CALGARY – When you buy a used car privately it’s wise to check for liens but no one expects a lien to be filed half-a-year after you own it.
Caba Gordos is trying to sell his son’s Jeep Wrangler but it’s parked in the driveway tied up in legal paperwork.
The Jeep was bought at an auction two and a half years ago but last month when he tried to sell it the buyer discovered a lien on it.
Gordos has papers showing the car was free of liens when his son bought it but discovered a claim was filed against the car’s former owner for some money and the Jeep was listed as his property.
“It looks like we bought the car in March 2013 and the legal action was started in June of 2013 and they (the court) issued a writ of enforcement in December 2013. So it’s quite a few months after we owned the vehicle”, said Gordos.
He said they didn’t know about it until now and were told they had to go to court to remove the lien.
Lawyer Murray Harris isn’t involved in the case but says it appears the legal claim was missed because it’s filed with the personal property registry and not with the motor vehicle registry. He said someone didn’t check to see the car had already been sold.
“The party that was putting the lien on the vehicle obviously didn’t know it had been changed over otherwise they would have had to give notice to the new owner” said Harris.
“I think checking the personal property registry is a very good idea because you can enter into an agreement to buy a vehicle and have no idea what other people have registered interests against it.”
Global news has since contacted the law firm which filed the claim and pointed out the mistake. They agreed to withdraw the legal claim.
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