A couple of months ago I bought a used vehicle from the person who owned the vehicle. At the time of purchase he gave me a receipt for the purcase of the vehicle(a bill of sale) along with that he also gave me a written(by him), and signed by him,guarantee that if within 60 days of the purchase of the vehicle, anything went wrong with it and I didn’t want to fix it, he would buy it back for the amount that I’d paid him for it. About a week before the 60 days was up I began to have some real problems with the transmission. The front seal blew. Just to fix that would cost close to $600, more if there is damage inside the transmission. So I contacted the man I bought it from; told him I wanted to sell it back to him as per his written guarantee. He has strung me along for almost 2 weeks now and today he pretty much told me to take him to court because he’s on disability and no judge will order a claim against his disability. I can’t afford to fix it and was counting on him to live up to the written agreement, as it was his idea in the first place. Am I just screwed? Or do I have legal recourse? I would very much appreciate any advice or suggestions that you may be able to give me. Thank you very much.
You probably are out of luck. You need top check out what his assets are; does he own a home, collecting any money from a third party because of his disability [automobile accident, etc.–go on web if can get the information there or to the local courthouses to see if he is a party to any current or relatively recent lawsuit], talk to the entity giving him disability pay and where they aware he had a car and sold it for cash, etc. Most disabllity payments are not subject to judgment liens. Find out how much you can get for the car as a junker, gift to charilty, etc, register it as non-operational with DMV to reduce your registeration fee, consider giving it back to him so that you do not become liable for anything that happens because of the car.
George Shers
Law Offices of Georges H. Shers
4170 Glenwood Terrace, Suite #1
Union City, CA 94587