Can My Wife Sign the Title of My Vehicle Without My Permission

[tomc1234]

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: Georgia
Can my wife sign the title to my car without my knowledge or permission over to herself or someone else with it only being in my name and without my signature on the title.

[llworking]

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: Georgia
Can my wife sign the title to my car without my knowledge or permission over to herself or someone else with it only being in my name and without my signature on the title.

Technically no. However, if the vehicle is marital property (bought during the marriage) then its unlikely that she would get in any trouble for doing so. If its marital property and you are divorcing and you have another vehicle to drive, then you can be pretty certain that the judge would award her that vehicle.

[jk]

I disagree. Being marital properly does not mean the spouses have a poa for the other spouse. Even if it was marital property the wife would have a claim to only 1/2 of the value. Here she expressed control over the entire value. What she did was illegal.
If you were to push the issue you can reclaim the vehicle. You would have to report it stolen though (can you do this to your wife?).

[budwad]

I don't know that you have to report the car stolen. I believe you can go to DMV and claim that there was a fraudulent transfer of title and you want it voided. If DMV wants to contact the authorities, they can.

[llworking]

I don't know that you have to report the car stolen. I believe you can go to DMV and claim that there was a fraudulent transfer of title and you want it voided. If DMV wants to contact the authorities, they can.

That won't necessarily get you the car back. Sure they can void the transfer of title, but that is just a piece of paper.

I disagree. Being marital properly does not mean the spouses have a poa for the other spouse. Even if it was marital property the wife would have a claim to only 1/2 of the value. Here she expressed control over the entire value. What she did was illegal.
If you were to push the issue you can reclaim the vehicle. You would have to report it stolen though (can you do this to your wife?).

I think that we would need more information before we can take it that far.

[budwad]

I'm not clear from the original post if she actually did transfer title or if this is a hypothetical.

[jk]

That won't necessarily get you the car back. Sure they can void the transfer of title, but that is just a piece of paper.
I think that we would need more information before we can take it that far.

If she did this and op did not authorize it, what else do you neeed to know?

as far as voiding the transfer: the dmv knows the op is being honest how? How would they know op wasn't simply some disgruntled seller or scam artist and does this to reclaim vehicles he doesn't have a legal valid claim to?

A court can do that after examining the facts. The dmv is not empowered to make such decisions.

[Mr. Knowitall]

Can my wife sign the title to my car without my knowledge or permission over to herself or someone else with it only being in my name and without my signature on the title.

Technically no.

I think that it is more accurate to say "Legally, no". The wife can sign the title, but it would not be lawful.

However, if the vehicle is marital property (bought during the marriage) then its unlikely that she would get in any trouble for doing so.

As jk points out, it's still a crime.

If we go with signing the title "over to herself", then odds are that this will end up being treated as a family court matter. The OP can divorce his wife, or proceed with a pending divorce, and either include the vehicle in the settlement or ask the court to award him his share of its value. If there's no divorce or separation in the works, I would like to hear why the wife would do such a thing.

If we go with "someone else", the odds of charges increase significantly. Either the third party is colluding with the wife in order to defraud the husband out of the car, which would not make for a sympathetic scenario upon review by a prosecutor, or the car buyer is going to be very upset when the police arrive at his home and explain that he didn't actually buy a car.

I don't know that you have to report the car stolen. I believe you can go to DMV and claim that there was a fraudulent transfer of title and you want it voided. If DMV wants to contact the authorities, they can.

As jk indicates, the DMV is not an investigative agency. They're not going to void a title transfer based upon the claims of the title owner.

I'm not clear from the original post if she actually did transfer title or if this is a hypothetical.

The phrasing of the original question makes it appear that this question is in the hypothetical.

[budwad]

As jk indicates, the DMV is not an investigative agency. They're not going to void a title transfer based upon the claims of the title owner.

The owner's signature would still have to be on the transferred title for it not to be fraudulent.

[Mr. Knowitall]

The owner's signature would still have to be on the transferred title for it not to be fraudulent.

That is beside the point. If you want to report somebody as having allegedly forged your signature to a car title, or somebody who will potentially recover the vehicle based upon your report, you go to the police.