Help/Advice needed re: lien

[bobby_lu]

I need some advice here on what I should/could about this situation, its a somewhat long read...

Purchased a car last summer, car A, let say, well traded my old car for it..and no cash was exchanged in the purchase of the car, car B. Fine, then about 6 months later, I traded the said car A I had acquired for another car, car C, plus some cash on top since it was worth more than my car. All private transactions

So now I have car C which I paid + traded my car and the previous owner of car C, has car A, the one I originally traded for. Car B is long gone to the guy I traded it to originally and is a moot point, and doesnt matter for this.

About 5 months ago, traded my new car A + cash for car C, which I have been driving for the last little while. Now, I get a call from the current owner of the car saying he traded the car in and then found out there was a lien on the car!

So, I was originally under the impression that you could not register a car with a lien on it, but since it has been twice since, and I have since found out, that is not the case.

Yes, yes I know, SHOULD have done a lien check, but that doesnt matter anymore since I didnt and need to sort it out. Now, the lien document is showing under the name of the guy who I bought the car from, and he wrote in his writing, on the bill of sale in addition to what it already says, that "the car is free of a liens etc."

The part that confuses me is that the lien date is a date in which I had posseision of the car, several months after I had bought it (traded for) from the previous owner. It does however still show it in his name.

So now what? The guy who has the car now didnt get a lien check either (yes, I guess we both know next time) and the dealership where he traded the car into came back to him and said this is the case. He is the current registered owner of the car.

Any help/advice would be appreciated. I am just as interested in clearing this up as the current owner is, and by no means want to be a deadbeat.

[Tik-Tok]

I would go to the place that has the lien, show them the documents indicating that shows you owned the car, and registered (I assume), months before this lien was taken out.

This sounds like the guy is a scammer, AND that the company that took the lien didn't do their job properly.

[bobby_lu]

Found this, that sort of answers the part about how the lien was registered AFTER i bought the car...now what to do...

"Lien Fraud Program Objective: To educate stakeholders so that lien information is passed on to vehicle purchasers along with registration information, to create public awareness of lien fraud and to conduct research into date and information management systems to prevent lien fraud.

Criminals purchase vehicles with borrowed money. The lender registers a lien on the vehicle. However, the vehicle can be sold to an innocent purchaser before the lien information is registered. To the purchaser, the vehicle appears to be free and clear of liens. At some point, the criminal stops making payments on the vehicle and the lien holder seeks recovery of the vehicle. In many cases, the lien holder is entitled to recovery. The consumer who bought the car is left without any recourse. Sometimes they are left having to repay a loan for a car they no longer have. Everyone is forced to go through expensive litigation. "

[rinny]

If he was the one who wrote on the bill of sale that is was free of liens, you could possibly take him to small claims court if needed.

However if your saying that someone else has the car with leins on it, then its not really your problem now, and you shouldnt have to deal with it. I hate to say pass your problem on to him, but he is in the same boat you were when you bought it. What are you worried about then when the lien is not under your name?

[bobby_lu]

I know, I dont have any problem in this as such, since I have the lien document in front of me stating it is in the original sellers (seller to me) name. And I am not the current owner, but would still like to get this matter sorted out in good faith to the current owner.

I have all the documents and say with the original seller saying its free of liens, and I a lien check WOULD NOT have shown this since it was not registerered untill a few months after I bought the car, so I wouldnt have known anyways...it is not in my name, but was registered while I was the registered owner.

I know I could take the original seller to court and what not, but want to get this sorted out before it comes to that.

What do you think the lien holder would do in this situation (bank)? The are entitled to the car, if they want, I believe.

[bignerd]

Might just be a simple case of a bank going to register a legitimate lien against a vehicle and messing up the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) or Serial Number when they submitted the lien to the property registry and that error just happened to be a valid VIN-yours! Trust me stranger things have happened. I would call the lien holder and and see what they say-they won't tell you any specifics if someone does have a loan but explain the full situation. Try to call the branch that has the lien registered directly.

[bobby_lu]

^ ya, I am going to call the lending bank today, just wondering if they would actually be willing to give me any information, or deal with me....i dont really know who to talk to there either


As for the possiblity of it being a mistake, I guess its possible but I dont think its very likely, I have read that it is not uncommon for it to take a while for the lien to get "registered", other than that everything lines up with it being the original seller.

[Hakkola]

I don't really have anything to add but I have to give you props for helping out a guy that you have no legal obligation to, this sounds like a real pain in the ass.