vehicle ownership confusion

[hondaproblems]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Utah

I have a motorcycle that I had traded my car for with a friend back in august of 2007. since then I have not received the title for the vehicle. he had the title at one point but never actually registered it in his name. at the time I just had him fill out a bill of sale(which I still have). he had soon after the exchange spent time in jail for unpaid tickets and in that period the title had disappeared from his possessions. the person he had bought it from had previously been his room mate and has an old title but until recently would tell me he had to look for it and he would take care of the additional paperwork then not return my calls. this week he informed me that he was still owed $1000 on the motorcycle and that unless I pay him what is owed or give him the motorcycle he is going to report the bike stolen and inform police that I'm the one in possession of it.

the whole ordeal has been an annoyance and a pain and may soon become much worse. is there anything I could do to work this out? I don't have the money on hand to give him and I would really rather not relinquish possession and lose everything.

 

[JETX]

unless I pay him what is owed or give him the motorcycle he is going to report the bike stolen and inform police that I'm the one in possession of it.

Let him go ahead. It won't do anything since you can show (by the bill of sale) that you did not steal the motorcycle.

Have him contact the DMV and get a duplicate title and sign it over to you. Absent that, you need to consider a small claim action to get an order to rescind the contract (if that is what you want to do), since the title is in apparently in dispute.