Title jumping

[Julia L Fowler]

Jurisdiction

West Virginia

I bought a car from a guy who said he was selling a car that belonged to his girlfriend and she signed the title and bill of sale, the vehicle was in her name not his. When I sent the title in it was returned to me because apparently they had filed papers with the DMV stating he had bought the car from her. It has been almost a year and he has yest to give me the title. Can I sue him to get my money back for the vehicle and money I put in the car for parts, labor, and tires. Also can I get anything for being put through all this for all this time. I had to scrape up the money for another car, get rides everywhere and pay for gas and repairs on borrowed vehicles. Thank you for any help!!

 

[army judge]

Can I sue him to get my money back for the vehicle and money I put in the car for parts, labor, and tires.

You can sue anyone that can be served for any perceived slight, wrong, or injury.

can I get anything for being put through all this for all this time.

You can ONLY recover your ACTUAL losses if you choose to sue someone in small claims court.

In all likelihood, you're dealing with an experienced flim flam artist without a many assets. These bottom feeding scavengers are usually living from scam to scam. If you sue one and receive a $10,000 judgement, you're likely to never see a dime paid to you.

Why?

Unless you take your case to Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, or one of the other TV judge shows who pay the awards, you'll spend forever TRYING to extract blood from sandstone.

After all you hard work, the money you spend for the privilege of taking the case before a small claims court; you'll end up with a pretty piece of paper saying Scammer owes You lots money!

But, you'll never get a nickel of that loot, because you can't collect it from the scammer.

You've exposed one of the many dsngers in buying a car from a private seller UNLESS you're savvy about such transactions.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Can I sue him to get my money back for the vehicle and money I put in the car for parts, labor, and tires.

You may sue the seller for the breach of contract. One possible remedy for the breach would be a refund of the money you paid and return the car to the seller — essentially unwind the deal. But you'd not get reimbursed the extra you put into the car and wouldn't get anything for the time you spent on it, the cost of buying the new car, etc., in that case. You could also sue for specific performance to make the seller provide you good title, if he's actually capable of doing that. But I I suspect that he never had the right to sell the car and that you got scammed by the guy. You might also report this to the police to see if they can do anything for you.

 

[adjusterjack]

Can I sue him

Suing is one thing. Collecting from a crook is another.

You should have called the police when the title came back. Though I don't know how much of a priority it would be.

I don't see anything on the DMV website that addresses title bonds so I have to conclude that W VA doesn't have that option available. However, it can't hurt to go back to the DMV personally and ask if you can post a bond to get title.

 

[Redemptionman]

You can not register car without title, otherwise a lost title could be an option. Who's name is on the title? That should been an indication to you as to who should have signed it.

Then once you have done that you can proceed with a small claim, but like has been said if he doesn't have any assets then you will see NO MONEY.