In life, if you make a deal with anyone about anything, especially if that thing involves money, it’s a good idea to get it in writing.

In this story, one person decides to sell his old car to his cousin’s boyfriend. The problem is that the couple eventually break up, and the ex stops making the agreed upon car payments.

Instead of admitting what he’s doing, he makes excuses. This leads to drama in court and an unexpected ending.

Let’s read all about it.

Refuse to Pay the $600 You Owe Me? Guess What. Now You Owe Double!

As I transitioned out of the US Navy about three years ago, I decided to sell my beloved Saturn Vue, which was on the decline, and bought a much newer Rav4.

When I returned home, I now had my shiny new car and wanted to sell my old one to someone who I thought would take care of it (I’m sappy like that).

My cousin (C) was dating a guy who we will call Ex-Dude. I had met him before and he seemed chill, so I verbally agreed to sell him the car for $2000, half upfront, and payments when he could do so.

Here’s an important fact.

An important factoid for later is that when you transfer the title, you tell the state what your selling for and get taxed on that.

We were discussing telling the state that I was selling to him for less to lessen the tax.

I don’t remember why but last minute I decide to tell the notary the full price I was selling for.

Good thing I did. After a few months of sporadic payments and a really nasty breakup between C and ED (turns out he was a SERIOUS jerk), surprise surprise, the payments stopped.

He wants his money.

Now, I was hopping between my dad’s house (near C), my mom’s (8 hours away), and college (in between, and takes around 10 months out of the year).

He had missed months before so I wasn’t too concerned, but after three months I messaged him about the payments.

The conversation went basically as follows:

Me: Hey ED, sorry to hear about the breakup, how did you want to give the money to me now that C isn’t acting as a go between?

He made up an excuse.

ED: I paid the money. If C decided to take it for herself, that’s not my problem. The car is legally titled in my name so its your problem now. Delete my number, have a nice day.

Me: Er, ok? very dubious

Me: Hi Aunt and C, did ED give you the remaining 600?

A&C: Yeah, no.

OP was not willing to back off.

Me: Hi ED, me again, they said they didn’t receive it, how did you send it? I can track it down.

ED: I gave her 600. Its not my problem anymore. Don’t text me again.

Well alrighty then. Since he can get me for harassment for continuing to contact him, I decide for a little Malicious Compliance.

I take all the texts, get my A and C to agree to testify if needed, put together a list of his payments and dates, the car title receipt (which says how much it was sold for), and take his butt to the local district court.

It took awhile to finally serve him.

Now as I said, I was bouncing around a lot, which is why this took so long to be honest, but it took about a year for this step, in which a lot of research was done, and apparently a year was the low ball estimate on the statute of limitations anyway.

The biggest pain in the rear was making sure his address was up to date. He used his grandmother’s as a mailing address, and after he was served he moved again, likely trying to get rid of me lol.

I know when he was served because I received a message from him on the day he was. This conversation was as follows:

ED: Um, excuse me but I thought we settled this a year ago?

OP is not backing down.

Me: Well, sorry, but there is still 600 missing and you told me not to contact you so…

ED: I already told you I paid! I have to deal with 8k from my dui and 7k from my motorcycle accident. I can’t deal with this petty stuff. If you take me to court I’ll counter sue you for stress and garnish your wages for missing work!

At this point he’s trying to get me to tell him what I have on him that can prove he’s in trouble.

I tell him that he can find out in discovery.

The ex is way too confident.

He repeats that “he would be happy to pay if there was a discrepancy”. Witch, please. If that were true we wouldn’t be here now would we. Then he started ranting!

ED: You have nothing on me! it’s obvious you have no proof! Isn’t suspicious that C got a new car? Its obvious where the money went. I’m not concerned about going to court at all!! I was just trying to save you the time and money and blah blah blah….

Eventually I just give up talking to him and say that the court will handle it see you then. He made it clear that his “ace in the hole” was the fact we had a verbal agreement. “Show me our signed agreement. Huh, huh, where is it?”

Fun fact, verbal agreements ARE enforceable and C was there to witness it.

OP was a little surprised.

Now, he gets a month to respond to the summons (guilty, no guilty, ect) then a second date is set for the hearing, but if he doesn’t respond its default judgement.

Last day he shows up and AGREES THAT HE OWES THE MONEY and does not intend to fight it.

Awesome! The court enters judgment for the 600 plus all my filing fees!

I did get slightly confused when I got the news of default judgment because I thought he just didn’t show up, not that he didn’t contest it.

Uh, what?

At this point he gets another month to appeal.

The day after that date is past, I gleefully message him again:

Me: Hi ED, its been a month since the judgment and I haven’t heard from you, how did you want to proceed?

ED: Judgement was wrong. I’m fighting it in court. I never signed anything. That’s my defense and will see you in court!

He has to be lying.

Me: incredulous You didn’t show up, you didn’t respond to the letter which the court knows you received, and you didn’t appeal within the 30 days. (Remember, I thought he didn’t even show up)

ED: I did show up, and told her I was fighting, not my fault they processed it wrong. I lost a whole day of work, and will be suing for that too, plus whatever else I lose over this. My parole officer and I discussed it what you’ve been told is severally wrong.

I just stopped responding.

My next step was to file my judgment at the county court (make sure it gets signed after judgement by the judge! Learn from my mistake!), then file for a Writ of Execution.

The sheriff had to track him down.

Remember again that all these fees just gets added to the total amount he has to pay. Turns out that he moved sometime in all of this, so the sheriff just subpoenaed his address from the post office. Turns out he was living with his new girlfriend.

And finally, the conclusion!

Just last night, my dad says guess what? You got mail! It’s from the Sherriff!

It was a great surprise!

I’m like “Oh, oh! Gimme Gimme!” Now I was expecting something about that he was fighting the writ, they couldn’t find him, what my next step was, something. What I didn’t expect was two escrow checks for the FULL amount owed me.

I squealed in absolute delight.

I told my mom, my cousin, my aunt, and will gleefully have the checks cashed on Monday! Thanks ya’ll for reading!

Wow! Persistence pays off!

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

A lot of people must lie when they sell a used car.

This person doesn’t think there was anything pro about this revenge.

Why are people like this?

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who refuses to give up her own holiday traditions to spend the day with her family at her brother’s cabin.

Here’s a tip for the future.

It was only $600. The ex should’ve just paid the money he owed. Instead, he created so much drama.

I’m glad OP got his money, but it should’ve been so much easier.

Some people seem to enjoy creating drama.