Pennsylvania Agreement Of Sale Explained: Fill & Download for Free

My elderly father had just called me in Florida to say he found a "cherry," one-year-old, low mileage minivan at a great price sitting on his trusted local dealership's lot. He was helping to rebuild an old theater organ and needed something bigger to haul his tools and all the other stuff. I used my POA to have a check cut from his home equity credit line. His "new" van was paid in full and good to go. Or so I thought.A few days later he offhandedly remarked there had been a glitch in the van's title work, or something, when he went to pick it up. He said the apologetic and very nice F&I guy explained the changes and assured him fixing the problem was no big deal. It should have been a red flag, but dad was happy. And I was busy with the new job and the new house. I let it slide.His heart gave out about two months later. When I returned home to Pennsylvania for his funeral and to begin settling his estate, I spotted a thick manila folder on the kitchen counter where dad likely figured his only child would find it when the time inevitably came.The folder contained a bunch of stuff, including the minivan paperwork. I flipped through the pages and discovered there were two sales contracts. For two different minivans. The first was for the low mileage, year-old van that matched the vehicle he'd described over the phone. It indicated paid in full.The second contract, stashed in the back of the folder, was for a much older, much higher mileage model that was seemingly identical in appearance - and identical in price - to the year-old van he described over the phone. It came with a 48-month, high interest finance agreement. I pulled the VIN from the van parked outside in the garage. It matched the number found on the paperwork for the older, high mileage, dealer-financed budget lot car. What, I wondered, had dad done this time?The lady at the bank was also confused. She confirmed the home equity check had, in fact, cleared. The dealership had been paid. The bank also confirmed dad's credit report showed he'd taken out a mysterious used car loan around the same time and in the same amount as the bank transfer. What, she also wondered, had my dad done this time?Dad's vision had remained fairly sharp over the years. He was a retired airline/corporate pilot and, like most pilots, good eyesight was something he prided. But he sometimes needed help with the small print. And he shunned reading glasses.It's likely he never really looked at the "revised" paperwork the dealership's F&I guy handed him that day. And it's equally likely that's what the F&I guy was counting on. They took his full price check, got him to sign a redundant loan at terms that would make a street shark blush, and then sent him off in a different and much cheaper car than the one he thought he was buying.Dad, clearly, had been scammed. A bait-and-switch. With a twist. A widower - my mom had lost her battle with cancer two years earlier - he lived alone. He had no local family. Maybe, for all they knew, he had no family at all. And he had money, credit and a tendency to trust people. He looked like the perfect "mark."The dealership, figuring the old man would never notice, had apparently grabbed a nearly identical van from the "buy here, pay here" lot and switched it with the creampuff dad thought he was buying. They also conned him into signing loan papers on a car he'd already paid for. I figured dad had put those papers on the counter because he likely suspected, but didn't want to admit, he might have been had. And now, I reckoned, he was counting on me to find out. And make it right.According to the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, financial abuse is the third most frequent crime against the commonwealth's elderly. Thirty percent of elder abuse cases involve some type of financial exploitation. Like my dad. But very few of these victims likely had a kid with years of experience investigating and reporting on consumer fraud. One whose employer bought ink in 55 gallon drums. One with a direct line, on speed dial, to the attorney general's office. And, of course, the local media.The F&I guy, recently imported by the dealership's new absentee corporate ownership, kept me waiting nearly 45 minutes. He was busy, he grunted. What did I need? He kept calling me "pal." I tossed the folder on his desk. It was like I'd just plopped a turd on his stack of extended warranties. He gave it a quick glance and pushed it aside. "Can't help 'ya," he smirked. But I could tell. He knew. The eye twitch gave him away. "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave, pal."The civil complaint drafted by my dad's lawyer on behalf of his estate crossed the court clerk's desk two days later. The guy was a carnivore. He was also a long-time friend. He'd come to know, and like, my dad. And he was outraged. The filing was brutal. It went for the throat. It was also a piece of art. Theft, fraud, conversion, elder abuse. Plus some stuff I think he made up. All attached to a mountain of exhibits, including a newspaper ad for the budget lot van my dad was tricked into "buying." The dealership was left with nowhere to hide."Somebody" must have tipped the reporters at my old newspaper. The piece ran page one, above the fold. The TV talking heads also got the story. Funny how that tends to happen when you have a bunch of friends in the business. The resulting coverage was a PR disaster for the dealership. Similar switcheroos began surfacing.The "can't help ya, pal" F&I guy was suddenly nowhere to be found. And the corporate suits were now clamoring to settle. Money back? You got it. Tear up the loan papers? Done. And you can keep the van. Consider it a gift. The AG's office provided the nail in the coffin. And the perp walk. The place is now a bowling alley. Or something.This kind of overt fraud is, of course, rare. It's a needless risk when there's easy money to be made on floor mats, pin striping, extended warranties, VIN etching, undercoating and dealer fees. It’s a far more subtle, and far less messy, form of fraud. And, of course, it comes with a seemingly endless supply of suckers.What is the strangest scam a car dealership ever tried to pull on you? Ask that F&I guy. He should be available for questions in a few years.

