united-states contract-law consumer-protection colorado motor-vehicle
We sold a salvage car as-is. The buyer can&#39;t get it Titled. Do we have to fix it?
<p>We recently sold a car that we weren't aware there was a salvage title on. The money has already been exchanged and the title signed over to them. The buyers, discovering its salvage status, are now having issues getting it titled in their name, and want us to get involved.</p>

<p>To pass inspection with the sheriff's office it needs to have an air bag light (undiagnosed) fixed, and the buyers want us to pay for it. The light was on, prior to purchase, but they didn't ask about it, or ask us to do anything about it then. </p>

<p>We accepted $900 lower than our asking price of $2600, informally agreeing the buyers could expect to have to do some general repairs as the car is 20 years old. The air bag light was never mentioned in negotiations.</p>

<p>All parties in Colorado, USA.</p>

<p>Note: the Bill of Sale states “as-is”.</p>

<p>Update: The buyers have now abandoned the car outside our house, but are not returning our calls.</p>

<p>Update and Close: The buyers took us to small claims court, and we won, based partially on "as is", and partially because the judge believed we had no way of knowing it was salvage. He seemed unclear on whether only <strong>one</strong> of those elements would have been enough, so I'm not sure how helpful this is as a precedent, though.</p>

<p>Colorado statute <a href="https://advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&amp;crid=6c0125dc-5935-47f8-b48e-7ae327def573&amp;config=014FJAAyNGJkY2Y4Zi1mNjgyLTRkN2YtYmE4OS03NTYzNzYzOTg0OGEKAFBvZENhdGFsb2d592qv2Kywlf8caKqYROP5&amp;pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fstatutes-legislation%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5X45-0DC1-F8D9-M01V-00008-00&amp;pddocid=urn%3AcontentItem%3A5X45-0DC1-F8D9-M01V-00008-00&amp;pdcontentcomponentid=234176&amp;pdteaserkey=sr5&amp;pditab=allpods&amp;ecomp=h567kkk&amp;earg=sr5&amp;prid=83286025-81e9-4dae-a70f-de6c074b1f08" rel="nofollow noreferrer">42-6-206</a> imposes disclosure requirements on the sale of vehicles with salvage titles.  That you didn't know it was a salvage does not seem to be of concern to this particular statute.  This means that you are potentially entitled to redress against the people who sold <em>you</em> the car as well, provided the sale occurred in Colorado and they failed to disclose it to you (i.e., you didn't just forget about it in the intervening years).  </p>

<p>Given the presence of a law specifically covering your circumstances, it may be worth consulting with a local attorney to see what your obligations are.  There may be mitigating circumstances, but they are not currently obvious to me if they're there.  (conventional wisdom in the industry is that all private sales are "as-is" with no implied warranty of merchantibility and no recourse for a buyer who doesn't do due diligence -- I was shocked to find a statute specifically protecting buyers of salvage vehicles)</p>
