Living Car Free - Car Lite - Renting out my car

Since shortly after my son was born and I began commuting to work by bike my wife and I have been car lite. With her line of work (Nanny) and lack of cycling experience or bike, we kept my car (paid off, good gas mileage, my parents pay the insurance on it) and got rid of her Jeep and the bills that went along with it.

Times have moved forward and she is now watching a couple more kids every day and the sedan didn't offer enough room. The child-shuffle got to be too much and we bought her dream car. A Mini-Van with power sliding doors. :wtf:

I liked being able to say we only have one vehicle and that I take my bike everywhere. Then I noticed myself taking the car a little more often as the barrier of leaving my wife without one was lifted. So the car has got to go! We don't want to sell it though, since it is so cheap to own and has a lot of life left in it. Currently, we are loaning it to a friend who is having an engine replaced in his car so that he can get to work. Once we get it back, I'll be renting it out to my brother-in-law for $75-100/month as his car has died and isn't worth fixing for his 20 mile commute to work.

I do still have to convince my wife to make that into my 'Bike Fund/Car Maintenance' and not a general fund, though. The car needs about $250 worth of work, and I don't think I should make my brother in law keep up the maintenance on it (in case he doesn't). So I figure, 3 months = $225-300, less a $30 oil change and $50 insurance (if we take back the insurance costs) leaves me a nice chunk of change to put towards upgrading my bike life.

I may also just give him the car if he still is renting it from me after a 18 months.

Has anyone else rented out a vehicle? Positive/Negative experiences?

I've let family borrow my car for a little while, but not for anything longer than a week.

If your thinking about giving it to him eventually and since he is family it might be easier if you offer to sell it to him for $1350-$1800 ($75/$100 a month for 18 months) or whatever you find reasonable. That way you would not have to be paying insurance or maintenance on it. You would also get the money up front and be able to agree with the wife that a certain percentage goes towards your bike fund and the rest can go for whatever else.Personally I would make him keep up the maintenance on it though if he is renting it from you. Simply because you dont know how he is treating it when your not around and if he isnt treating it good then it could cause maintenance problems which wouldnt be good for you.

I've let family borrow my car for a little while, but not for anything longer than a week.

If your thinking about giving it to him eventually and since he is family it might be easier if you offer to sell it to him for $1350-$1800 ($75/$100 a month for 18 months) or whatever you find reasonable. That way you would not have to be paying insurance or maintenance on it.

While I agree that would be a good route, I know he can't afford the insurance on it if he were to be the owner of it. I do prefer to have the option of gifting him the vehicle, "$500 this month and it's yours," or taking it back if he finds another car. It's worth more than $1800 now (I could probably get 2500-3000 for it if I sold it through the newspaper or craigslist), but at the end of 18 months, I see it being worth $1500 or so depending on miles.

My biggest concern is that if he stops paying me, it would be a burden on our relationship. If he stops paying while he's renting it, I take the car back. If he stops paying while being the legal owner of the car, it makes for a much more stressful situation.

While I agree that would be a good route, I know he can't afford the insurance on it if he were to be the owner of it. I do prefer to have the option of gifting him the vehicle, "$500 this month and it's yours," or taking it back if he finds another car. It's worth more than $1800 now (I could probably get 2500-3000 for it if I sold it through the newspaper or craigslist), but at the end of 18 months, I see it being worth $1500 or so depending on miles.

My biggest concern is that if he stops paying me, it would be a burden on our relationship. If he stops paying while he's renting it, I take the car back. If he stops paying while being the legal owner of the car, it makes for a much more stressful situation.

If he cant afford the insurance then the only real option that I can see would be to rent it to him. If your renting it to him and then decide to give it to him then all that you have to do is sign the papers over to him.

Another thing that I just thought of with the insurance is whether he would be covered while driving it? I dont know how your insurance works with situations like that and whether that could be an issue in case of an accident or getting pulled over. It would be a really good idea to get checked out beforehand.

