Bored....Waiting for an appointment (that's now 40 minutes late) and decided to read this thread.
Funny stuff, some sad stuff, and a tractor... Sounds like the makings of a classic country song.
At any rate. A friend bought a boat 3 years ago. He bought it from another friend with much the same story as the tractor in this thread. (Divorce, owner financed, ect) 2 full years after the purchase, the new owner was summoned into court. Original owner was hiding assets in spite of claims to the contrary. New owner was accused of complicity. He had to spend almost the value of the boat in legal fees to defend himself, and THEN lost the boat (which was sold at auction to recover part of the "hidden assets"). It was then the second owners responsibility to sue first owner to recover any loss he might have incurred. And good luck with that....Original owner had just completed bankruptcy..... Much of the outcome had to do with specific state laws on the subject, which vary from state to state.
For whatever my opinion is worth, no matter how well I knew the seller, no matter how much I trusted his "legal opinion", and no matter how much I THOUGHT I knew about divorce laws, ect, I'd do a full discovery on the tractor before I handed ANYONE the first dime. If the friend is above board and honest, he won't have anything to hide, and therefore shouldn't mind your investigating.
Ex wives can be VERY vindictive. Enough so that they'll chop off an ex husbands FRIENDS at the knees just the same as the ex himself. (or so I've heard...)
Being extra careful seldom bites one in the arse.....
