Boatyard won’t release boat
- Thread starter WayneP
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Jim@sea
Well-Known Member
I had a Garage and took a car in for repair (front suspension had collapsed whilst driving) and the repair cost more than the car was worth.
Someone walked in and said they had just bought the car and wanted to take it away. (I refused)
I rang a solicitor and his advice was to put an advert in the local paper saying that the car would be sold and the money received would be kept towards the repair costs. Which is what I did. (I also put a copy of the advert through the owners letter box.
This is what I would do now if the outstanding bill was not paid.
Someone walked in and said they had just bought the car and wanted to take it away. (I refused)
I rang a solicitor and his advice was to put an advert in the local paper saying that the car would be sold and the money received would be kept towards the repair costs. Which is what I did. (I also put a copy of the advert through the owners letter box.
This is what I would do now if the outstanding bill was not paid.
Scotsailor
N/A
How could you sell a car if you aren’t the owner? Doesn’t make sense to me.
lusitano
Well-Known Member
Did you discuss the repair costs with the owner or provide an estimate, prior to carrying out job ?
Jim@sea
Well-Known Member
Yes I did and my mechanic even agreed to go to a scrap yard to get some parts. I seem to remember that as the front of the cars steering had collapsed on a public road and was there for a few hours the Police may have seen it and I believe there was no Mot or Road Tax.
penberth3
Well-Known Member
Maybe when he stops crying. Give him time.
steveeasy
Well-Known Member
Well lets go round in circles.
Can a garage keep your car?
A garage that has repaired your car has what is known as a 'lien'. This is the right to keep the car until they’ve been paid for all work done.
But I thought to have a lien over something it has to be in writing. perhaps its in the T&Cs.
Steveeasy
Can a garage keep your car?
A garage that has repaired your car has what is known as a 'lien'. This is the right to keep the car until they’ve been paid for all work done.
- If you take your car away without authorisation you risk both civil proceedings and criminal prosecution.
- Apart from legal proceedings or leaving your car while any dispute is sorted out, the only option is to pay the amount demanded, marking the invoice as 'paid under protest'.
But I thought to have a lien over something it has to be in writing. perhaps its in the T&Cs.
Steveeasy
Norman_E
Well-Known Member
A lien does not actually have to be in writing, but most organisations put their intention that any goods you deposit with them are subject to a lien to cover their charges into their terms and conditions. Most marinas seem to have it in their contract terms.
As examples of a lien with no need for any written contract, innkeepers (Innkeepers Act 1878), sellers of goods (Sale of Goods Act, 1893) have a general lien over the property of their customers (in their posession)> Factors, Bankers, Solicitors and Stockbrokers also have a lien over clients property by custom. A simple example was that bankers have always had and where necessary asserted their right of lien over accounts that were in credit if the same customer also had an overdrawn account or loan. Banks now put this right to offset balances into their T & Cs, but did not always do so in the past because their right to do so was customary and accepted by the courts as such.
As examples of a lien with no need for any written contract, innkeepers (Innkeepers Act 1878), sellers of goods (Sale of Goods Act, 1893) have a general lien over the property of their customers (in their posession)> Factors, Bankers, Solicitors and Stockbrokers also have a lien over clients property by custom. A simple example was that bankers have always had and where necessary asserted their right of lien over accounts that were in credit if the same customer also had an overdrawn account or loan. Banks now put this right to offset balances into their T & Cs, but did not always do so in the past because their right to do so was customary and accepted by the courts as such.
theluckyone17
New Member
Laws vary between locations, but I picked up my Westerly Centaur via a similar process. The prior owner engaged the local yacht club to store the boat. For whatever reason, he stopped paying the storage fees over the course of two or three years. The club formally placed a lien on it through New York State and obtained certified proof of a failure to contact the original owner. Notice was placed in the local newspaper for the public auction of the boat. Public auction was held, and nobody bid on it (club's full of power boaters, go figure that none of them wanted a sailboat). I was doing some pro bono IT work for the club, and it was sold to me for a song. Club had all the documentation to hand to New York State for the lien sale, so everything went off without a hitch. The club didn't get what was back owed to them for the storage fees, but they cleared out a derelict boat (saving it from being crushed in the process) and gained a member in the end.
