Car Lessee dies

My Dad died early 2021 and he leased a car and the lease end date is in 2 days on May 18th 2022. I’m his son and I was with him at the lease signing in 2019. I basically drove the car for personal use and to drive my Dad to wherever he wanted to go and to his doctor’s appointments. After his death I applied for a lease transfer but was denied. The monthly lease billing statements after that now state my Dad’s name Estate. The car company never told me to return car so I kept making the monthly lease payments. I asked the car company if I can purchase the vehicle and they said I have to be the Executor of my Dad’s Estate. I said to them aren’t you acknowledging that I’m the Executor/Administrator by not telling me to return the vehicle and accepting my payments after my Dad died. There’s no way for me to become Administrator of my Dad’s Estate in time before the lease end date because of the Court case back log. Lawyer friends of mine say it can take months. A couple of weeks before the lease end date I decided to give it a try anyway and filed paperwork to become Administrator if my Dad’s Estate even though he really doesn’t have an Estate. I called the Surrogate Court office and spoke to a clerk about my situation and he said to enter the car lease in the personal property area on the forms. I’m waiting for something in the mail but don’t even know if my paperwork has been looked at yet. I need to become Administrator to purchase the car at the lease end price. If I don’t I can only purchase it by having the dealer purchase at auction and then sell it to me for thousands of dollars more than the lease end price. What can I do?

Jane C.

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