Car being held

Gidged500

Hi everyone , hopefully this is the right section to post this. Apologies if not. 

This issue is regarding my dads car , he had it in a garage to be repaired and he did the garages accounts (he is an accountant). The garage had a scrap yard at the side of the garage that was under another company name. 
Now the owner of the garage wanted to shut a company down that was no longer used. The owner gave my dad the incorrect company details to close down. The company was closed down and the bank account linked to it was frozen. It had some money in it that now can’t be accessed until this company is set back up. The garage owner is now holding my dads car and won’t return it until the company is re opened but won’t work with my dad to sort the issue out. 

Does anyone know where he stands
on getting his car back. Can he turn up and demand it back as it’s his property or can the garage owner hold his car until the issue is solved.

Hopefully someone can shed some
light on this issue. Thank you for any help 

DB1904

This isn't really a motoring problem. 

prowla

DB1904 said:

This isn't really a motoring problem. 

It is for the OP's dad!

tacpot12

The garage owner cannot keep your dad's car. It's theft, and he needs to ask for it back, and if they won't give it back report it to the Police. The police may say it is a civil matter, but it is not, and you Dad needs to make a complaint to the force and to any Crime Commissioner that oversees the force if they will not at least record it as a crime.

If the owner is responsible for the mistake because they gave your dad the wrong name, then they are responsible for problem. Even if your Dad closed the wrong company because he of a mistake he is responsible for, they can't keep his car UNLESS his contract of employment specifically states he has to make up any losses that arise from errors he makes. Usually, the only time a garage can keep your car is if you haven't paid a bill for repairs to the car AND you agreed in your contract with them that they could keep the car if you didn't pay the bill. If your Dad agreed that they could keep his car if he didn't pay his bill, but he has paid his bill for the work they did, he could show the receipt to the Police and hope that they will arrest the owner, and that he can take the keys before the garage is secured.

The Police will not go an get the keys or car for him. If he wants to solve the problem and be able to continue working for the garage owner, he will need to wait for the funds to become available to the owner, and hope that the owner releases his car at that point.

Car_54

It is not theft. For that, the garage would have to intend to deprive dad of the car permanently, which they clearly don't.

They'll give the car back if certain conditions are met. That sounds like blackmail.

kazwookie

Your father needs to get on to HMRC and get the wrongly company closed re opened, this can properly be done online.

https://www.gov.uk/restore-dissolved-company  actually looking at this a director or shareholder needs to do it. I suggest you send the link to your father, and he writes to the director/s and point this out, also he should point out with evidence that (Mrx) gave him the wrong details.

I also wonder why your father as the accountant didn't pick up on the company number  / name as being the wrong company or at least questioned it at the time of dissolving it.

With regards to the car, unless he has very good powers of persuasion with the owner, I don't think he will see it back very soon.

DB1904

tacpot12 said:

The garage owner cannot keep your dad's car. It's theft, and he needs to ask for it back, and if they won't give it back report it to the Police. The police may say it is a civil matter, but it is not, and you Dad needs to make a complaint to the force and to any Crime Commissioner that oversees the force if they will not at least record it as a crime.

If the owner is responsible for the mistake because they gave your dad the wrong name, then they are responsible for problem. Even if your Dad closed the wrong company because he of a mistake he is responsible for, they can't keep his car UNLESS his contract of employment specifically states he has to make up any losses that arise from errors he makes. Usually, the only time a garage can keep your car is if you haven't paid a bill for repairs to the car AND you agreed in your contract with them that they could keep the car if you didn't pay the bill. If your Dad agreed that they could keep his car if he didn't pay his bill, but he has paid his bill for the work they did, he could show the receipt to the Police and hope that they will arrest the owner, and that he can take the keys before the garage is secured.

The Police will not go an get the keys or car for him. If he wants to solve the problem and be able to continue working for the garage owner, he will need to wait for the funds to become available to the owner, and hope that the owner releases his car at that point.

If as you say it's theft as you think they've stolen the vehicle, why would you think the police won't recover the vehicle?

Sandtree

I wonder if the business owner was asked if they would give the same version of events? 

Certainly our accountant questions our instructions if its anything out of the norm and would equally expect them to instruct me to remove funds from accounts etc before the closure... it does seem there were multiple breakdowns for the wrong company to be closed.

Police can go two ways, sometimes overstepping their mark (telling a pedi-cab they were ripping a tourist off despite it having clear tariff on the cab of £1/min per person and to accept £10) and other times will just say its a civil matter and sort it out yourselves.

Gidged500

Thank you everyone for the help , reason my dad hasn’t dealt with this is he’s not well and hasn’t been for some time. So I was hoping to help him out as it’s not fair what’s gone on.