Car trade between friends gone wrong

[sma3il1986]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
Someone who used to be a very good friend of mine was in financial hardship. He was selling his car and I figured I would save him the hassle of finding a buyer.
So I proposed to him to trade my hyundai and 16 thousand dollars he needed for the mercedes he was selling. For some reason I am still not clear about today, he asked me to write him two checks of 8000 each instead of one check of 16000.
The whole transaction happened on a sunday and we agreed that he would pay off the loan he has on the mercedes with the money I had given him and get me the title so that we can finalize the transaction.
We traded cars on the same day and I held off the title to my hyundai (Which is probably the only smart choice I made in this whole thing)

Three years later I am still waiting for the title of the car...
After almost two years as I was trying to work with him a solution that doesn't involve the law, I found out that he had an accident with my old hyundai and somehow cashed the insurance check that was issued to my name. I believe that he endorsed the check faking my signature or something like that.

I can still see that the car has a loan on it. Please advise me on what to do here. I live in the constant fear of losing the only car I have now that I use to go to work.

 

[justalayman]

Three years??? You have waited for 3 years to consider doing something about this? There's nothing like complacency and procrastination.

Then you ignored his illegal actvity and cashed a check made to you?

I wonder if this very late concern is not somehow instigated by the person your Hyundai was involved with possibly suing you.


On top of everything else you apparently maintained insurance on the Hyundai for at least two years now. While it isn't smart to drop insurance on a car that is still in your name, from your post I would guess you don't have a lot of money. How do you maintain insurance on both cars? And how have each of you registered the car each year without the signature of the owner?


While i admit to being a bit suspicious sometimes where it isn't warranted, something sounds very fishy about your story.

 

[sma3il1986]

Three years??? You have waited for 3 years to consider doing something about this? There's nothing like complacency and procrastination.

Well the guy was a friend after all. Whenever I would ask him to pay off the loan and get me the title he would ask me to wait pretending that he has financial problems.

Then you ignored his illegal actvity and cashed a check made to you?

I wonder if this very late concern is not somehow instigated by the person your Hyundai was involved with possibly suing you.

It is not due to that luckily. I know that he cashed the check but I really don't know how he did that. He must have forged my signature I really don't know.

On top of everything else you apparently maintained insurance on the Hyundai for at least two years now. While it isn't smart to drop insurance on a car that is still in your name, from your post I would guess you don't have a lot of money. How do you maintain insurance on both cars? And how have each of you registered the car each year without the signature of the owner?

I did not maintain insurance on the Hyundai. And neither did he on the Mercedes. I insured the mercedes and I believe that he did the same on the Hyundai.
The mercedes is now registered to myname but the owner on the vehicule's registration is still him. I never needed any signature to have the registration renewed to my name.

While i admit to being a bit suspicious sometimes where it isn't warranted, something sounds very fishy about your story.

Well it is fishy, that is why I am seeking advice here...
Thank you justalayman

 

[justalayman]

If he carries insurance on the Hyundai then the check would be made out to him.

So what are you looking for? You can sue him to rescind the sale and a return of your car and your money.

As to keeping the car you are driving. If the loan is in default its at risk to be repossessed. The only way to prevent that is catch up on the payments or pay it off if the term of the loan has come to an end.