Bought a business, legal question

**John_K31** · 06-11-2010 11:22 PM

Hi everyone Im new to the forums. I live in California and recently bought a small convenience store. I've owned the place for about a month now, and when I purchased it, the seller and I went to our state board of equalization and transferred the seller's permit under my name, and we filled out paperwork there and at the county clerk for ficticious business name.

Well recently I went to my state board for questions on my first quarterly tax and I asked to make sure everything with them was ok. They told me they were missing a Bill Of Sale paper. Sounds weird to me because we made one the same day I bought the place at the state board and gave it to them. Now no one has a copy, the seller and I didn't keep copies for ourselves. I feel really nervous about all this because without a bill of sale isn't the business still considered "unsold" and still his? The only thing I have now is the seller's permit and my state board wants a bill of sale because they lost theirs and the seller is trying to dodge me for making a new one.

Any opinions?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section, didn't know if I should have posted here or the legal section.

**rogercbryan** · 06-12-2010 10:29 AM

I may be a little naive here but can't you just type up a new one and give it the state board? If the seller is cooperative this really doesn't seem like much of a problem. Also, if you are collecting the money and the deposits are going into your account then you would have control of the business which is the most important element to your security.

I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice

**Parvaze** · 06-12-2010 10:37 AM

I'm confused, didn't you and the seller document that you were buying the business and what the terms of the transaction were?

**rogercbryan** · 06-12-2010 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by Parvaze

I'm confused, didn't you and the seller document that you were buying the business and what the terms of the transaction were?

I think he said that they did... it sounds like the state board may have lost the paperwork. I had this happen to me with my last condo. I bought it in 2008.. my title company filed all the paperwork and gave me copies. When I sold the place in April of this year I wasn't the registered owner. It caused a lot of problems and almost scared off my buyer. You can't trust government run organizations... They always F-Stuff up.

**John_K31** · 06-12-2010 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

I may be a little naive here but can't you just type up a new one and give it the state board? If the seller is cooperative this really doesn't seem like much of a problem. Also, if you are collecting the money and the deposits are going into your account then you would have control of the business which is the most important element to your security.

I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice

I would but the seller is not cooperative and keeps telling me it's not a big deal as long as I have my seller's permit.

Originally Posted by Parvaze

I'm confused, didn't you and the seller document that you were buying the business and what the terms of the transaction were?

we wrote up a bill of sale at the state board and handed it to them, neither of us kept a copy.

**rogercbryan** · 06-12-2010 07:57 PM

If the seller is not cooperative I would say you need to call a lawyer. Buying a business is a very formal procedure in many cases. This entire transaction seems strange to me. I don't understand how there is no contract outlining the details of the deal. Buying a business is not like buying a car... a bill of sale just doesn't cut it to begin with... very strange