Advice needed

cerixox

Hi, sorry to bother you I have an ongoing issue i have had with a trader since 2021. I basically corresponded with this trader for work to be done on my vehicle and the car was collected from my home address 10/12/2021 and since then has been in the traders garage, i have over 50 different start/finish dates and excuses why work has not been completed. I contacted citizens advice first in 9/9/24 bout this matter and they advised to send a recorded letter which was delivered and signed for by the trader on 11/9/24 i then pursued a small court claims case which unfortunately took over a year and half to be addressed and the trader liquidated his company so the case was thrown out of court. I bumped into him a few months back and basically asked him what was going on and he said that he wanted a further £1000 for the labour costs and refused to get the work finished until i paid (i've already paid nearly £5000 into his personal account since 2021). I was just wondering if there is anything you can advise or help with as even though he has liquidated his company, he is still actively working from that unit and has new vehicles in and out, i have video footage and he still has my vehicle.

Hope to hear back soon.

user1977

Almost every post here is somebody seeking advice, so it would help if you amend the title to something more specific.

Ergates

To clarify: A garage has had your car for nearly 5 years. You have, over that time, paid them £5000 and they're asking for another £1000. Is that the gist of it?

Is this some vintage car they're restoring for you? Or just a normal car that needed repairs?

eskbanker

Will he return the car to you without further payment? It sounds like good money after bad to keep paying him, so in your shoes I think I'd concentrate on getting the car back rather than having the work done - do you know if anything has actually been done for the £5K paid to date?

Ayr_Rage

If you've paid into his personal account then you'll have to sue him and not the company.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82189390#Comment_82189390

I don't think it's as clear-cut as that, in that the contract will likely have been formed between OP and the now-liquidated company - paying into a personal account doesn't in itself change that, so he may not have any personal liability here, especially if he's the sort of dodgy dealer he sounds like, who's careful enough to know all the tricks…

Alderbank

Since it has been stood in the trader's garage for the last five years, £1,000 to get the engine started and the car through its MOT doesn't sound unreasonable, assuming of course that he has the skill and the willingness to do all that work.

Is it SORNed?

Alderbank

It's not a lien.

Lien would be if the garage had fulfilled their part of the contract but the OP hasn't.

If the OP had just paid e.g. a token deposit and the garage told them 'Your car's fixed now, you can collect it once you've settled your bill' the garage would be retaining the car on lien.

This case is the opposite.

Grumpy_chap

Hi, sorry to bother you I have an ongoing issue i have had with a trader since 2021. I basically corresponded with this trader for work to be done on my vehicle and the car was collected from my home address 10/12/2021 and since then has been in the traders garage, i have over 50 different start/finish dates and excuses why work has not been completed. I contacted citizens advice first in 9/9/24 bout this matter and they advised to send a recorded letter which was delivered and signed for by the trader on 11/9/24 i then pursued a small court claims case which unfortunately took over a year and half to be addressed and the trader liquidated his company so the case was thrown out of court. I bumped into him a few months back and basically asked him what was going on and he said that he wanted a further £1000 for the labour costs and refused to get the work finished until i paid (i've already paid nearly £5000 into his personal account since 2021). I was just wondering if there is anything you can advise or help with as even though he has liquidated his company, he is still actively working from that unit and has new vehicles in and out, i have video footage and he still has my vehicle.

Hope to hear back soon.

We really need more detail to understand this situation.

£5k paid to date over 5 years and another £1k required.

Money paid to individual and not to business.

Original business (was it Ltd?) has been liquidated. (*)

Same individual has a new company and carrying on as before. Is the new company Ltd?

Was this a run of the mill car and regular repairs, or something else?

Maybe classic car restoration as suggested up thread?

What were the nature of the repairs?

What type and age of car?

What transport has the OP used in the meantime?

(*). I know only a Ltd Co can be liquidated as such but it's not unknown for people to use terms 'loosely'. Denis Watts could have been Denis Watts t/a Dirty Den's Motors and now Denis Watts t/a Dastardly Den's Motors. When the OP caught up with him, Denis might have said he 'liquidated' Dirty Den's Motors even though that could not be technically correct.

StewedApple

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82189792#Comment_82189792

It is a lien - but it is defective.