On Friday, September 27, 2013 3:24:01 PM UTC-4, Alex Gunderson wrote:
On Fri, 27 Sep 2013 10:07:26 -0400, Stormin Mormon wrote:



Thanks, good attention to detail.



Well, bear in mind that the cost for the tank is less than

the cost to fill the tank just once, so, it's not so odd

that I'm trying to scope out my options.



I'm pretty convinced, by now, that the tank was not bought

by me - but - I'm not sure whether the original owner has

forfeited his rights to the tank, by sheer length of

abandonment laws.



I'm kind of stumped at this point, because I called the

county planning office who said they knew of no registration

of propane tank serial numbers with them.



So, I'm actually back to the original question of who owns

the tank - only the details have changed.



Either I own the tank because the original owner abandoned it;

or, the original owner owns the tank because they originally

owned that tank.



I guess I should move that question to a legal group?


Let's recap. You bought the property with a propane tank
attached to it. The sales contract says nothing about who
owns the tank. You believed at the time that you bought
it with the house. You called up the low cost propane
supplier and prior to starting filling service, they came out, inspected the tank, and asked you who owned it. You told
them you did and signed an affidavit to that effect. That
is what you believed at the time.

Now let's pause for a moment. The company actually inspected
the tank prior to filling it the first time. They didn't say
it was another company's tank. Also, the tank apparently has
no company name on it, which some other folks here I believe
have said is unusual for a leased tank. I would think so too.

A few years go by. Some tech from the gas company one day
tells you that he thinks it's owned by company X, which
apparently was the supplier to the previous owner? That
company has now been bought by your current supplier.
So, if the tank was company X's, it's now the property of
your current supplier. The big assumption here is that
the tech is right. He could just be talking out his ass.
And how does
he now know it belonged to company X, when previously the
gas company inspected it, asked who owned it, and didn't have
a problem when you said you did? Was this tech there some
time after the company was bought out? If so, then maybe he
referenced a database of serial #'s that now includes company X's
tanks, so now it's listed as that company's tank.

But at the end of the day, why do you care? You have a free
tank and you've done nothing wrong. If some day your company
claims they own the tank, so what? Your position is that
you believed it was the property of the owner at the time
of sale. That is the truth. If they have a claim for back
rental fees, as I see it, it's against the FORMER OWNER.
He presumably signed the lease agreement for the tank, not
you. You tell the gas company that and to go after him.
Even if they go after you, so what? There is a statute of
limitations for bringing such a claim. I just checked and
for CA for a debt claim, it's 4 years. So, the most they
could get is $120 a year times four years, $480. Less if
the lease rates were lower in those years.

So, BFD, they may have a claim against the
former owner for $480. If they persist in trying to collect
from you, offer them $300 to BUY the tank at that point.
Or let them take you to court over $480. I doubt they
would do it, and IMO, it's unlikely they would win. Even
if they take the previous owner to court, who IMO, is
more likely responsible, I don't think they would collect
more than $100 or so. Why? Because they could have come
at any time to pick up the tank after he stopped paying
for it. They didn't do that. So maybe a court would
give them 6 months worth of rental fees. And
the previous owner is likely going to claim he called them up
to terminate service, told them the house was sold, etc
and he's probably got an excellent case that it's THEIR
screw up, not his. The former owner would have to have
been pretty dumb to not tell them he's done with their
service, because you would be running up a bill in his
name.

In short, I think you're hell bent on spending $1500 or
more to buy a new tank, when you have no real problem at
this point. And at most, you have a POTENTIAL, small
problem in the future. What's better? Starting a whole
mess and paying $1500 - $2000 for a new tank today or
taking the chance that someday you might have to pay
$500? More likely if they haven't caught it or done
anything by now, you'll pay zero.