Question

Donald bought a car from Robert and used it for four months before discovering that it had been stolen. Donald then had to hand over the car to the true owner. Advise Donald whether he could recover the full amount he had paid from Robert even though he had used the car for four months.

Answer 1

Donald bought a car from Robert and used it for four months before discovering that it had been stolen. Donald then had to hand over the car to the true owner. Advise Donald whether he could recover the full amount he had paid from Robert even though he had used the car for four months

There are scenarios one should think of

1) While Donald was buying a car from Robert, while the deal was getting fixed, it was imperative for him to check    for all the legal documents of a Car purchase,

Below are the checkpoints one should make sure, while purchasing a second hand car

1. Registration Certificate
2. Car Insurance Papers
3. Get the car's 'Original Purchase Invoice' from the Pre-owned cars dealer or from the auto company.
4. Road Tax Receipt – The owner of the car should have paid the Road tax when registering the vehicle. Even after checking the above documents if Donald could not make out that Robert is not authentic Owner of the car this means the documents were forged, so Donald has all the rights to sue Robert legally and recover the full amount he spent to buy the car even if he used it for four months.

2) In the second scenario, if Donald ignored the documentation part, there is no legality to his ownership of the car and he will be obliged to bear the losses incurred and may have to suffer the further challenges to prove his innocence for not being responsible for the theft.