<VV> Corvairs and Deals from Hell

[dgrahams]

here's mine, happened years ago:

my friend was involved in a minor collision in his 62 spyder coupe and
decided to buy a parts car for required body panels.  i went with him and
saw money/title exchanged and helped transport car back to his house.

after 18 months or so he decided that repair was to much for him to handle
and wanted room being taken up by parts car back so i bought the parts car
from him with the thought of turning it into daily driver. he gave me the
signed, notarized title that he had gotten from the seller and i proceeded
to spend several weeks working on the car, getting it running, drivable etc.

when i was ready to start using it i went to do dmv for title change and
registration where i was told that a duplicate title had been issued to the
listed owner and that i'd need that one to begin transfer. i contacted the
'owner' to ask for current title only to be told that he'd never sold the
car, it had been stolen along with other vehicles from some land he was
storing them on and he wanted the car back pronto. explained that i had a
signed & notarized title and he told me he had kept the title in the glove
box and that he'd never sold it and didn't know the person that my friend
had dealt with.

pulled off any new parts i'd put on before he picked it up and then went
over to talk to the person my friend had bought the car from, looking for my
money back.  he denied having sold the car and ever having it in his
possesion. it was looking pretty grim until i found that the notary (
amazingly enough the sellers neighbor ) was responsible for any loss due to
either his failure to follow proper procedure or aiding in sellers fraud.

a nice, polite letter to the notary explaining the situation ( and
threatening his bond ) netted me my purchase price back plus money for the
time i'd invested in repair. didn't make out great on the deal, but didn't
lose either.

lessons: don't keep the title in the glove box and don't put any money into
a purchased vehicle until the title has been transfered.

bill graham
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.8 - Release Date: 5/10/05