Unauthorised work carried out on car

Yaz101

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for a bit of advice for my grandmother after a mechanic did over £600 worth of unauthorised work on her car! She is 80 years old and feels as though she has to pay this even though her car is worth less than the repairs.

Basically, she took the car in for an MOT yesterday and was told that they would call her to let her know whether it had passed or not. By 5pm she hadn't heard anything so called them herself and was told that the car had failed and that the "repairs" wouldn't be completed until Monday. When she asked what the repairs were, they said the underside of the car was in a really bad state and that the repairs so far had cost £600 and that there was still another £300 of work still to do. She never said that they could do any repairs, it was there solely for the MOT!!! She would rather send the car for scrap and buy another second hand one instead.

So far she hasn't paid anything and the car has been moved back onto her car park (she lives directly opposite the garage). I have said that I will deal with this for her as I know she will cave in and pay it if left on her own. I want to go the garage and ask that they undo all of the repairs that have so far been carried out and put the old parts back in the car (if they can't do that then tough, they will have to bear the cost themselves) and tell them that she will pay for the MOT but nothing else. Does this sound like a fair response considering that she never authorised the work? Or do people think that I'm on pretty shaky ground by doing this?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

wgl2014

If the garage has taken it upon themselves to do a load of work that wasn't authorised then why should your gran have to pay?
But... Rather than go in all guns blazing just go and speak to them and see what they say in the first instance.
If they still want payment and your gran is going to scrap the car anyway maybe they would pay her scrap value and then be able to flog it themselves now it has 12 months ticket on?

marlot

It may be a genuine misunderstanding.

Scrap cars are pretty worthless at the moment. I'd have a look at the car and see if you think they really have done any work on it.

If so, I'd suggest paying for the MOT and see if you can give them the car in lieu of any other bills.

m0bov

Highly unusual, why would a garage do that sort of work knowing no one has agreed to pay for it. Firstly, why has it failed? The reason the "underside is in a bad state", what, the body work? Brake lines? rust?

You need to know why its failed, then ask them what work they are doing and then ask who authorized it. It all sounds very vague.

Johno100

Should be able to check online the reason for the MOT failure.

It wouldn't be the first time an unscrupulous garage, or any other sort of trader, has tried to take advantage of an elderly and/or female member of the public.

NeonGeon

Confirm with your Gran and go through all the paperwork, and if they have carried out unauthorised work, certainly argue your case, they may not even have done all that much and are lying.

For me Kwitfit are always trying to get me to have work done on my car after I take it in for an oil change.

I ask them to write me out a list of the work needed including prices and I'll get back to them. Needless to say the list goes in the bin when I get home.

markudman

Go to
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

It will tell you what the car failed on,
they will also have the V32 (MOT Failure), ask to see it and ask what they have done so far,

can you let me know the make, model and year of the car?

is the garage a local independent, or a national chain?

macman

I'd be asking to see the documentation to establish if they've actually done the MOT test...

pinkshoes

If it has failed the MOT and the cost of the work is far more than what the car is worth, then it would be silly to carry out repair work.

You need to double check woth your mum that she did not agree when dropping it off for work to be carried out to get it through the MOT.

Saying that, any decent garage would inform her that the work that needed doing was more than it was worth before doing a repair.

Inform them that you do not require any work doing as you will be doing this yourself.

seatbeltnoob

m0bov wrote: »

Highly unusual, why would a garage do that sort of work knowing no one has agreed to pay for it. Firstly, why has it failed? The reason the "underside is in a bad state", what, the body work? Brake lines? rust?

You need to know why its failed, then ask them what work they are doing and then ask who authorized it. It all sounds very vague.

Probably because they haven't done anything on it what so ever and tried to take advantage of an OAP.

The correct thing to do is to first give the owner a fail report and then give them the option. A scrap car is worth about £150. Any decent mechanic would tell you the csot of the repair is worth more than the car and usually not expect the owner to repair such car. In fact the MOT guy I used was reluctant to fix the issues and recommended I just scrap it. I insisted on getting the work done to fix it and for it to make economic sense I carried out the work myself.

m0bov

OP says the bill so far is £600 so I would tend not to assume otherwise.