Can You Withhold Somebody Else's Car Until They Show You a Valid Driver's License
My question involves personal property located in the State of: GA
I am holding a vehicle in my garage. It belongs to my niece. This fact I do not dispute. She was arrested for suspended license and the car was towed. I picked it up from impound. She has demanded the return of the car immediately. I have told her I will not release it until she can show me a valid drivers license. She claims she has to get some kind of breathalyzer in her car to get her license back and can't do it til she gets the car back. I suspect she will drive unlicensed again and I refuse to release it. She has threatened legal action. Could I face legal problems if I refuse to release the car? Thanks
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
Yes you can.
I would suggest either require a third party with a valid license come with your niece to pick up the vehicle or you deliver it to her residence.
If she insists on her picking it up I would tell her:
sure just let me know when you are coming so I can have the police here to make sure you can legally drive it.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
She has asked me to deliver it to her house or have her son come pick it up. I donly agree to either. Her father is the previous owner and is apying for Medicaid to cover nursing home costs. I'm afraid it will interfere with him getting his Medicaid
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
Sorry, but nothing you have written gives you any right to keep her car.
In fact, you have stolen it and are subject to criminal prosecution if she wants to report it as stolen.
I suggest you give it back ASAP.
If she wants her son to pick it up and he's licensed, let him pick it up.
What she does after that is none of your business.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
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nathanhoward
She has asked me to deliver it to her house or have her son come pick it up. I donly agree to either. Her father is the previous owner and is apying for Medicaid to cover nursing home costs. I'm afraid it will interfere with him getting his Medicaid
You don't agree? So what. Nobody put you in the position of being overlord here.
If her father was the PREVIOUS owner, what happens to the car is totally irrelevant.
Sounds like you are on a power trip and I suggest you get off the ride before that ride includes a trip to the police station for criminal conversion or theft.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
Agreed,unless you have a written agreement that she doesn't get the car till you are repaid the impound fees, the only limits you can impose is that of ensuring a licensed driver picks it up.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
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nathanhoward
I donly agree to either.
it's not up to you, return her car or go to jail for auto theft. do you want a felony record?
Re: Can You Withhold Somebody Else's Car Until They Show You a Valid Driver's License
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nathanhoward
Could I face legal problems if I refuse to release the car?
To reinforce others' statements, YES!
You do not appear to have any lawful right to hold onto the car. If the actual and registered owner of the car gives you permission to hold onto it, that's a different story. But, absent his permission for you to hold it, you put yourself at risk of being criminally prosecuted for withholding it.
Release the car to the son, or, drive it to the daughter's house and drop it off. As you were told, what happens after that is out of your control and, really, none of your business. If her father doesn't have a problem being put at risk for her driving unlicensed, you can do nothing to protect him from the consequences of that decision.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
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puppybreath
the only limits you can impose is that of ensuring a licensed driver picks it up.
Can you please provide me the statute that says that she has the right to withhold the car unless SHE can verify a licensed driver is picking it up? The GEORGIA law, please.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
(Translation: There is no such law.)
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
Cite me a law that says it is legal to knowingly allow an unlicensed driver to operate a vehicle in any state.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
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puppybreath
Cite me a law that says it is legal to knowingly allow an unlicensed driver to operate a vehicle in any state.
It's not within the OP's lawful ability to allow or disallow it. In most every state, I suspect there is a law that prohibits the owner (something the OP is NOT) of a vehicle from knowingly permitting an unlicensed driver from operating their vehicle. But, in this case, the suggestions have been for the daughter to have her son come for the car, or, for the OP to deliver the car himself, so the issue of the unlicensed driver would appear to be moot.
The OP can stand on his wish to punish the niece all he wants, but, he has no lawful right to withhold the vehicle from the owner of the vehicle or from the person the owner wishes to let have the vehicle. He can take his high road to court if he wants, but he will be guilty of theft if he tries. Best to simply relinquish the vehicle in one of the two aforementioned ways. And, if the unlicensed woman comes to retrieve it, he can call the police and hope they get there to stop her and again impound the vehicle (costing his brother MORE money and maybe causing him to permanently lose the vehicle). His call.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
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puppybreath
Cite me a law that says it is legal to knowingly allow an unlicensed driver to operate a vehicle in any state.
First, understand that in the U.S. generally the rule is that everything is legal unless there is a law that prohibits it. So, there doesn’t need to be a law that says he may return the car to her even though she doesn’t have a license. Instead, there would need to be a law stating that he is prohibited from giving her the car back when she does not have a license. Georgia Code 40-5-122 states: “No person shall knowingly authorize or permit a motor vehicle owned by him or under his control to be driven upon any highway by any person who is not authorized under this chapter or who is not licensed for the type or class of vehicles to be driven or in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter.” (Bolding added.)
OP is clearly not the owner of the car. The issue then is whether he is a person who has the car “under his control.” The state motor vehicle statutes do not directly define what it means for a person to have a vehicle “under his control.” Nor did I find a Georgia case that directly addresses that. However, there are a number of cases that refer to control of the vehicle for purposes of DUI or for negligence of an owner of a vehicle under the family purpose doctrine. The cases seem to make it clear that control means more than having possession of the vehicle, as the OP does. Rather, control seems to be a person who is in a position to operate (i.e. drive) the vehicle. So, if Bob, the owner of the car gives the keys to Jerry to drive it and Jerrry then takes the car out for a spin, Jerry is in control of the car. If Jerry then allows his girlfriend Amy to drive the car and Amy is unlicensed, Jerry would violate the Georgia Code I cited above.
But I see nothing that suggests that a person merely storing the car has the vehicle “under his control” so I don’t see that the OP would violate this statute by turning the car over to its owner. In short, I don’t see any law in Georgia that would support the OP’s position of allowing him to withhold the car from the owner simply because the owner is unlicensed and my drive it. It is the owner of the car and those in control of (operating) the car that are prohibited from letting an unlicensed person drive it.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
I am not saying it is legal for him to prevent the owner from retrieving her car.
The OP picked the car up from impound, took it to his house and placed it in his garage. To pick up a vehicle from impound you have to either be the owner, or be authorized by the owner or some other authority to pick it up. Which means he was given control of the car.
The owner, with a suspended license, could not have redeemed the car from impound without a licensed driver to operate it.
If she shows up with a licensed driver, you have to hand the keys over. Personally, if she showed up alone, I would open the garage door, put the keys on the hood and get it out of my hair. The OP does not have the legal right to keep her property away from her, he does have the right to avoid breaking the law himself.
Re: Holding a Vehicle Titled to My Niece
To the extent that you are arguing that the OP was once the agent of the owner in relation to his recovery of the vehicle from impound, that agency has been expressly terminated. Further, the owner has offered to have the car picked up by a licensed driver, and the OP has refused that request.
If the OP wants to keep the owner from getting her car and driving it away, based upon the belief that she's not licensed, his solution is to call the police if and when she comes to take the car and drive it away. But he has no legal right to demand that she show him proof that she is licensed when she comes to recover the car, let alone to refuse to allow her to designate a licensed driver to recover her car.