Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

I have taken over payments on a motorcycle for 4ys on a 6 yr loan after my boyfriend sold the bike to me for the balance owing. He is now in jail and additionally the IRS has placed a tax lien on him (unrelated to his jail sentence). The bike will be paid off in 2 months and the title will be mailed to my home where we both lived. I do have a unsworn declaration on his behalf and will be getting the bike titled in my name hopefully. If the IRS has placed a lien on the bike title prohibiting me a clear title, what recourse do I have to prove ownership after making the majority of the payments and the fact he did sell me the bike? Is this even possible? Thank you!


Asked on 4/28/12, 3:28 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

What good is the unsworn declaration? As between you and your boyfriend, it might be valid, but I don't know if its going to hold up as against the IRS, although I have not seen this document and cannot comment on it.

You did not handle this correctly. What you should have done is you and the boyfriend needed to talk to his lender to see if they wished to deal with you and title the bike in your name. Or you could have gotten your own lender; the new lender would pay off the bike and the 2 lenders would have arranged transfer of title in your name with a lien recorded by the new lender. You would then have paid the new lender.

Instead, you drew up something of questionable validity. Do you have a bill of sale? While the title may be mailed to your home, is it going to be in your name? If not, its not going to do much good unless you were going to mail it to your boyfriend and have him sign and get it notarized and mail it back to you so it could be re-recorded.

The issue is going to be does the IRS already have a lien recorded? If not, hope that you can get the title transferred to your name. If there is already a lien on the bike, you and your boyfriend are going to have to deal with the IRS. I don't think they are simply going to release the lien based on what you have. However, your boyfriend has even bigger problems to worry about.

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Answered on 4/29/12, 10:49 pm


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