Does anyone know the laws in selling a vehicle.

[stiffy]

About a month ago my husband and my dad found a 1969 Firebird Conv. in the local Auto Trader so they went and looked at it and gave the guy a $200 deposit and signed a bill of sale. The guy that sold it is the owner of a huge car body shop he has a bunch of street rods and classic cars he said the car was brought in to have work done on it about 4 years ago he finished the work and the guy never paid or came back for his car so the owner of the shop got a lien and got the title for the car ( something like that anyway) so he said he would primer the car and we could pick it up the next Friday with the remaining balance well the next Thurs. he called and said the original owner came in and wants it back so to come get the deposit. Well one of our friends was getting his stock car painted that week and mentioned someone came in and offered him more $$ he was only asking $3500 so that's why we jumped on it it has the original 400 a muncie 4 speed brand new interior that hasn't been installed yet worth way more than $3500 we hired an attorney and the attorney sent him a letter saying he can either finish the deal or face further legal action and he needed to reply within 10 days well it's been like 14 and we havn't heard from him the car was there when he got the letter according to our friend who has the race car there but as of yesterday the car is gone. My question is.... has anyone dealt with something like this do we have a leg to stand on?

[wilkin250r]

Well, if the car is gone, sold to the other guy, and the transaction has been completed, it will be tough. Even if there was something that COULD be done, I'm not sure you would want to bother with it.


You might have been able to block the transaction before it happened. But if the deed is already done, it would take quite a bit of legal work to reverse it. Are the legal costs worth it?

[stiffy]

Well money has exchanged hands along with a bill of sale signed by both the owner of the shop and Jer that's a binding contract isn't it? The attorney is a family friend who grew up next door to us so that's good the shop owner recieved the letter from the attorney long before the car was gone.

[Loser450]

Originally posted by wilkin250r
Are the legal costs worth it?

If you're into that sort of thing. Muncie 4 speeds are incredibly hard to come by now-a-days.

[stiffy]

It's in immac shape ready for paint with all matching #'s it's worth every penny to get what we paid and signed for.

[harescrambles]

If you have a bill of sale then it's breach of contract and you are entitled to your money back, unless losing the deal cost you something, there's nothing else to recover. There is no such thing as punitive damages in a breach of contract case. Small claims court could put you back in the position you were in before the deal was made but that's about all. Sucks, but that's the law.

man that sucks

[wilkin250r]

Originally posted by harescrambles
If you have a bill of sale then it's breach of contract and you are entitled to your money back, unless losing the deal cost you something, there's nothing else to recover. There is no such thing as punitive damages in a breach of contract case. Small claims court could put you back in the position you were in before the deal was made but that's about all. Sucks, but that's the law.

That's kinda what I was thinking. Since the other deal is done and delivered, probably the only thing you can do is get your deposit back. I don't think you can force the other buyer to return the car.

sue the hell out of them

[stiffy]

We are just going to sue him for the value of the car, or make him get us a 1969 conv firebird in the same condition. We won't force the other buyer just make the seller deliver a 1969 firebird like he agreed he advertised this car for a certain price sold it and then renigged. (sp?)

[stiffy]

BTW wilkin250r what kind of engineering do you do? I used to work for Granite on the Monorail project.