Help! Garage have sold my car without my consent!

goosemc

Anihilator wrote: »

Why exactly should the garage/scrappie/new owner all end out of pocket just so the OP profits.

You seem to be ignoring the fact the OP had a worthless Tigra that would probably cost the best part of a grand to put back on the road.

Its not like a perfectly roadworthy car was given away.

Lol thats like saying if I stole your TV, its ok for me to sell it on and not give the money or TV back to you because I (the thief) would be out of profit? :rotfl:

Just because my car wasn't roadworthy does not give someone permission to sell it without my consent.
By the way, its not a "worthless Tigra" to me, it is my car, my possession, my property, I should have decided what happened to it.

MORPH3US

Anihilator wrote: »

In all likiehood the scrapyard and the new owner will be seen as irrelevent as they dealt in good faith.

Depends what you mean by "seen as irrelevant"..... in terms of prosecution I would agree, they didn't realise they were buying a stolen car....

However if you mean that they will be allowed to keep the car, I disagree.... how many times have we seen / heard stories of people buying "too good to be true" cars from local papers for cash and it turns out the car is stolen.... the buyer ends up without the cash AND the car.

Anihilator

goosemc wrote: »

I'm being dramatic.. that they sold my car - twice - without the legal owners permission?

No they didnt. The garage accidentally sent it to a scrapyard for a nominal sum. The new owner then in good faith sold it on. You have no right to be unhappy with the new owners who know nothing about it.


Hmm I don't think so.

Well you are. You didnt seem bothered about no car until you saw an opportunity to profit.

Nobody being convicted of a crime? - what about theft, handling stolen goods, receiving stolen goods? I'm not sure I follow about no crime being commited?

Theft - Unlikely "A person is guilty of theft, if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it". This is the legal definition. It appears to me that there is no dishonesty here and more a case of a !!!! up.
Stolen goods - Well no because this can only occur after a theft and as above I dont think there has been a theft. This imo and I would suggest any court will not be a crime.


Why shouldn't I get my car back? Its still legally my car. Because both new owners legitimately and in good faith acquired and paid for the car. Its unjust to deprive both of these when no crime appears to have been committed. Instead it is a civil matter between you and the garage and the civil procedure looks at actual losses i.e your possessions, and sale value - repair value.

What you're saying is that its ok that while your car is at the garage for major repairs, you're on holiday for, say, a month, I could go to the garage, buy your car without your permission, transfer the V5 into my name, do some repairs on it and its now legally mine? I don't think so.

I'm not saying it is ok, in this case I am saying that no crime has been committed and it is a civil matter between you and the garage. It is not the subsequent owners faults and they should be deprived to keep you happy. You need to follow the legal remedies available to you and retrieving your car or criminal penalties aren't going to be them.



Thanks for some good advice. I have gone onto the DVLA website, checked my cars reg and it is still under SORN.

Any proof its being driven?

I would love to make an offer for the engine to stay in my car, as thats all I wanted in the first place, but I don't know who has my car now.

Irrelevent anyway. You would need to offer the garage the cost of the repairs (likely to be around a thousand pounds) and they would then need to retrieve the car. You cant expect to get the car back fixed and not pay going rate.

I could talk this idea over with hubby though and see what he thinks about maybe contacting the scrapyard and offering this as an alternative to the police. (Hopefully before the police probably drop the case again!)
Then maybe the scrappy can contact the new owner, return the money he paid for the car to him and I could pay for the new engine and all is well.

It is nothing to do with the scrappy and what you are proposing is extortion. The scrappy bought and sold the car in good faith. Any remit to sort this is between you and the original garage. Neither subsequent party has committed a criminal act and certainly don't owe you anything.

I doubt it will be this easy though, I bet the "new owner" will want a massive amount for it - could be worth a try though.

How unreasonable not wanting to give a car away they bought in good faith.

Thanks - I will have a think.

As said you need to accept your car is probably gone and not retrievable by you and take small court claims action against the garage to recover your quantifiable losses.

If you don't want to do this then buy a new car, you never know the scrappie as a goodwill gesture may be able to strike you a really good deal.

