Dry Cleaner giving my cleaning to charity

LilElvis

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

There is a mechanism in place to help a trader recoup their losses relating to uncollected goods:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/32 (section 12)


The retailer can sell goods but they must first inform the owner of their intent to do this and they must attempt to get a reasonable price for those goods and the money obtained still belongs to the owner. The trader can keep some to cover their costs but they can't keep all of it.


By giving the goods away they have broken the law and the OP has every right to attempt to recover the money through legal action.

I don't disagree with you, I was simply pointing out that it was neither unreasonable for the cleaner to assume that the clothing had been abandoned nor for him to recoup his costs. We only have the OPs phrasing that they have been "given to charity", and no elaboration on the conversation she had with the cleaner.

LilElvis

ConsumerGuy0016 wrote: »

Again, if you'd bothered to spend any time reading the original post you'd see that the OP offered to by card but quite dubiously the owner requested a cheeky cash-in-hand transaction. Yes, the owner is within his rights to select the method of payment, but if he's only accepting cash he should expect people to have trouble like the OP did in paying on the spot.



Wait, so now you're saying that the dry cleaner is justified in selling £1000 worth of his customers' clothing as an exercise to recoup costs?! A dry clean doesn't cost that much, darling.

Don't be so patronising.

The clothing might well have cost £1000, but it certainly wouldn't fetch a fraction of that second hand.

shaun_from_Africa

LilElvis wrote: »

We only have the OPs phrasing that they have been "given to charity", and no elaboration on the conversation she had with the cleaner.

But in just about every single thread started on these forums, we only know what is told to us by the people starting those threads and tinkabelle was very specific in how they stated what had happened to their clothing:
"I have now been told that he has given my clothes - over £1, 000 worth of clothing - to a charity!!!"

Why would anyone use a phrase like that if it wasn't what they had been told?

ConsumerGuy0016

LilElvis wrote: »

The clothing might well have cost £1000, but it certainly wouldn't fetch a fraction of that second hand.

How is keeping somebody else's possessions and selling them on for personal profit a right and proper process, regardless of the monies involved. Stop trolling.

LilElvis

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

But in just about every single thread started on these forums, we only know what is told to us by the people starting those threads and tinkabelle was very specific in how they stated what had happened to their clothing:
"I have now been told that he has given my clothes - over £1, 000 worth of clothing - to a charity!!!"

Why would anyone use a phrase like that if it wasn't what they had been told?

And, as I said, there is no elaboration on the rest of the conversation. It is unlikely that it solely consisted of "can I collect my clothes please", "I've given them to charity", "OK". We also have no description of what the voicemail messages left by the cleaner contained. The OP needs to give further detail as to the content of the conversations and messages.

LilElvis

ConsumerGuy0016 wrote: »

How is keeping somebody else's possessions and selling them on for personal profit a right and proper process, regardless of the monies involved. Stop trolling.

What profit?

None of us have any idea what the bill for the cleaning was, nor what the second hand value of the clothing would be, save for the fact that it would be a fraction of the original cost.

Stop patronising.

bris

It's a similar if not exact scenario to a lien.

Equitable liens are a security interest which arises for sums justly due, in property not in the possession of the person. They arise by operation of law or by statute. An equitable lien grants a charge over the property and arises by virtue of the relationship between the parties.
Equitable liens create an equitable proprietary right to the property in question. The lien holder is entitled to a (court) order for sale, and may be enforced by an injunction to prevent disposal of the relevant property where the person owing the debt does not perform its obligations.
Circumstances of an Equitable Lien

Case law points to circumstances where indicate are sufficient, rather than those which are essential for an equitable lien to arise. In the case of a contract a claimant is required to show:

1. Actual indebtedness on the part of the party which is the owner of the property (the defendant), which arises from a promise of payment in relation to the property itself or an expense incurred in relation to the property;
2. The property is specifically identified and appropriated for the performance of the contract;
3. The claimant, ie the person owed the sum claimed, would be treated inequitably or unfairly if the defendant were to dispose of the property to a third party without his consent.

Contracts for Goods and Services

Equitable liens will not arise in cases where there has been a sale of goods, as the Sale of Goods Act has been said to be an exhaustive code in respect of parties’ rights for contracts involving the sale of goods. This leaves contracts for the supply for work, materials and services.
Equitable liens cannot be enforced against a bona fide purchaser for value without notice.

unholyangel

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_common_problems_with_products_e/consumer_lost_found_and_uncollected_goods_e/youve_left_goods_with_a_trader.htm

If you don’t pick up your goods

If you don’t pick up your goods left with a trader, they can’t dispose of them until they have followed a set procedure.

This includes sending you two notices which contain certain information.

The quoted paragraph then links to this page:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_common_problems_with_products_e/consumer_lost_found_and_uncollected_goods_e/how_to_dispose_of_left_behind_goods.htm

Laz123

The owner did try to contact the op but was unable to gain a response. 5 weeks incommunicado is a long time. Clothes take up space and these dry cleaners have fast turn around and are often full up with clothes. It is a bit odd not to take a cc but retailers are charged for the service by the cc companies and he'd already been messed about so maybe didn't trust the op.

Most dry cleaners have a collection deadline of 3 months.

Anyway there's not much you can do about it now. Just be pleased some kids in Africa are now wearing designer apparel.

Country_Cousin

Just out of interest - you say "I have been told he has now given the clothes to charity". Did he tell you this himself - did he give his reasons. And how much was the bill for for the cleaning?