On Thursday, September 26, 2013 11:35:42 PM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Thu, 26 Sep 2013 23:56:06 +0000 (UTC), Alex Gunderson

wrote:



I realize this is a legal question but has anyone here had this happen.

Any advice?



1. Bought a house, as is, in 2010, which came with a 1,000 gallon propane tank attached.

2. Entered into agreement with fuel company "1" for fuel in 2010.

3. No tank rental is paid to fuel company 1 because it's not their tank

4. Recently a workman (inspecting the tank because of a new BBQ) mentioned that company 2 owns the tank

5. Company 2 was recently bought by company 1.



Nothing more has happened, but, who owns that tank?



I feel "I" own it by virtue of multiple circumstances (but I'm not a lawyer!):

a. I bought the house and everything attached to it

b. I never signed an agreement with company 2

c. Company 2 abandoned that tank long ago (IMHO)



I suspect, if company 1 wants to assert ownership of that tank, they could say:

A. Company 2 originally owned the tank

B. Company 2 still owns that tank

C. Therefore, company 1 (who owns company 2) owns that tank.



Have you ever been in this situation?

What advice do you have for me?



TIA



You can be pretty sure that you don't own it. From the scenario you

describe, probably No 1 owns it since they bought #2.



Your opinion does not matter. You cannot prove it was abandoned

I doubt an abandonment claim would work too, but without knowing
the state laws on the subject, who knows. If it meets the terms
of the law, I don't think it would be hard to prove. The fact
that it's been sitting there, out in the open for X years and
the company who owns it has done nothing, is obvious. But the
specifics of the law are what will count.






and

unless you have a bill of sale that the previous owner of the house

owned the tank, you did not buy it.

That's not true either. If the former owner owned the tank,
then he owns it now, whether he has a bill of sale or not.
It would be easier to prove that he owns it with such a
document, but the lack thereof doesn't change who does or
doesn't own it.





On top of all that, propane

companies are notoriously sleazy when it comes to filling tanks if it

is not their tank. Some state laws may possibly come into play too,

at least they do here in CT. If a propane company does not own the

tank they are not allowed to fill it.

Apparently they questioned him as to who owned the tank and
he filled out an affidavit stating that he owned it.