Unauthorised Sale of my Car by Mechanic

Good morning all and thanks in advance for any help you can provide me. If I could request your answers please cite legislation/common law/case law that would be great. I’m in NSW.

Q1: What enquires and who with, would the server of a legal document or letter of demand/intention of property sale (my vehicle), be expected by a court/tribunal to undertake, to verify my address? Also successful service.

Q2: Can a mechanic sell my car without permission or knowledge if there is a perceived unpaid debt?

Q3: In NSW, what are the best avenues to undertake civil action including obtaining the legal advice given to a client (the mechanic)?

Q4: How do I track where the engine might be? Will the RMS assist?

Q5: If the mechanic acted illegally, can the buyer of my car be liable as well as the mechanic?

The story: In mid 2018 after calling my mechanic and him telling me to bring my car in that day, which I had towed in, it took him more than six months to look at it, citing he needed a diagnostic tool which he would get, and subsequently figure out what was wrong. That was all the work I authorised, which would take approx five minutes in labour diagnosis time - I was expecting to pay an hour’s labour so no big deal there. The mechanic has my phone number, email and a past address from 2018 which he got off a previous invoice from another car of mine he had worked on.

After this initial six months, he called me to say that the car was ready and several other issues had been identified, and the necessary repairs completed. This was done without my knowledge or permission. I asked for an invoice to be emailed to me, which I never received, so I let the car sit at the mechanic’s until I received it, as I needed it in writing if I intended to question the unauthorised works, and also for my service records.

After about a further year went past (at that time 18mths total at the mechanic) and the invoice never came (little did I know it had been sold around April 2019). I emailed him a few times without a response.

A few days ago decided to go to the workshop in person to see what the situation was. He told me that he had sold my car “to a guy on Facebook for $660”. All this without my knowledge and no correspondence received by me to that effect. The value of the car is about $10,000 and it was in possession of the mechanic for a total of about 10 months before being sold.

He told me that he had received legal advice, and had hand delivered two letters (unknown content) to my address. I enquired about the address and he stated an address I haven’t lived at for almost two years. As a result I had no idea of his intentions and have received no correspondence.

Thanks for reading.

Comments

  • +84

    in mid 2018 after calling my mechanic and him telling me to bring my car in that day, which I had towed in
    A few days ago decided to go to the workshop in person to see what the situation was

    Sounds like a troll post.

    You got your 10k car towed to a mechanic in mid 2018 and only decided to go them now?

      • +35

        Just for conversation sake, why, when you didnt receive the invoice after a week did you not call or go into the mechanic?

          • @[Deactivated]: Do you mean an out of sight out of mind issue for you. Can we finally get your proposed actions for your 4 questions.

    • +3

      OP was hoping for whatever the invoice amount to depreciate along with the car.

  • was the car registered?

    • +2

      No it wasn’t, it had been stored in my previous garage. I was the last registered owner for the previous 10 years or so. When I moved house, the car wasn’t running so it was towed to the mechanic. Cheers

      • was it insured?

      • Over 10 year preowned car that worth $10k(According to you) and you never bothered to go yourself to check for a very long time it and then sold on facebook for $660.You must be one those AMG investment buyers. Lol yeah im believing

  • +19

    It can come down to the terms of the Agreement between you and the mechanic or in the absence of specific
    Terms, the Mechanic can seek relief through asserting what is known as a "possessory lien" over the vehicle.

    You may be looking at the Uncollected Goods Act 1995 and that will state the forms of notification and time periods
    that apply.

    See a Solicitor without any further delay.

    • +3

      Thank you. Yeah I have contacted a solicitors office and I’m awaiting a return phone call to discuss my options. Cheers

      • +102

        Make sure not to follow up too quickly with the solicitor

        • +4

          I’ll take that on board. Cheers

      • +17

        Hopefully they call you back in less than 6 months.

    • +52

      See a Solicitor without any further delay.

      I look forward to the next update to this story in 2025.

