name too.

They’re at a standoff.

She stonewalling all my suggestions and told me to look into insurance for the 2010 and left it at that.

I told her I would look into insurances for both vehicles and get back to her.

Am I the jerk?

Where is her partner in all of this? He’s on the title and loan too, so it’s just as much his car as his mom’s. He should back up OP on keeping the car they currently have.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Her partner better back her up!

Her mother-in-law’s name never should’ve been on the title or loan.

Time to talk to a lawyer.

Really, it sounds like it’s her partner’s car.

Here’s how this person would play it!

It’s like her mother-in-law tricked her into paying for a car she doesn’t get to keep.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.