Answer

You could sue for reformation based upon mutual mistake, i.e., both you and the seller believed that title was valid. As a consequence, you will suffer $X damages to obtain valid title, which would include the reasonable rental value for the lost use of the vehicle during the two months that you did not have the bike.

 

It's not clear to me why BMV needs the physical bike to verify title, but if it does, then there's no point arguing about it. The risk would be that the bike is discovered to be stolen, and if so, then you will lose the bike to the original owner -- at which point you would be able to sue the seller for misrepresentation and you would be entitled to damages in the amount of the value of the bike as it was originally sold to you, plus the costs of your repairs, which were made in reliance upon your belief that you were getting a bike that the seller owned.

 

So, you may want to consider allowing BMV to do it's thing and see how it all turns out before suing the seller -- because your suit could turn out to be quite different depending upon the result of the BMV title search.

 

 

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Edited by socrateaser on 5/12/2009 at 12:11 AM