I bought 5 vehicles from a bank and they gave me a bill of sale with no titles, are these vehicles mine ?

Question

The bank reposessed 3 pieces of machinery and 5 automobiles and then sold them to me for $20,000 . I paid them 15,000 and left a balance of $ 5,000 to exchange for the vehicle titles when they aquired them. 3 months later they call me to say the original owner / trustee of a bankruptcy court wants them back. The Bank is pulling out of the deal and the trustee put a judgement against me for 25,000 in bankrupcy court. I owed the bank $5,000
( $1000.00 per motor vehicle ) since they were in need of extensive repair. I invested over $2000 in each vehicle to sell for about 4000.00 ea. and now the trustee wants them back or pay him 25,000 ( his estimated value of the vehicles ) because he said the bank had no right to reposess them . Do I have to give them back ? Will this judgement harm me if I don't respond quickly ? Should I ask for compensation for repairs that I did to them ? Is the bill of sale legal since I thought they were the owners ?

Answer 1

Yes they are but, you have to take the paperwork down to the local DMV and apply for salvage titles. In addition the seller must provide proof of satisfied lein to you as the buyer. Then call the sherrif to be present at time of aquisition but only if the vehicles are not in your possesion already. Until you do this the bill of sale will suffice in any situation.

Answer 2

The bank or anyone, cannot sell you a vehicle without title. Your recourse is with the bank. Take this matter up with the local DA. Once you have title, the vehicles are yours. Any improvements on a vehicle without proper title, is your loss.

Answer 3

They were never yours. a bill of sale is not a title. You got ripped off. howeve since it was a bank that did it you have recourse. contact your state DA and tell him the whole story. DA's love to go after bank fraud since it's easy to prove since banks HAVE TO keep records.