PSA: that "simple" handshake deal on a $6,800 trailer cost my cousin his truck and two months of headaches
My cousin Lou runs a small landscaping outfit out of Fort Wayne, and back in April he sold a used flatbed trailer to a guy he knew from the diner for $6,800. No bill of sale, no title transfer form, just cash and a handshake and a text that said "deal is done." Eight days later the buyer called saying the axle was cracked and wanted his money back plus repairs. Lou had nothing in writing about as-is condition, so he spent the next two months going back and forth with the guy's brother who claims to be a lawyer, and ended up paying $2,100 just to make it go away. The part that got me is the trailer was still titled in Lou's name the whole time, so if the buyer had gotten a ticket or had an accident, guess whose insurance would have been on the hook. He got lucky the guy was mostly honest. Has anyone here dealt with a similar sale where the paperwork never got signed, and what did you do to close it out clean?