Driving Car That Is Registered And Insured Under Deceased Husband's Company

Location: Upstate NY

Vehicle was purchased and is registered and insured in TN

In February of 2024 my husband (who I had VERY recently been divorced from) passed away. At the time of his passing, we had only been divorced for about 90 days. We still owned vehicles, operated a business together, had tons of CCs together.... Etc ... We were interacting with each other every day like normal. We continued to run our business together and everything as far as the business, vehicles, finances...etc.... was still operating the same as they were pre-divorce. We were not in a huge hurry to separate things. There was a lot to deal with and it was overwhelming since we were still keeping our business going so everyone that worked with us, and ourselves, could continue to receive an income. Unfortunately, exactly 90 days after our divorce was officially finalized, he passed.

Everything we had together was in his name. The business was 100% in his name. I was not an officer or even listed as an employee of the business. That folded up literally overnight. So, in addition to not having an income, I also lost my place of residence and all vehicles because everything was in his name and at the time of his passing, I was no longer his next of kin. His parents were absolutely hateful during this whole ordeal, so I got ZERO help from them. I literally had to sell as many of my belongings as I could, close down a business, and sell all of that stuff (desks, computers...etc...), only pack the essentials, and move to a different state to be closer to the only family I had and to start over from scratch and try to find a job.

If you've ever been in this situation, you know it can take a while to get back on your feet. To add insult to injury, I had almost perfect credit that my late husband absolutely tanked in his last year of life. So I was broke, jobless, homeless, and car-less and my credit was trashed so I could not obtain any of it. Unfortunately, being in an absolutely horrible position, I did continue to use one of the cars. I have successfully registered it twice since his passing and it is legally insured. I have gotten pulled over three times since moving (no tickets though) and there are never any problems when police officers run the car's credentials.

I know this is not ideal. I really don't need any morality lectures because I know there's always going to be that one person that comments on the morality of the situation.

I'm almost back on my feet to the point where I can get a car. It has been suggested that I just tell the lender (that is currently trying to repo the car) that I'm interested in buying it to see if they'd work something out with me.

Can I get any legal charges when I am ready to contact the lender to let them know that they can come pick up the car? Should I try to work out buying it from them? Or do you think they'll just want it back? It sucks that I had to do what I had to do to survive (at one point living in the car). I'm aware that it's not right morally. For the past two years I have rebuilt my life from scratch and busted my butt working, earning as much as I could, skrimping, saving.... etc

So I'm finally ready to either return the car or buy it. I'm just worried that I'm going to get arrested or something when I call them to surrender the vehicle.