Let me make it clear though. Any solution will involve no criminal penalties and you having to factor in the full repair cost of the Tigra. Its not been magically repaired for free. You can expect to pay at least £300 odd for a new engine and then all the labour involved in inspecting it, finding the fault, finding an engine, removing the old engine, fitting the new engine and generally making it roadworthy.

Anihilator

goosemc wrote: »

Lol thats like saying if I stole your TV, its ok for me to sell it on and not give the money or TV back to you because I (the thief) would be out of profit? :rotfl:

Just because my car wasn't roadworthy does not give someone permission to sell it without my consent.
By the way, its not a "worthless Tigra" to me, it is my car, my possession, my property, I should have decided what happened to it.

Your really not getting it are you.

You cant blame the scrappy or the new owner for the mechanics behaviour. If you had sent the car to the scrappy directly then you would have a case.

Could I also add have you even considered what might happen. If the garage has any brains they will state you agreed for them to look at the car and repair/sell as appropiate based on the value of repairs etc.

Anihilator

MORPH3US wrote: »

Depends what you mean by "seen as irrelevant"..... in terms of prosecution I would agree, they didn't realise they were buying a stolen car....

However if you mean that they will be allowed to keep the car, I disagree.... how many times have we seen / heard stories of people buying "too good to be true" cars from local papers for cash and it turns out the car is stolen.... the buyer ends up without the cash AND the car.

But I would contest there is no legal basis for this because this will never be registered as a stolen car.

Any court will point the OP down the civil route against the original garage who took the car in for repair.

robredz

Come on Trollilator, the only way the OP would have lost title to the car is if it had been auctioned. Putting in a new engine is not rocket science, and a neighbour of mine swapped his girlfriends Corsa engine in a morning. Whatever for good faith the scrappy could buy the vehicle back from the new owner who can't tax the motor and put it on the road whilst DVLA have it SORNed in OP's name, and let the Op have it back for £250, all reputations intact, and old bill called off.

Anihilator

robredz wrote: »

Come on Trollilator, the only way the OP would have lost title to the car is if it had been auctioned. Putting in a new engine is not rocket science, and a neighbour of mine swapped his girlfriends Corsa engine in a morning. Whatever for good faith the scrappy could buy the vehicle back from the new owner who can't tax the motor and put it on the road whilst DVLA have it SORNed in OP's name, and let the Op have it back for £250, all reputations intact, and old bill called off.

What your neighbour could do it for is irrelevent. The OP sent it to a garage to be repaired. A garage would charge not much shy of a grand for a new engine job I'd hazard an estimate.

As for the next bit. You do realise that the scrappy and the garage are not one and the same. The OP sent the car to a garage. This garage decided it couldnt be repaired economically and sold it to a scrapyard. The scrapyard then repaired it and sold it.

As for it being SORNED I can't see it being for long as I dont think the OP will prevent the DVLA passing the registration on.

Imo the OP should go to the original garage find out what they would have charged to fully repair it. Tell them to find a new car of a better quality/value and then take the repair cost with the increase in value being the compensation for inconvenience.

The threats re the police are pointless as this will not be going anywhere criminally.

iwanttosave_2

The garage accidentally sent it to a scrapyard for a nominal sum.

How does one accidentally sell someone else's property? I've never accidentally done it.

Anihilator

iwanttosave wrote: »

The garage accidentally sent it to a scrapyard for a nominal sum.

How does one accidentally sell someone else's property? I've never accidentally done it.

Probably sitting in a yard for months. Mechanic knows its knackered and assumes owner has told them to keep the scrap in settlement of their bill.

Fairly common for garages to do this when they discover knackered engines in bangers.

goosemc

iwanttosave wrote: »

The garage accidentally sent it to a scrapyard for a nominal sum.

How does one accidentally sell someone else's property? I've never accidentally done it.

Hehe me neither!

I also still fail to see how Trollilator thinks I'd profit from having my own property back?

But then of course, I'm just being dramatic. I fully realise now that the unconsented sale of my car with no legal documents is a perfectly fair thing and I in fact should be happy.

Of course everyday people buy stolen goods in good faith and everyone is happy and everything is fine and they get to keep it while the owner is told to stop being dramatic.

I realise now how wrong I've been......


ps..
the garage had my work/home and mobile number. Perhaps a call would have been nice, to even, at the very least, retrieve my property from the car???!