Car Garage storage charge

Legacy_user

Hi

I hope this is the right place for this? My friend crashed his car 3 weeks ago and it was towed away by the garage. He only had 3rd party fire and theft and the car is a write off. The garage has just phoned him and said that he owes £420 for a £20 a day storage charge. This is mounting by the day and the car is a total write off. My friend claims they never told him this and he is a bit angry about it. I was wondering if anyone knew what his options were? He is tempted to just ignore them and leave the car there but I am sure there are legal reasons why he can't do that! Does anyone have any idea what he should do? I've suggested he just pays it as i think its his own fault for just leaving it there for 3 weeks.

Thanks

dacouch

Was it towed away at the polices request eg to their compound?

System

Not really but it was on the motorway and the wheel came off and he went into the bridge so he called his breakdown company who told him it was a writeoff and took it back to their garage. The police would have made him move it if he hadn't done it himself!

dacouch

I asked that as the police compounds often charge £20 a day where as normal garages that Insurers and the like use tend to charge between £5 and £10 a day.

I'm surprised no one told him of the daily charge, are you sure he was not aware of it?

They will pursue him for the money, what is probably best for him to do is actually speak to the garage, explain he cannot afford it and negioate on the storage charges. The car must be worth between £60 and £200 as scrap so the garage might waive the charge if he signs the salvage over to them. Ignoring it is not a good idea as they will just keep storing the car at £20 a day and will then just scrap it and bill him for the difference.

Freddie_Snowbits

If there was nobody else involved in the accident, there is very little you can do.

System

dacouch wrote: »

I asked that as the police compounds often charge £20 a day where as normal garages that Insurers and the like use tend to charge between £5 and £10 a day.

I'm surprised no one told him of the daily charge, are you sure he was not aware of it?

They will pursue him for the money, what is probably best for him to do is actually speak to the garage, explain he cannot afford it and negioate on the storage charges. The car must be worth between £60 and £200 as scrap so the garage might waive the charge if he signs the salvage over to them. Ignoring it is not a good idea as they will just keep storing the car at £20 a day and will then just scrap it and bill him for the difference.

Thanks for that. I'm not 100% certain he wasn't told as he's from somerset and to say he is a tad slow is an understatement! I'll suggest he does this and see what happens!

myrnahaz

Oh, you're going to have trouble from the Somerset MSE'rs. lol!

System

myrnahaz wrote: »

Oh, you're going to have trouble from the Somerset MSE'rs. lol!

Well i spend alot of time in Somerset and like it down there, most people down there are fine but really this guy he's such a bumpkin. His name is Tim and he once phoned up directory enquiries to find the number of a local cinema, the woman on the phone goes "What name is it?" And he just responded with "Tim".