Tips on Buying Cars: Purchased vehicle from private party, private seller, bill of sale

Question
I have already purchased a vehicle from an individual. We have signed and notarized copies of bill of sale doc, title transfer, etc. My problem is the vehicle had a lien(chrysler is lender) and I wrote the cashiers check out to the seller. How can I verify that the proceeds from the sale where applied to the loan. I know...dumb, dumb, dumb!

Answer
Don,

Thanks for your question.  Yeah, probably not the smartest situation to get your self into, but lets see what we can do to walk you thru what needs to be done now.  First thing is first, you need to call Chrysler, and explain that you purchased a vehicle from a private seller and give them the VIN to see if the loan has been paid in full.  They won't be able to give you much more information than that, but they will be very interested in knowing if the vehicle is sold.  Call the person that you bought the vehicle from and kindly ask how paying off the loan is going.  It is a felony to sell a vehicle with a lien on it without closing the lien.  If it gets that far, then you need to get law enforcement involved, but most likely you won't have to.  Just make sure that you don't get yourself in this situation again.

Hope it all works out.  If you have any other issues while going thru this, don't hesitate to send me another question, as I will walk you thru every thing step by step.

Thanks - JB