Car released from garage without authority
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Let's sum up:
You're "living" in France with a Landrover that requires some work to be done by a UK dealer and just so happen to know a guy that will transport it back for you.
You let this apparent stranger stay at yours, not once but twice (possibly more?). Who does this?
He delivers your LR without issue, presumably he's been paid? You then get him to deliver your second car back to the UK so that your insurer can assess it. Again he delivers this OK, to where exactly?
Out of the blue, you decide that you no longer trust the guy but instead of cancelling the delivery job for some reason you decide to contact the dealership that holds your LR and tell them not to deal with him, then for no apparent reason he turns up and collect your car. Really!
Finally, instead of actually doing the most obvious and sensible thing and contact the transport guy to see where your car is at and why he picked it up you decide to go straight to the police and to top that off, not involve your insurer.
OP, are your really expecting us to believe any of this?
Let's sum up:
You're "living" in France with a Landrover that requires some work to be done by a UK dealer and just so happen to know a guy that will transport it back for you.
I am not living in France. We have a holiday home there, which has a separate house for B&B.
Main dealer in France was not at all helpful, just informing me, without any diagnostics etc… that it needed a new engine, circa £18k
We contacted an English recovery guy, via an agent, who turned up on a Saturday. HGV’s are not permitted to drive on Sundays in France, and as he seemed a decent guy, we said he could stay over until Monday, when he collected car from French dealer, transporting it back to the UK for us. He had contacted the UK Land Rover dealer, and it was arranged for it to be delivered there, which it was
You let this apparent stranger stay at yours, not once but twice (possibly more?). Who does this?
We got on really well with the lorry driver, sharing dinner with him, and I helped him with some work on his lorry, whilst he helped me with some jobs around the place. He does a lot of car transportation through France, and we said, as we had the space, he could stop over if he was passing our way in future
He delivers your LR without issue, presumably he's been paid? You then get him to deliver your second car back to the UK so that your insurer can assess it. Again he delivers this OK, to where exactly?
He was back down our way couple of weeks ago, so we said he could stay over en route to help him out.
We still had the written off car on our land, which by now had been there over 8 weeks, even though the insurance told me that they would arrange collection within a few days. The claim had all been settled within days of the claim being reported.
I chased them up, as did not want it stored on my land anymore, as was the property of the insurance company now
They now said that it was tricky as would have to be transported back to UK. After discussing with the lorry driver, who was at our place, we agreed that I would ask the insurance company if he could transport it back for them, as he had a spare space on his lorry, and that he would take this as payment for transporting my Landrover back earlier. Insurance company phoned him, and it was agreed. He outstayed his welcome and finally left after I had told him it was time he was on his way. He left and the car was returned to insurance company in UK
Out of the blue, you decide that you no longer trust the guy but instead of cancelling the delivery job for some reason you decide to contact the dealership that holds your LR and tell them not to deal with him, then for no apparent reason he turns up and collect your car. Really!
After having the lorry guy stay at ours for longer than was agreed, and seeing his ‘true colours’ my wife and I started to not trust what he was saying…lot of stories etc…. seemed he was involved in a lot of seemingly ‘dodgy’ things, and had fingers in a lot of pies, which we were not comfortable knowing about
When he finally left, I phoned the dealer in UK, and told them that I wanted them only to deal with myself, and specifically not the lorry driver, or his transport company.
Finally, instead of actually doing the most obvious and sensible thing and contact the transport guy to see where your car is at and why he picked it up you decide to go straight to the police and to top that off, not involve your insurer.
When I found out that they had let him take my car, without my authorisation or relevant paperwork etc..I was told by a solicitor friend, that the first thing to do was to log it with the police, so I have a crime ref in place. I did not want to contact the transport guy, as was worried and wary of discussing anything with him – if someone burgled your house, and you found out who it was, would you contact them, or would you go to police and start down the correct channels ???
OP, are your really expecting us to believe any of this?
I’m not asking anyone to believe me or not, I just wanted some constructive advice0 -
It's not been stolen
You instructed him to take it.
You didn't think to contact him and tell him you don't need him now?
As I have said previously - I did not instruct him to take my car from the dealership in the UK - He recovered it them, and then after getting to know the guy better, we felt uneasy about him. I contacted the uk dealership and told them to only deal with myself and definitely not him - simple0 -
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Johnnyboywdz wrote: »Let's sum up:
You're "living" in France with a Landrover that requires some work to be done by a UK dealer and just so happen to know a guy that will transport it back for you.
I am not living in France. We have a holiday home there, which has a separate house for B&B.
Main dealer in France was not at all helpful, just informing me, without any diagnostics etc… that it needed a new engine, circa £18k
We contacted an English recovery guy, via an agent, who turned up on a Saturday. HGV’s are not permitted to drive on Sundays in France, and as he seemed a decent guy, we said he could stay over until Monday, when he collected car from French dealer, transporting it back to the UK for us. He had contacted the UK Land Rover dealer, and it was arranged for it to be delivered there, which it was
You let this apparent stranger stay at yours, not once but twice (possibly more?). Who does this?
