Sold car, signed over title and buyer refuses to make payment

B

BB4321

New Member
Jurisdiction
Maine
Hi, my boyfriend sold my brother a car in November 2016. We made up an agreement which was not verified by any court or lawyer saying he would pay $300 when he first purchased the car,and would continue to make payments of $800 on the 30th of each month with a total of $3000. Please bare with me because this part will probably sound naive to some, but we have no knowledge about the legal process of selling cars. My boyfriend signed over the title to my brother immediatley because my brother told us this is the only way he could legally drive the car while making payments. (I still do not know for sure if this is true but have a feeling it is not). So we signed it over to him and he signed the paper stating he would pay. So to make a long story short, as soon as he got the car he gave us $600 total. Then he was saying it was a 'rust bucket' and had to put 100s of dollars into fixing it so he couldn't afford to pay us. Which the car was in good condition as far as i know, but it is in writing that he is buying the car "as is, and no warranties of any kind expressed or implied". Him being my brother, we said it was fine and to try to pay us asap. Then he started with excuses saying he has legal, phone, etc bills to pay that are more important than paying us. I have all of this as proof on facebook messenger. The legal bills he is speaking of are for a custody battle, which he finally told me was going on months before he purchased the car, so it seems to me like he knew he couldnt afford to pay and wanted to basically screw us over. I've tried cutting him breaks such as "if you give me 1500 by february I will let you have the car for 2000 instead of 3000". This is when he paid only 1000 and that was the last payment we saw from him. So of course we went back to what the agreement states and as of now he owes $1400 on the car and he has paid a total of $1600. I don't have the exact date or proof of the payments but i also have messages of both of us agreeing that was what he paid so far. Now he has cut off all contact with us and refuses to pay and stated that we owe him money the last time him and my boyfriend spoke. I'll also add that I explained to him that I sold him this car to make my rent/bills and his refusal to pay almost got us evicted from our apartment with my 2 yr old. I want to know if I can do anything about this since we were tricked into signing over the title. I've tried calling low income legal assistance but they say they cannot give us legal advice. I'm not sure whether it would be best to file a lawsuit for the money or the return of the car... I have a feeling he will not pay even if we win, and then I have a feeling he will destroy the car if he has to give it back
 
You can try small claims and get a judgment against your brother for what he owes you, but the car is his now. The title should never be handed over until payment is made in full. You won't get the car back.
It sends your brother doesn't have the means to pay, but you can get the judgment anyway and maybe put a lien on the car. Sometimes people will suddenly pay up once they are served with court papers... You never know.
Either small claims or just consider it a lost cause.
 
mightymoose said:
You can try small claims and get a judgment against your brother for what he owes you, but the car is his now. The title should never be handed over until payment is made in full. You won't get the car back.
It sends your brother doesn't have the means to pay, but you can get the judgment anyway and maybe put a lien on the car. Sometimes people will suddenly pay up once they are served with court papers... You never know.
Either small claims or just consider it a lost cause.
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What's a lien? Like I said I have literally no idea about the legality of anything. Lol. Thanks though. Sucks to hear we probably won't get far.
 
Just research your options for small claims court and how to collect on a judgment if you should obtain one.
Before you decide to go to court you should have a plan for how to get the money if it isn't willingly paid. If the person has no assets you can't expect to get money from them.
This is family though... Maybe you can use some family channels to put some pressure on without going to court.
 
mightymoose said:
It's a common question unfortunately. Many people sign over the title before they should and end up with similar problems.
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Yeah, it was our first car, too and I'm only 20 so we have no idea, he knew that and that's why he took advantage obviously. Thought i could trust my own brother. I've been told I'd be able to argue in court that we were tricked into signing it over. But i don't know if that would get us very far
 
mightymoose said:
Just research your options for small claims court and how to collect on a judgment if you should obtain one.
Before you decide to go to court you should have a plan for how to get the money if it isn't willingly paid. If the person has no assets you can't expect to get money from them.
This is family though... Maybe you can use some family channels to put some pressure on without going to court.
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The thing is is he more or less pretended that he doesn't have any money to give us, and ended up flat out refusing rather than claiming he's broke. I know the general amount of what he makes in his paycheck. He makes a liveable wage and doesn't pay rent or utilities, just phone, gas etc and now apparently lawyer fees. He makes sure to post his luxuries on social media so he can't be doing too bad for himself
 
BB4321 said:
Yeah, it was our first car, too and I'm only 20 so we have no idea, he knew that and that's why he took advantage obviously. Thought i could trust my own brother. I've been told I'd be able to argue in court that we were tricked into signing it over. But i don't know if that would get us very far
Click to expand...

I never trust anyone but myself, but I make myself pay in advance in CASH, paid in full (upfront) before I do business with me.

Now you know why....
 
You will probably just have to chalk this up to experience. Now that you know about this forum, please come back in the future BEFORE you get into any such situation.
 

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