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Old classic cars gathered together in a shed
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“I purchased the property in 2012. Three classic car bodies were left in the barn on the property. There was nothing in writing stating I would store the cars for them, but there was a handshake agreement that I would hang onto them for a few years so they could come and get them when they had the funds.”
This property owner, going by the name billardschultz shared their experience with this online community. Detailing the situation in a post to the legal advice subreddit community. They explained the initial agreement when they purchased the property 14 years ago in 2012 and how everything unfolded.
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An old truck parked out back in a shed.
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The barn subsequently burned in January of 2018. The cars suffered fire damage. Fast forward to 2020. The son of the guy who sold me the property messaged me to inquire about the cars. I told him I was going to finish cleaning up what was left of the barn that spring/summer, and I would get rid of them if they were still there.
The cars were burned and damaged in 2018.
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A close-up of an old yellow, rusted classic car body.
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"Never heard another word, so I sold them for a whopping $600 in May of 2020. The son got word that the cars were gone. He wanted to know who bought them. I refused to divulge that information. I thought that was the end of it. Fast forward to 2026, and I received a civil complaint stating that I was being sued for the value of the three cars. $24,000. Does he have any case whatsoever?"
After the son of the previous owner didn't come to pick the cars up, they were sold in 2020. That was the end of it until now, when they received advice of a civil suit.
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Buying property from someone else is always a strange experience. I've heard it said, and you've probably seen something to this effect elsewhere online, that doing repairs on a house you've just purchased is like doing battle with the previous owners. Two forces engaged in a push-and-pull force battle through time… A constant Hansel and Gretel trail of breadcrumbs taking you to increasingly bizarre DIY hacks and bodges that were "good enough" for someone 30 years ago. But now, you can't just fix the problem… now you also have to unpuzzle their "fix" first, delving into their mind to figure out just what in the heck they were trying to accomplish, and how it all ties back to what was originally there in the first place.
In the days before the internet, people were either taught these things in the time we all spent doomscrolling in our teens and 20s, or they just didn't learn them at all. If they were never taught how to do said task, I imagine, and those who were around correct me if I'm wrong, they just used whatever relative practical knowledge they had been taught and tried to give it their best attempt.
Is that how we used to do things before ChatGPT? Who among us can remember with our fractured attention spans and melted minds?
For these fixes from the before times, chances are you're never going to figure it out. Whatever knowledge was being misapplied has been lost to time, and no algorithm is going to uncover it.
But for more recent fixes, where someone was clearly making their first attempt at whatever skill or task they were undertaking, and you can almost see the steps of the YouTube video they were poorly following.
Or, if you bought your house from a "wannabe house flipper" Zoomer or misguided aging Millennial like myself trying to keep up with the times, there's a good chance that you'll see the suggestion for whatever dangerous build or fix was attempted suggested as the first response on ChatGPT.
Anyways this one was a strange situation, and they did get some helpful advice from readers, which you can see below.
You can't help but wonder how it turns out.
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"I am a lawyer, but not in Minnesota. There might be a statute of limitations issue here for the former property owner’s son, which is 6 years in your state.
Without knowing more, there could be a privity issue because the son was not a party to the original contract between yourself and the original property owner (unless the original property owner passed away and the son is the executor of the estate).
These issues (and your case) are ones best discussed with an attorney licensed in your state."
-TurgidOinker
"Not A Lawyer [NAL], but dealt with [a] similar issue in MN.
Look and see if the father [passed away].
Look at [the] closing documents. Usually, the language will state something about anything left on the property at [the] time of closing is yours."
-TrickyCow1992
“Counter sue [for the] exact amount for storage.”
-frankmeier1000
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