Is this legal?

[semyaza]

Granted, this is not really a car buying or selling question but there really wasn't a catagory for this.

About 6 months ago my mother passed away. Since then I have been stuck with 3 cars that I have been unable (mostly to laziness) to sell and have been paying liability on all three. The problem is that only one am I listed as a driver and that is as a secondary driver. The others she is listed as a 46 year old female nonsmoker that drives both cars for "pleasure" ... which means the insurance for both cars are about 300 dollars every 6 months and about 400 every 6 months for the one I am listed as a secondary driver on.

... regardless of morals, is it wrong (legally?) to forget to switch over the cars into my name until I sell (at least one) them?

I am nearly 20 years old, going to college full time, working full time, and barely able to make the mortgage payment on our house as it is.

Any info would be appreciated.

[YogsVR4]

I am sorry to hear about the passing of you mother.

You should bet the insurance switched over to your name but put the cars in storage that aren't driving or want to sell down the line. Insurance on a stored vehicle that has no other title owner should be dirt cheap.

[90EX]

Sorry to hear about your mother.

My recommendation is to sell the cars you don't need. I do not think you will get in trouble with the DMV if you don't transfer title right away (I waited quite a while when I inheritted a car). But the insurance company might not be very understanding. If you don't drive two of the cars, you can park them off the street, and reduce the coverage on them. Becaue you are only 20 your insurance will probably go up though.

[semyaza]

Thank you both.

One of the cars (a '74 super beetle) is currently not running and I am tempted to put it into storage rather than sell it as I would like to restore it later on and keep it. The other (a truck that get 10 mpg) is just basically taking up space.

I was told to blacktag the VW and just sell the truck. If you blacktag a car and put it into storage you wouldn't have to pay any insurance, right?

Sorry about being rather naive about this, my mother handled all my car issues before.

The other car is a '94 sable so I am pretty sure that would be the cheapest to insure and is easier on my 50 mile a day commute to school.

[YogsVR4]

You'll still want some insurance on the car. Either as storage through the auto insurer or from your home owners (or whoevers insurance is on the garage its in). It should be very inexpensive though.

[semyaza]

Thank you Yogs for your insight. I will take your advice and put it into storage and keep it. It might be a financial drain and serve nothing more than a reminder of my past, but at least its my drain and my past .