  • +1

    Tbh, I would never leave my car unattended for that long.
    Well, if the car was sold without rego then the new owner will have the receipt of sale, and the seller would be the mechanic on the receipt.
    But then the new owner has to register the car for RMS to know its movements. Otherwise, it can sit in the new owners garage/land etc indefinitely until they decide to register it.

    It seems like the mechanic sold your car to claw his money for the work done to it.
    The only way you can go is legal, and then it will be a tedious, lengthy and expensive avenue, which the mechanic has been advised by his legal practitioner.
    He probably thinks that if a customer has left his car so long in his workshop, then he wont pursue for compensation.

    But then, if there is proof that the mechanic has tried all avenues to contact you, and you took a respective long time to contact him, then he might win in court IMO as i'm no lawyer.

    It'll probably cost you to price of your car in legal fees to claim back your money; that is if you win.

    Good luck

  • +15

    If I change the months in your story to days then it seems much more plausible. 18 days for example when you dropped by the mechanic in person.

    Go to your local legal centre for a starting point and/or seek some other sort of professional help.

    • +10

      Change the months to seconds for a real rollercoaster

  • +2

    Why would you be leaving it there for 6mths before a diagnosis. There is the problem that could have avoided the whole situation. Alarm bells should have been ringing when he told you he didn't have equipment. In any event you now need to speak with your own lawyer to sort this mess out. We're you calling them rather than just emails. I don't know how to feel about this post. In hindsight you should have told them that unless they can tell you what is happening in a week, and fix it in a timely manner like another week after diag. You will have it towed to another work shop. The mind boggles. I wouldn't trust any mechanic for a 2 days. Sorry to those good mechs.

  • +4

    After about a further year went past

    You left the good uncollected for more than 7 months.
    https://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/story/5368792/thats-t…

    At the other end of the spectrum, for goods between $500 and $5,000 there is a mandatory six months written notice, a newspaper notice in a NSW-wide newspaper must be circulated 28 days before the sale, and the goods must be sold at public auction. For goods over $5,000 there must be an order from the Court.

    • +6

      Based on that OP is in a decent position for compensation since A) There was no Auction and B) Car is supposedly worth over $5000. Looking forward to the followup I'll keep any eye out for bargain popcorn.

      • +37

        Lol there won't be any follow up, there never is to troll posts. Maybe this is a question for some uni work or something and he can't be bothered doing any research himself.

        • +3

          There's so much more effort in coming up with this story than there would be in just doing the research!

    • Thank you for your post 👍

      • +2

        Hey man, I understand completely because i am that guy who would rather not deal with it while theres free storage and its not a priority for me at the time. I want a follow up for this though.

  • -1

    You chose not to pay for the repairs. Now you have to pay for the legal cost.

    • +3

      I didn’t have an invoice to pay.

      • +7

        I hope you understand that we all know you are lying in this opening post.

    • +2

      Although OP's story sounds ridiculous, you would not be legally obliged to pay for repairs you did not agree to (expressly or impliedly). If you bring it in and say "fix anything that needs fixing" you'd be stuck, but if you brought it in for a specific purpose you would have no contractual obligation to pay for other stuff that was done without consultation.

      If I take my suit in to get dry cleaned I am not obliged to pay if they decide to do alterations to it while it's there.

      To the contrary, the mechanic has arguably committed a trespass to the OP's car in that scenario (again, assuming that OP's story is true).

      • No matter what he says about having other cars, I don't think someone would wait 6 months for a mechanic to get a diagnosis tool on a $10k car.

        I would think it's a fair assumption that a customer waiting 6 months for a diagnosis is going to get it repaired, otherwise they would get it towed somewhere else. And if it comes to to his word that he only authorised diagnosis vs the mechanics word that he asked for a repair, in front of a judge…I'd probably side with the mechanic.

  • +31

    Asks for an invoice, doesn't get one, waits over a year to go and check up on it?

