Craigslist Deal Gone Wrong – How to Avoid Ending up in Court Like This Guy

It’s no secret that platforms like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace have been a host to unwanted drama when it comes to purchasing just about anything. It’s not necessarily the platform’s fault, obviously, but when you bring two strangers together, who knows what could ultimately end up happening or what secrets one of the parties might be holding back from the other? This is illustrated perfectly by one recent story that had a Craigslist transaction go south in a hurry.

In this particular case, the buyer thought everything was good to go when they bought a car and had the title signed over to them. However, when they tried to register the car in their name at the DMV, they were told that the title was invalid.

How could this be? They had the vehicle in their possession and all!

It turned out that a new title had been issued, making the older title that the buyer had in hand worthless.

The reason for this was that the car had been purchased from a woman who had already received a duplicate title. The buyer was not informed that the original title had been used to take out a loan, creating a problem when they tried to register the car. Of course, the lender wanted to be paid before releasing the title to the buyer.

This would lead to a sticky situation of figuring out who is responsible for paying off the loan against the title of the car.  Is the person who took the loan responsible entirely? Is the middleman on the hook for damages? Will the end buyer end up having to absorb the full amount?

In the video below, YouTube lawyer, Steve Lehto, analyzes the situation, attempting to untangle a complicated mess. Watch as he explains the series of missteps that led to this predicament.