I signed for an automobile with my husband and we are seperated. He is not paying the note and want give me the car back.

When you cosign a motor vehicle loan, you agree to be liable for full payment. So if the other person does not make payments, you can be held liable. That also means your credit record can be impacted by the other person’s failure to make the loan payments too, even if you don’t know that they are not making the payments. However, in most states just being a cosigner on the loan does not give you any rights to the vehicle. Having your name on the title as an owner is the only thing that gives you a legal interest in the vehicle itself in most states. Liability on the loan, and having an ownership in the vehicle are not the same thing. So if the other person is not making the loan payments, can you get your name off of the loan? If your name is on the loan, the only way to get it off is if the finance company or bank lets you or else your cosigner refinances the loan into their own name alone. What if one person wants to give the vehicle to the other person so they can make the payments? You can do that in most states, but the other person still has to get the loan caught up to avoid a repo from taking place, and merely doing that does not remove you from liability on the loan. If your name is on the title, the only way to get it off in most states is with the consent of the finance company or bank. They usually control all the legal rights. So, if the vehicle is repo’d because the loan is in default, can you be held liable for the loan balance? In most states, yes. If it is repo’d from your cosigner, do you have the right to make the finance company turn the car over to you so you can start making payments? In most states, no. Once the loan is in default and the vehicle has been repo’d, the finance company almost always has the right to sell the vehicle and hold you liable for the deficiency. But many states require the finance company to send a “right to cure” notice to one of the account holders (you or your cosigner) saying how much money you have to come up with in order to get the vehicle back and reinstate the loan. Problem is, that notice most often only goes to one of the signers on the loan and if that is not you, then you may never hear about the repo or the “cure” notice until it is all over with. If the car is repo’d from you, then you do have some legal rights, like getting back your personal property that was in the vehicle. You can read more about that on this web page: http://ohiolemonlaw.com/ofc-repo-rights.html. But each state’s laws can be different on cosigning and repo rights. You need to talk to a local Consumer Law attorney who deals with this kind of case. Call your local attorney's Bar Association and ask for a referral to a Consumer Law attorney near you or you can go to this web site page for a Free Online 50 State National List of Consumer Law Lawyers (http://www.ohiolemonlaw.com/ocll-site/ocll-locate_local.shtml) and find one near you (lawyers don’t pay to get listed here and most of them are members of the only national association for Consumer Law lawyers, www.NACA.net). But act quickly because for every legal right you have, there is only a limited amount of time to actually file a lawsuit in court or your rights expire (it's called the statute of limitations), so don't waste your time getting to a Consumer Law attorney and finding out what your rights are. If this answer was helpful, please check the box below.