🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul7.194247.19083@sj.ate.slb.com>, poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) writes:
> marks@ssdevo.enet.dec.com (Randy Marks) writes:
> : 
> : In article <1992Jul5.230242.11340@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>, ash@sumex-aim.stanford.edu (David Ash) writes...
> : >A friend of mine bought a car privately about six months ago.  Unfortunately
> : >the car was financed, and so the previous owner needed to pay off the finance
> : >company out of the purchase price that my friend paid.  Even more 
> : >unfortunately, it appears the previous owner simply pocketed the entire
> : >purchase amount and never paid off the finance company.  The previous owner
> : >has provided numerous excuses for his failure to do so, of which my friend
> : >believes some and I believe none.
> : > 
> : >The bottom line, though, is that six months after paying for this car, my
> : >friend still has not received the title to the car.  In other words, the car
> : >still legally belongs to the previous owner, and probably by this point the
> : >loan is in a serious state (i.e. the finance company probably wants to repo
> : >the car, but I'm speculating at this point).  My friend also suspects the
> : >previous owner withheld a key from him, and so he has bought a club for the
> : >car for the sole purpose of preventing the previous owner from stealing it
> : >back.
> : > 
> : >Now two questions arise:
> : > 
> : >1.  What should my friend have done to prevent this sorry situation from
> : >    developing in the first place?
> : Holy shit.  You mean your friend paid for the car without getting the
> : title?  The answer to 1. is he should have gotten a title in exchange
> : for the money he paid.  This typically takes place all at once.
> : In other words, you never pay for a car without immediately getting the
> : title.
> : 
> 
> But if the owner has a loan on the car, then he DOES NOT have the title. The
> lienholder (the bank that carries the loan) has the true title. The bank must
> be paid off first, then they will mail the signed over title to the owner.
> 
> Typically, when a loan on a car is paid off, you must go to the DMV within
> a certain amount of time and have the title transferred. I am not sure if this
> is necessary before selling by the owner, or if the bank signed title can be
> transferred to the new owner directly.
> 
> In any case, there is a catch-22 here. I don't know what the best way to do
> it is to avoid problems.
> 
> Russ Poffenberger               DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com
> Schlumberger Technologies       UUCP:   {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen
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I've done this sort of transfer from both sides.  The buyer and the seller meet
at an office of the bank which holds the loan.  The buyer has a cashier's check
for the sales price made out to the seller.  The loan is paid off with the
proceeds of the check (and whatever other funds are necessary...:) and the bill
of sale made out immediately to the buyer; the pink slip is also transferred at
that time.  Then send the required guck to the DMV so that the new unencumbered
pink will go to the buyer.  

The buy knows that the loan is paid, since he saw it paid off; the seller knows
the check is good because it is a cashier's check; the DMV is happy because the
paper work is filled out.

Another technique is to take over the loan from the seller - most car loans
allow this.  You go to the bank together and fill out the credit app; if the
loan balance is less than the sales price (hard to find with these 60 month
loans!), buyer pays seller the difference after the bank agrees that buyer can
take the loan.  Then buyer can pay the loan in installments or in a lump sum as
he sees fit.  If the buyer is not credit worthy, use the first method.

By the way, in the case cited above, it is unlikely that the buyer will see
anything like $$$ without a lawyer; the lawyer will get most of the $$ in any
case.
Ed Oates (my opinions, not Oracle's)