rumba2006

Back in october i acquired a mini cooper rolling shell from a unit that used to be a garage that had closed down.
I had drove past a few times over the space of a few weeks and kept seeing it at the rear of the unit.
One afternoon i saw some guys working their clearing the unit out so i stopped and asked about it and was told the garage had closed down and that it had been left inside for ages as an unpaid job.

It had new sills welded on it by the garage and was never paid for by the owner so was left in the corner of the unit for ages and that the
exgarage owner didnt want it when they left the unit and that it was going to be scrapped by the unit owner so i said i would buy it of him if he wanted to get rid of it for cheap money and he said if i picked it up i could have it for nothing just to be rid ov it. so i got a friend to help me tow it away from their that was back in october.

well tonite while i'm at work theirs a knock knock on my dads front door and its the police with some lad and he has said that the car is his and it has been stolen from about roughly ten miles away from me about a month ago [which is bollocks]and he says he had seen it while driving past my house so had got the police and come knocking to see if its his.
he had the log book with him and it turns out its the same car so the police have said that it's his car and that their going to come and remove it from my drive and that i cannot touch it or it's an offence and i will be arrested for it.

the thing is i have bought loads of stuff for it from breakers yards around my area like all the chrome front and back lights grill bumpers and so on and another loom and windows because it had nothing in it when i got it i have twin tanked it and bought 13x7 superlites for it which are on it at the mo.

I am going to phone the police tomorrow and tell them my side of the story and see what rights i have about it i have no logbook and no receipt for it or any of the parts i have bought for it.

I need to know where i stand with it and has anyone had a similar experience and what did they do about it.

my m8 says that it becomes the garage property if the owner never paid for it and that the lad has no right to it anymore plus he has lied to the police saying it had been stolen a month ago.
I need to find the ex garage owner if i can and get him to tell the police about it.

rscossie:rob

That is a real tricky one! If it was me I would say that you bought the car from the garage where the work was done and you paid £x to cover the cost of the work that was done. Therefore, if he wants it back, he has to pay £x.

I remember studying about this and if I remember rightly, I think the original owner will still own the car whereas the garage owner will still own the parts on it that haven't been paid for. Therefore, when the car was passed to you, you therefore own the bits that the lad who says he owns it hasn't paid for.

Does that make sense???

89xr2

Take your bits off and stick the old stuff on it. job done

rscossie:rob

And just coz he has the logbook, doesn't mean he owns it. Make sure you have a look at the logbook to see when he 'acquired the vehicle.'

antony215

Thats what id do fuck what the old bill say if you've paid out for all the bit's take them back off.

rscossie:rob

Yeah, they can't tell you not to touch it. There's no offence in taking from the vehicle what is yours.

NUTS RuS

iTrader: (35)

If its been subject to an insurance payout (if he claimed re the theft) I dont think he owns it any more.

jammy86

Torch it

nah, I'd look into this chaps log book and make sure that he can prove its all in his name. Also did he file a report at the time it was stolen?

Good luck

JAmes.

rumba2006

so in the eye's of the law i only own the inner and outer sills lol will have to cut them back off then

Will do

i have been out bitsing it tonite fuck em init the parts alone wheels included have cost me £480 no fukin way is he getting them..


I dunno will find out tomorrow cheers james

b_kennedy

fair play mate [/quote]

dojj

iTrader: (3)

before you start shopping it up again, make sure that it's be clasified as stolen, if it's been paid out for it's not his but the insurance companies
then when you tell them that the garage owner kept it bceause the guy couldn'tr pay the cost of having it repaired and you "bought" it from him they'll do him for fraud too

a quick hpi will sort it out no problems (assuming he's reported it in the first place) and just because he's got the log book doesn't mean he owns the car

it may be a nice car now you've sorted it, but park it up behind a brick wall in case he decides to come back for it

cossie4i+

iTrader: (15)

Im sure it becomes the property of the garage if he does not pay his bill after 6 months.

I hope you sort this because its sh1t.

Get the point over about getting it from the garage in october, so it was not stolen last month.

Steve.

escort mk6

id try and contact the garage owner, speak to whoevers takern over the unit to find out ?
ask if he can put it in writing that the job was done on such a date... and that it wasnt paid for?

JayKay

Which, even though the garage has now closed down, the owner should technically still have hold of the invoice for the job and the accounts etc to prove that the work was never paid for

Turbocabbie

You have no reciept for the purchase (why)... did you pay by methods that can be traced such as cheque as this may help ?
You have no reciept for the parts
You have no documents related to the transfer of vehicle ownership.

I fail to see how you can back up your claims as you have nothing related to vehicle ownership or purchase.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

i could do you for stealing my car thats in your sig!!

but i wont lol

take all your bits off, then cut the fucking thing in half!! minis are shit anyway so you will only be doing everyone a favour

arch

Did the police serve a form on you at all?

ricky_3dr

Track the owner and give him his car back, just because he didn't pay the garage there is no reason why you should steal his car
Why do people think that they can help themseves to other peoples property and think it's perfectly ok

With regards to the garage owning it because the bill was unpaid is untrue although if the value of the work exceeds or is close to the value of the car then the garage can sell it to recover there loss but if the value of the car far exceeds the value of the repair then the garage has no claim on it at all

phil4x4saph

I'm not 100% sure of the law, but I do believe that if a car (or anything else for that matter) is uncollected and paid for within 6 months, then the business can take reasonable steps to recoupe the costs.

In reality, a garage can legally charge storage fees for vehicles not collected on time. So the garage owner can simply up the storage charges till it outweighs the value of the car.

I know of a few cars aquired that way.

I think the question really relates to whether or not the bloke who called the law really owns it.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

one mini shell
rotten as something rotten
welded up
possibly properly
owner then can't pay
garage keeps it
owner still doesn't pay
garage flogs it
how does this make it anyone other than the owners fault?
if he says he's had it nicked then he's also cmminting insurance fraud, and they really like to give it to you big time if they see that on your recrods