Car sale gone horribly wrong (AL)

This happened in Montgomery, Alabama

on 9/29/05 I agreed to sell a car to an individual for $1000 up front and another $1000 which was to be paid no later than 10/19/2005. I kept the title. I made him sign a contract, which I will link to which included details of penalties of non-payment. In addition to the contract, he verbally agreed not to modify the car until it was paid in full.

Within a few days of 9/29 He had put a different transmission in the car as well as changed a lot of wiring and asked me to come help him as he was having problems with the car. I, being the nice guy I am, looked past this although I verbalized my disapproval. I got the car running temporarily and told him steps he needed to get the car running reliably.


A few weeks later, he was demanding his $1000 back and wanted me to take the now not-running car back. I told him I would make a trip to him and try to fix his mistakes. I went to his home town (about an hour from mine) and could not get the car running. Feeling that I had let him down, I offered to forfeit the "late fees" and accept $800 for the car if he could pay me within 2 weeks which has passed long ago.

Since this incident, I have talked to him demanding money and he claims to not have any to give me. As of a few weeks ago, he has lost his job and also his cellular phone no longer answers. Unfortunatly his cellular phone was the only means of contact. I have no address and I only know of a few friends of his. I am trying to get some contact information through them but have not had any luck. They all claim that they don't know where he is and they haven't seen him.

How can I take him to court if I can't get in touch with him and don't know his address?

Also, the contract is a bit messy but would it be valid in a court of law?

Thank you so much for any advice you can give

LINK TO CONTRACT:
http://67.33.14.41/contract.jpg

SloS13 said:

How can I take him to court if I can't get in touch with him and don't know his address?

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Simple answer... you can't.

Also, the contract is a bit messy but would it be valid in a court of law?

Click to expand...

Part of it is LIKELY valid... parts aren't.
Some that are NOT valid:
1) $10 per day late fee.
2) You can't get the vehicle back AND keep the money (other than that to recover damages).

Bottom line... go get the vehicle. It is yours. Then, use part of the $1000 you got to repair it. If any is left, return that remainder to the buyer. If you had stipulated that the $1000 was for liquidated damages (loss of sale, depreciation, costs of reselling, etc.), you MIGHT have had a claim to it on breach of the buyer.

Oh, and you also need to consider that any renegotiation you might have made later... could have terminated THIS agreement.

Thanks very much for the reply.

I forgot to mention something that's probably important. He has blown up the motor in the car (after admittedly going AGAINST my advice and hooking up the PCV valve incorrectly) and the car is now motorless/transmissionless (both have been removed to my knowledge).

Add to that the fact that the wiring is badly damaged AND the fact that the only reason the car was worth $2000 in the first place is that it had a custom turbocharger setup - the remainder of the car as it sits is worth maybe $50. I have also heard through some mutual aquaintances that he could have possibly sold the engineless car to someone else but that hasnt been confirmed.

SloS13 said:

I forgot to mention something that's probably important.

Click to expand...

None of that is really relevant to the legal issue.
Bottom line, it is still YOUR vehicle, in your name.
Go get it if you want.
Otherwise, your only option is to take him to court over the $1000 breach. Upon payment of the $1000, sign the title to him and then it will be HIS vehicle.
Heck, since you have to sue anyways, go ahead and ask for the $10 per day in your suit. I have seen some pretty strange (and improper) rulings in small claims courts.

Alabama small claims is $3000.... so you could get anything up to that amount...

Thanks for taking the time out to look at my information. I appreciate it very much. I'll update this thread once I get the wheels in motion.

Thanks again - Jess.