Car removed from garage... who owns it advice please.

tuscanv6

Retrogamer wrote: »

Hello TuscanV6
I often come here as well to get some advice.
Much better than Speed, Plod & Law on Pistonheads eh ?

Yeh, my brother said he'd ask over there. He said it's probably come up as a topic more often than here but I thought I'd give this a crack.

On the one hand I really want the car. On the other hand I don't want grief down the line, but the way it looks at the moment it's all open to interpretation of the law if the guy ever returns at the time that might be.

There are gits who will just have a go to see if they can scare some money out of you.

Retrogamer

If the guy returns, how would he be able to prove he was / is the current owner?

tuscanv6

Retrogamer wrote: »

If the guy returns, how would he be able to prove he was / is the current owner?

I don't know. My brother reckons if he turned up with the buff log book and some kind of bill of sale from the previous owner, unless the woman can produce some kind of proof that her ex gave her the car or told her to sell the car if he didn't come back he may be able to swing it.

That's the problem...she's got nothing except a lot of assurances she owns the car.

specialboy

AFAIK If she sells the car to you its yours but after she has took what she is owed for storage she must keep the excess safe for her ex. It's much the same as if you moved into a new property and the previous tenant had left the garage full of furniture, you must keep it for a reasonable amount of time before disposing of it and keeping the proceeds for the rightful owner.

Norman_Castle

If she claimed ownership of the car and had it registered to herself then sold it to you would you be able, and willing, to claim from her?
As she is owed 100K plus the storage costs of this car could she take possession of it in lieu of debt?. Do you know how much the storage has cost for the last 5 years?.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

I'm failing to see where he has created this debt for her, they weren't married so no shared liability. my suspicion is that she got loans for him, but that's her choice and fault.


norman castle: The requirements for claiming abandonment are quite strict, technically speaking the developers who bought the land and garages could claim right to it. but the girlfriend was contacted as she was paying the storage they did the first steps in contacting any prospective owner.


in terms there is no definition to "abandoned" but signs help along the way to claiming its been abandoned and claim ownership.


the steps here are the girlfriends to take, not the OP, missing a step can make it easy for the "owner" to reclaim the property at any time he/she wishes.


The owner may have interests in the vehicle even though he hasn't touched it in such a long time and storage of it seems so.


the girlfriend must try and make contact, she must inform the DVLA with the registration mark and VIN, and make it plain she wishes to claim ownership, the DVLA will try and make contact with the Owner last registered keeper. once she has claimed ownership then she can legally sell it.
if she wished to sell it to claw back stage costs, then she still needs to prove she has tried without success to find the owner and exhausted all avenues in doing I.E thats not I haven't got his number I cant find him. she must try his relatives, she must try friends, she could try social media, and contacting everyone so she can serve him notice.


because if she don't do that then he when he comes back there could be a whole heap of trouble laying in the wings for the OP.


my advice to the OP would contact the seller again and ask specific questions and be comfortable she has established that she has a right to sell it for retrieval of costs.

goonarmy

This^
My experience of claiming cars is as an agent of the new land owners once a plot has been bought. Got a porker out of it too!

forgotmyname

I bought a car from a garage before. The car broke down whilst going on holiday and recovered back home.

I think it was a headgasket and skim etc. Garage sold it to me for what they guy owed them in parts and costs.
They just said apply for the log book and said if you get any issues come back.

The garage owner said we will just charge him for the work and storage which would be way more than the cars value.

I lived around the corner from the owner. I think he spotted it one day as i was tinkering with someone elses car. But his mate dragged him away.

Joe_Horner

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

the girlfriend must try and make contact, she must inform the DVLA with the registration mark and VIN, and make it plain she wishes to claim ownership, the DVLA will try and make contact with the Owner last registered keeper. once she has claimed ownership then she can legally sell it.

The thing is, the DVLA won't have a record of the keeper in the situation the Op has described. They didn't actively transfer the old, locally kept, records that the buff books were based on to their new computerised system back in the '70s.

All they did was issue the newfangled V5 documents when an owner applied for one, or when a car sold after they'd taken over the records. So a car that's never had a V5 also won't have a record with the DVLA, so they really won't be interested.

It also means that the OP won't be able to simply apply to DVLA for a V5 if he buys it. Assuming he wants to keep the existing regstration mark, he'll need to obtain evidence that the reg belongs to the car (the Local Authority who originally issued the registration may be able to help from their archives) and also have the car confirmed as what he says it is, usually done by the relevant Owners Club.

Alternatively, he can apply for a "new" age related registration, which counts as first regsitration of the vehicle.

Before doing either, he should contact the DVLA (don't rely on the online checks) and ask them to confirm whether they have a dormant record for it - where it was transferred to their system but hasn't been updated for so long that they've archived it.