Fanny Haddock
N/A
How did you get its V5? It's an aside, but I have to say, I don't think you could do it today. I tried to get a copy of a V5 for a vintage motorcycle I've owned for nearly 45 years, & the information they required was ridiculous, like "name & address of person you bought it off". Who the hell could remember that (funnily enough, I did remember his name). Couldn't get one, so can't sell it in anything but parts.
Easier with boats though having no registration in the UK.
Has the OP actually taken 'wet delivery' of his then?
eddystone
Well-Known Member
I’d be interested in outcome as well but the OP is not obliged to give feedback, possibly good manners to do so if you’ve used the forum to request help (mea culpa!). I guess silence means there has been some sort of resolution in which case we are at liberty to reflect on lessons that might be learned. Possible best to stick to standard forms of contract and procedure rather than make it up as you go along. In a previous life I got burned for exercising retentions on a £60M building contract I wasn’t entitled to as a consequence of listening to the accountant rather than the lawyer.
Jim@sea
Well-Known Member
I believe that when I put the advert in the newspaper saying something like "Car Registration OWX 781 If the cost of the repairs to this vehicle are not paid within 30 days the vehicle will be sold to defray expenses" Is a notice that there is a lien.
And now after being in another business for 30 years where many people have tried to rip me off I would say that depending on how much the repair was, if the marina was part of a group, I would put the boat on a low loader and move it to the furthest distance away from where it is. And if the owner wants to know where it is I would say. Pay the bill and I will tell you"
eddystone
Well-Known Member
But as the seller, who may well still be the owner notwithstanding the fact the OP has paid a 90% deposit (!) appears to have scarpered with his 90% and bought a new boat to happily go off sailing and washed his hands of his debt to the boatyard why should he care now what happens to the boat. The OP on the other hand has no boat, and cannot reasonably settle a boatyard bill that is not his and we understand is far in excess of the 10% retention. Sounds like a well planned scam by the seller to me and the OP should instruct a solicitor instead of following some of the dubious suggestions in this thread
Greemble
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What repair?
The previous/current owner owes the boatyard mooring fees
Refueler
Well-Known Member
Is it ? As far as I read - the previous guy has an unpaid bill. What that is ?????
Greemble
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Good point.
I'm going on #6 where 'storage costs' are mentioned and the OP says the previous owner was helping with a 'few jobs to complete', So from that I inferred the the PO was the type to fix things himself rather than pay someone else.
Thus the bill was all storage/mooring - but you're right, the unpaid bill isn't really specified.
Sorry Jim@sea.
I wonder if either of our assumptions will be found as correct.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
Its also seems strange as it appears from what OP says - the bill is open-ended as seller is agreed to pay storage while sale is completed etc.
TBH - I find the whole affair one that defies logic .. and if as appears most sits on verbal agreement - could prove unsatisfactory.
Greemble
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More speculation:
I'm thinking the seller said he's pay the storage costs 'while the sale was being completed' as he already owed for a few (several) months already. Possibly with the genuine intention of paying them out of the sale of the boat.
However, another boat caught his eye...
Here's hoping for the OP and a lesson to be learned for all of us - again, as had been said many time before in this thread.
I'm thinking the seller said he's pay the storage costs 'while the sale was being completed' as he already owed for a few (several) months already. Possibly with the genuine intention of paying them out of the sale of the boat.
However, another boat caught his eye...
Here's hoping for the OP and a lesson to be learned for all of us - again, as had been said many time before in this thread.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
The claim that's it's all perfectly simple and covered by the contract seems to have faded away a bit, hasn't it?
Caraway
Well-Known Member
Very doubtful. The OP had probably been frightened away.
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