If he's renting and the title is still in your name then that makes it easy to get back because you have proof that you own it still. If you switch the title to his name and sell it to him make sure the get documented signatures and papers regarding what he will pay each month and when the payments will stop. Get a lawyer involved maybe or just get them notarized? And keep a copy of any check/payment that he gives you as proof. That will make it easier to prove that he still owes you money if you need to go to court for it. Hopefully you wont have to go that way, but you dont want to be screwed if you are counting on his payments every month to pay one of your bills.

You're causing yourself too much stress. What is the best option for you? Everyone else is more than capable of worrying about their problems.

If you don't need the car, sell it. The reason why you can't rent a car for as little as you're planning to is because of the hassles of insurance, maintenance, debt collecting, smash repairs, break downs and depreciation.

It's not worth it.

Renting your car to someone else brings up all kinda insurance and liablity issues!!!!!!!!

Situations like this are a staple of all those judge shows, and for good reason. Your rental price sounds way too low. Is the minivan all paid off? There should be some consideration of it's value in the rent. Make sure that your insurance is more than covered, and at maximums, not minimums. The rent should cover wear and tear and maintenance. What do you do if the transmission goes in 12 months. What do you do if the motor blows because the oil hasn't been maintained?

We've all rented cars, we know that we drive them harder than we would drive our own cars and we treat them more carelessly. The amount that goes toward your bike should be out of the profit column. At the end of 18 months, you should SELL it to him. That might act as a motivation for him to maintain it and keep it in shape. CYA! Sounds like your brother in law is getting an unbelieveable deal.

Don't do this. Read your insurance policy. I guarantee there is a clause preventing you from renting your car. If your brother in law gets into an accident in your car that you are renting to him, you are personally screwed. You shouldn't even do a long term loan w/o informing your insurance company.

DON'T DO IT! The moment you rent the car it becomes a commercial vehicle and anything that happens to it is not covered by a regular policy. Even if you and the other party agree to keep it secret it will be found out with a little bit of investigation by your insurance company. You will be risking everything you own just because you want to be nice to a relative. Just one law suit will destroy you financially.

Either lend it to him without any money changing hands, sell it, or give it to him. If he can't afford insurance payments he won't be able to hire an attorney to help you with any law suit filed by another insurance company representing someone he hit.

It is wonderful that you want to help out a relative. Your responsibility to your family comes ahead of helping your other relatives. If you are good friends with him then he will understand that you can't put yourself in that position. Just explain that you now have more information that you didn't have before and that you realize that the rental can't happen at any price.

Why can't he use a bicycle or mass transit instead of using your car?

I had a wife whose business owned her car. She had the accountant set it up like that. The accountant seemed full of tricks to game the tax system. It reads like the mini-van should be owned by the business. Maybe the car too, then sell it at a loss etc... Check with your lawyer first though, don't do it because I said so. The events I'm talking about were during the Reagan years. Tax dodging might be more difficult for businesses nowadays.

Well I decided to offer it for sale to him with monthly payments. Thanks to those who suggested sell versus rent due to insurance. However, we did give him the stipulation that he must start paying off his creditors before he buys it and once he has a plan in place, if he can still afford the car, we'll sell it to him. My wife told me that he is behind or just pays the minimum on his credit card debt. While that's his problem, not ours, I understand where he gets his terrible financial habits from. His parents are addicted to QVC to the point where they have refinanced their house twice to pay their ever-increasing debts.

So, once he shows us that he understands his responsibility to pay his creditors, we will become a creditor to him with the car.

IMO, the most valuable gift you could give your BIL is to encourage/teach him to be more self-reliant. This guy is a poster boy for the ills of easy credit. Giving him more or easier credit is unlikely to help.

My coworker bought a car off a friend that moved back to germany and she financed him and wouldn't sign the car to him untill it was paid off, he was able to get insurance for it but it was signaifcantly higer until he was the official owner. Just call your insurance company and explain your situation whether it's cost effective for you or him I couldn't say but I would call for sure. I am sure you aren't the first person to do something like this, there maybe affordable options.