We got on really well with the lorry driver, sharing dinner with him, and I helped him with some work on his lorry, whilst he helped me with some jobs around the place. He does a lot of car transportation through France, and we said, as we had the space, he could stop over if he was passing our way in future
He delivers your LR without issue, presumably he's been paid? You then get him to deliver your second car back to the UK so that your insurer can assess it. Again he delivers this OK, to where exactly?
He was back down our way couple of weeks ago, so we said he could stay over en route to help him out.
We still had the written off car on our land, which by now had been there over 8 weeks, even though the insurance told me that they would arrange collection within a few days. The claim had all been settled within days of the claim being reported.
I chased them up, as did not want it stored on my land anymore, as was the property of the insurance company now
They now said that it was tricky as would have to be transported back to UK. After discussing with the lorry driver, who was at our place, we agreed that I would ask the insurance company if he could transport it back for them, as he had a spare space on his lorry, and that he would take this as payment for transporting my Landrover back earlier. Insurance company phoned him, and it was agreed. He outstayed his welcome and finally left after I had told him it was time he was on his way. He left and the car was returned to insurance company in UK
Out of the blue, you decide that you no longer trust the guy but instead of cancelling the delivery job for some reason you decide to contact the dealership that holds your LR and tell them not to deal with him, then for no apparent reason he turns up and collect your car. Really!
After having the lorry guy stay at ours for longer than was agreed, and seeing his ‘true colours’ my wife and I started to not trust what he was saying…lot of stories etc…. seemed he was involved in a lot of seemingly ‘dodgy’ things, and had fingers in a lot of pies, which we were not comfortable knowing about
When he finally left, I phoned the dealer in UK, and told them that I wanted them only to deal with myself, and specifically not the lorry driver, or his transport company.
Finally, instead of actually doing the most obvious and sensible thing and contact the transport guy to see where your car is at and why he picked it up you decide to go straight to the police and to top that off, not involve your insurer.
When I found out that they had let him take my car, without my authorisation or relevant paperwork etc..I was told by a solicitor friend, that the first thing to do was to log it with the police, so I have a crime ref in place. I did not want to contact the transport guy, as was worried and wary of discussing anything with him – if someone burgled your house, and you found out who it was, would you contact them, or would you go to police and start down the correct channels ???
OP, are your really expecting us to believe any of this?
I’m not asking anyone to believe me or not, I just wanted some constructive advice
It’s like plot of a bad B movie.0 -
after we had agreed that he would use their payment to cover my cost...so we were quits
Surely the sum he received for transporting the car to the UK was his payment from the insurance company for the job. How would that cover a sum that you owed him?
Why did you owe him money?
Have you not paid him anything for transporting your Landrover back to UK?
He had an empty space on his lorry, so when insurance agreed he could transport their written off car back to them, it was money for nothing, which he agreed would cover my initial costs. He still made on the deal as he charged the insurance company a lot more than he had quoted myself - Nothing was signed with him, as was an amicable arrangement etc...0 -
Mercdriver wrote: »What do you mean by this?
"They called him and all arranged and off he went, after we had agreed that he would use their payment to cover my cost...so we were quits"
If at any point while he was staying with you you suggested that he would pick up your Land Rover then you'll have a hard time proving TWOC. In fact he could argue you did - the photocopy of the documents might assist him. Why did you not recover this from him?
We had agreed that he would recover the car back to UK main dealer ONLY - He has since taken my car from this dealer, without my permission or consent, instructions of which I had expressed to the dealer, which they totally ignored, even though a note was on my file
Hence simple to prove TWOC from dealer, especially as all conversations with the dealer are recorded
The only 'document' he had was a photo of the front page of my V50 -
...and how did they know it was ready for collection, if the dealer were storing it while warranty discussions were ongoing?
It wasn't ready for collection - The work had not been done on the car, as I was wrangling with Land Rover HQ over liability for a blown engine which had only covered 54k miles!
I had told the dealer this and they had agreed to keep it in their compound until we were ready to proceed
I phoned them earlier this week with the intention of informing them that I had arranged for a friend to collect the still unrepaired car from them at the weekend, to transport back to me so I could have it repaired at a significantly lower price that the one Land Rover had quoted - that was when I was informed that they had handed it over to someone else last week!0 -
Mercdriver wrote: »But what if he just said that the OP had told him to collect the car? Then it becomes he says he said. The fact that he had stayed with the OP on two occasions would muddy the waters too.
Surely the main issue is the fact that I specifically instructed the dealer not to deal with anyone else apart from myself, and especially not this transport guy or his company
He just turned up with a photo of the front page of the V5 and they just handed him my car, without even checking the note on my file with my instructions ???
That surely is TWOC on his part, including deception, and negligence and irresponsibility on the dealers part ??0 -
Seems odd that you hadn't already paid him for the delivery of your Landrover that happened months before. Also, if the insurance had settled much earlier then why didn't you just pay him out of your own pocket?Johnnyboywdz wrote: »He had an empty space on his lorry, so when insurance agreed he could transport their written off car back to them, it was money for nothing, which he agreed would cover my initial costs. He still made on the deal as he charged the insurance company a lot more than he had quoted myself - Nothing was signed with him, as was an amicable arrangement etc...
Also, why haven't you informed your insurer?0 -
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