Help -Garage sold my vehicle without my consent.

[goosemc]

Hi all, I wonder if anyone can help me with a very complicated issue...

 

I am the owner of a T reg Vauxhaul Tigra. I still have my logbook and all documents relating to this vehicle.

 

In june of this year, my car's cambelt broke and a mechanic friend of my boss offered to help out.

He towed my car to the garage he works at and examined it and informed me the car needed a new engine.

 

He said he would hunt around for a new engine and let me know costs etc. A month went by and I found an engine on ebay and called to let him know. He informed me "oh no, don't touch an ebay engine, you'll end up with worse than you already have"... I trusted him and left him to keep searching for me.

 

More time went on, it was now September and I called again and he advised me to cancel my insurance as the car was held at the garage and would be covered under their insurance. He also advised that I should SORN the car to get the last few months of tax back while he searched for an engine.

He said, and I quote "don't worry, it can stay here as long as it takes, it could even be months, I'm not having any luck finding an engine yet"

I thanked him and told him to please call me if his boss needed the car moved and they needed the space back and he agreed. As he was a personal friend of my (now retired) boss, I had no reason to doubt him.

 

On friday evening of this week I received a letter from the DVLA that someone was trying to claim ownership of my car!!!

 

I called them this morning and was informed that someone had indeed got my vehicle and was claiming ownership.

 

I called the garage and they informed me that they had scrapped my car without my consent!!! When I questioned this he told me "sorry, we couldn't find an engine and it wouldn't have been worth it anyway due to the age of the car, we thought you'd want it scrapped"

 

I called the scrapyard, who informed me they took the vehicle an estimated 5 months ago from the garage and put (wait for it) a new engine that THEY had waiting there into my car and sold it.

 

I called the police who won't do a thing! As far as I am concerned the car is stolen, but they said I need to go to the CAB about it.

 

This is utterly crazy, the "new owners" will own my car officially in 14 days time according to the DVLA and there seems to be nothing I can do about it as the police are treating it as a civil matter.

 

This is theft! I never gave consent for the vehicle to be scrapped or sold, To top this all off I even still have possesions in the car - sunglasses, stereo, tapes, a carpark pass to my husbands place of work and personal bits and bobs.

 

What on earth can I do? I cannot afford to fight this in the courts but I am not elligable for legal aid due to being in full time paid employment.

 

Help!

[buzby]

You might think so - but no, it is a civil loss and you need to pass this on to your insurers. Their action has been represensible, and as you know where the RK is, you can certainly get a reposession order for it, but what may cloud the issue is that YOUR garage may argue you left it with them and never returned, so they simply disposed of it as a repair was not economical. Thisthen places you in the situation that you have to show you did not, nor offer to waive your ownership.

 

You can seek redress, but this will be up to your insurers, or if not insured, then yourself to seek recompence. A good starting poimnt is to discover what the 'new' owner paid for it - but I probably would not be much,

 

As to the 'engine on eBay' comment - most refurbished engines are sold with a week/month warranty for a free exchange if it fauls. On ebay, you don;t usually get this, which is why the trade have no interest in being left with a pile of engines that don;t work, and the time taken to echange them.