In dispute over bill - can Garage refuse to give you your car?

SunbeamFanatic

Hi All,

Long story short, a Garage has had my car for almost 4 months to carry out a mechanical repair. I think I have been very patient but after months of constant broken promises about what they are going to do to repair it I have finally lost patience and want to recover my car and take it somewhre else. It still has the same fault as when I gave it to them but I am sure they will claim payment for work they have carried out although it is no better than 4 months ago.

Can they hold me to ransom and force me to pay something before they release the car? What are my rights / their rights in this situation?

Their communication and updates have been dreadful, I am always chasing them up rather than them letting me know what's going on. What caused me to completely lose patience is after the last email exchange they said they'd be in touch to confirm completion, so I thought I'd see if they would get in touch, so I waited and waited and waited ... and that was 4 weeks ago.

Grateful for any advice of what I can reasonably say to them when I call to say I want to recover my car.

Many thanks.

AdrianC

You owe them for the work done to date. You need to pay before reclaiming the car - else, yes, they can refuse to release it.

The fact that the car isn't yet fixed, and that their communications have been poor, does not affect that one bit.

SunbeamFanatic

So, even though the car is no different to when I dropped it off with them and have no evidence that they've actually done any work, I have to pay for what they say they have done? Sounds like a liscence to print money.

Aylesbury_Duck

How do you know the car is no different? Has it been in their possession for the entire four months or have you returned it several times in that period?

Ask them to provide a breakdown of the work carried out to date, including a list of any parts/consumables they've bought and added to the car. As AdrianC says, if they have carried out work, they are entitled to be paid for it.

SunbeamFanatic

Car has been with them the entire 4 months, I have been very patient, reasonable and given them every opportunity to complete the work they agreed to do.

I know it's no different because it wouldn't select 4WD, and it still won't, they've told me themselves it won't, they have effectively admitted they cannot fix the problem. They said fitting a replacement Transfer Case would solve the problem, they claim to have fitted one, but it didn't solve the problem.

Aylesbury_Duck

You owe them for the labour of the investigative work they have carried out, plus the cost of any parts they can show they have fitted.

neilmcl

As mentioned the garage is entitled to keep hold of the car until payment is made. If you want the car back the best thing to do is pay under protest, specifically writing the words "paying under protest" on their copy of the invoice/receipt then take action to dispute the bill at a later date.

missile

You could try to negotiate a discount for the poor service received.

SunbeamFanatic

Thanks for the info.

Because the parts they have fitted have not cured the problem it seems likely that the original components on the car were not defective in the first place. Can I ask them to put the original parts back on and then not pay for the new parts they want to charge for.

Do I have to pay for diagnosis work even if the diagnosis was incorrect?

I'm happy to pay a reasonable amount but I don't want to pay for parts that are unnecessary.

Comms69

SunbeamFanatic wrote: »

So, even though the car is no different to when I dropped it off with them and have no evidence that they've actually done any work, I have to pay for what they say they have done? Sounds like a liscence to print money.

You can ofcourse pursue them in civil court, either for an injunction to return the vehicle, or for any money paid.


But you cannot just take your car, that would be theft.

SunbeamFanatic

Comms69 wrote: »

You can ofcourse pursue them in civil court, either for an injunction to return the vehicle, or for any money paid.


But you cannot just take your car, that would be theft.

Hi, I've never suggested I will just take my car, I'm not unreasonable. My question was, under the circumstamces what are my rights and their rights.

At the moment I have no evidence that they have fitted any new parts because if they have they've not fixed the problem, they've told me they've fitted new parts but there's no proof. This probably means the parts they replaced were ok and didn't need replacing.

I'm also aware that they should return the original parts they have removed from my car as they are my property.