I completely disagree that this guy is up a creek without a paddle.Non-Compete Agreements are not all that enforceable -- ESPECIALLY when they're a condition to CONTINUED employment. And in most states, if not all of them, this one is ridiculous.Let's look at a recent "noncompete agreement" lawsuit: The Ohio case of Ed Bryan v. Hall Chemical Company.Ed worked as a chemist in research and sales at Hall Chemical. He did well, moving up the ladder all the way to VP Sales for North America.Two weeks after his promotion, Bryan signed Hall Chemical's standard noncompete and nondisclosure agreement. It restricted his work during and after he was employeed at Hall Chemical.Things went downhill after that for Ed and he was formally demoted 5 years later to the position of VP-Southern Sales. His new job required that he live in Marietta, Georgia.A few months later, Ed quit. He took a job with a competitor.Hall Chemical was not going to put up with this. After all, a deal is a deal, right? They swiftly invoked the non-compete agreement and their lawyers threatened Ed and his new employer, to warn them that Hall Chem planned to enforce its non-compete agreement.On the basis of this threatening letter, Ed lost his new job two weeks later, all because Hall Chemical threatened to enforce its agreement. Just like that.So Ed sued Hall Chemical.See? This is not so simple. Contract law is subject to a lot of rules and regulations. Violate those rules and you have an unenforceable contract.Here, the two sides fought over which state they were going to litigate in. Ed wanted to litigate in Georgia, where he lived. Hall Chemical wanted to litigate in Ohio, where they were based. Said the judge:Under Georgia law, employee restriction contracts such as the one at issue are subject to great scrutiny and probably unenforceable.See that? "...probably unenforceable" in Georgia! This is not so simple!The judge said that because in 2011, Georgia passed a law that stopped companies from forcing noncompetes down the throats of all their employees -- janitors, receptionists, cashiers.Under the new law, noncompetes could only be enforced against certain employees: workers who solicit customers, who work in sales, who work in management, who manage at least two employees AND who have authority to hire and fire -- or are "key employees" or "professionals".That totally let the janitors, receptionists, and cashiers off the hook. Not to mention all the secretaries, security workers, pencil sharpeners and paper pushers at the bottom of the corporate ladders. I'll bet they even included lawnmowing landscapers on that list.No wonder Ed wanted to sue in Georgia.But ... Ed's case ended up in Ohio.Not so awful, it turned out. The Ohio judge didn't like the noncompete Ed signed, either:The agreement is "exceptionally broad" in restricting Bryan in his field. Under the agreement, Bryan cannot "become employed by ... any person, firm or corporation engaged in the manufacture and/or sale of any [product remotely competitive with Hall]." ... Bryan "would be virtually unemployable in the industry in which he has spent most of his life" if this broad provision is enforced.Bottom line: Every state is different.Courts in Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, Michigan and North Carolina don't approve of non-compete agreements. But California has strict laws that virtually abolish them.Employer-friendly Colorado, Delaware and N.J. recognize noncompetes for employees who sign them after they are hired.Most states throw out noncompetes that are signed after an employee was already working there.You, for instance.Such is the case in Pennsylvania. There, your boss has to pay you to sign this agreement -- a bonus, a raise, something you can spend, as the judge explained in Maintenance Specialties, Inc. v Gottus, 455 Pa. 327, 314 A.2d 279, on page 280.My initial reaction to the premise that a laborer is not allowed to quit and work for someone else to make more money because he signed a noncompete agreement is: You must be joking.I rather like Eric Gookin's solution: Talk to your labor department, which can probably tell you the policy for these noncompetes in your state without getting too personal, gratis. The best things in life are free. Learn the law. Know your rights. And don't blink 'til you see the whites of their eyes.

Typically, yes, by filing a petition with the court for a Forced Sale. There are a number of different forms of ownership, some of which treat the whole property as one thing, others of which treat each owner's interest separately. If you own property as Tenants in Common, you can sell your interest in the property to someone else without the permission of the other owner(s), absent a separate agreement between you prohibiting such a sale. If you want to sell the whole property and the other owners disagree, you can go to court to petition for a sale. Here is a brief discussion on ownership, from The Pennsylvania Law Monitor, and see the article above from Wikipedia on forced sales.Real Estate Tenancies ExplainedThere are three principal types of tenancies related to the ownership of real estate. Perhaps the most popular, and most familiar, is the joint tenancy. If two persons own a property as joint tenants, upon one person’s death, the other person automatically owns all of the interest in the property. There is no limit on the number of persons that can hold property as joint tenants. If a husband and wife own a property together and add their child to the deed, each will own a one-third interest in the property. Upon one of their deaths, the two surviving persons will each own a one-half interest in the property.In the event that a joint tenancy owner is sued, and a judgment is entered against that owner, the owner’s interest in the property is subject to attachment by the creditor. In addition, any co-owners can bring an action to divide the interest in the property, and attempt to force the other owners to sell their interest.A tenancy in common is where each owner of the property has an undivided interest in the whole of the property. However, upon the death of any owner, his or her share will pass to his or her decedents by will or by intestacy. Unlike a joint tenancy where each owner owns an equal portion of the property, tenancies in common do not require equal ownership. For example, in a tenancy in common, there could be three owners with one owing 50%, one owning 30% and one owning 20%.A form of ownership allowed in many states is the tenancy by the entirety. In this type of ownership, only a husband and wife may own the property. The advantage of a tenancy by the entirety is that, in the event that either the husband or wife is sued (individually), a creditor may not take action against the property while it is held jointly by the husband and wife. In addition, neither the husband nor the wife may divide the ownership by deeding his or her interest to another person. Further, in order for a mortgage to be placed on the property, both the husband and wife must sign the loan documentation.In some states, if there is no tenancy stated, there is a presumption that the owners are tenants in common, and if one person dies, then his or her interest in the property will need to be probated, even if the decedent desired for the property to pass to the surviving co-owner (including the spouse).As you can see from the above, tenancy should not be taken lightly. We recommend a careful review of all property deeds on a regular basis to ensure that the properties are properly held in accordance with your desires.