    What did you think someone would do with your car just taking up valuable workshop space?
    Based on that level of contact I would assume you had died.

    • -3

      It was parked on the street for a long while as I received a letter from the council. Cheers

      • +1

        And what did you do in response to that letter from council?

        • +35

          waited 18 months and then called to them to see if it was an issue

          • +5

            @SBOB: A whole new meaning to procrastination.

        • Where's OP answer on this question?

          • +1

            @Melb69: Theory: OP is the mechanic and wanting to gauge public opinion if they chose to exercise Repairer's Lien.

      • As the mechanic had not been able to reach you through post, they probably reported it to the council as abandoned to prompt you to do something.

  • +9

    How much were you planning on paying for storing your hunk o junk at the mechanic’s place?

  • +10

    Repairers Lien is what it is called
    and YES they can sell your car if you have not paid your bill and they have had the car for a lengthy period of time.
    I will say in all my years working in a mechanical workshop this is the first time i have ever heard of it happening.

    It sounds like he followed his legal requirements:
    Attempted to contact you (hand delivered letters)
    Gave you ample opportunity to cover the monies owed.

    You could try taking him to court, the chances are he has ticked every box he needs to tick to enact his Repairers Lien rights

    https://vacc.com.au/TACC/Motorist-tips-advice/Repairers-lien
    The repairer's lien is a lawful entitlement that any repairer has a right to enforce. It is the ability of the repairer to retain possession of your vehicle until he has received payment for services that you, as the customer, have asked the repairer to carry out. The repairer's lien, in most cases, takes priority over any other interest held in the vehicle by another party, (financiers etc).

    • +1

      Thanks for your reply. The issue was after requesting an invoice I never received one to look at, dispute or to pay, so I had no idea of what the extra unauthorised work costs were. The second part is that the letters were delivered to an address I moved out of around two years ago.

      It doesn’t seem to me like there were any enquiries to verify I still lived there. If I’d received them, I wouldn’t have ignored them. I also didn’t receive any emails or calls/voicemails about his intentions. I would’ve thought an email with attachment of the document would be a good way to do it, which has a record trail. Cheers for your help.

      • I can say that it does sound fishy to me the fact that they made limited or no attempt to contact you other than letters
        i know from my exp i would of been calling your phone daily if it had been months without payment and i had your car on my lot.
        I dont know tbh, you might have a chance in court but its going to cost a lot of money to fight them and they will have everything they need to cover themselves.

        it is a hard situation for sure, on one hand i see why the mechanic sold the car on the other i can see your position at not being contacted etc.

        • +3

          Thanks, I appreciate your message. It’s an unusual one, and I’m copping a lot of hate for leaving the car there without following up, but posters should bear in mind the unauthorised work, and the initial six month wait seems excessive too. There was contact during that time but it was replies like “we’re waiting for this tool, it will be here soon” kind of the ‘be patient, you’re annoying us’ vibe.

          Cheers

          • @[Deactivated]: Do you have email proof of that? If you went to court, you should be ready to demonstrate that.

        • Sounds like more work to organise selling the car than it does to actually call the person and get them to pay up…

      • Why wouldn't you go down there and just get the invoice? Unless you advised him that you had moved how would he know other than what info he already had from you off the other invoice. This is partly due to what I always say. Never assume anything. A normal mechanic would have called you with diag and authorisation of the go ahead to do the works. He must have been so busy and your lack of action to see what was going on left him the opportunity to take advantage of his situation in dealing with you. It also seems like you didn't make any enquiries to him in a timely manor to sort out the situation. Ie just going there like you did after 18 months. Is that normal to you. Come on mate.

        • +1

          But maybe the OP was busy at the manor with the crops and ploughing the fields and thatching the roof and milking the cows… lol

          • +1

            @holdenmg: Yeah Busy Mate. See ya in a few months. On walkabout.

    • +4

      These hand delivered letters don't make a whole lot of sense to me when they had his phone number…

      • +4

        I don't think hand-delivered letters count anyway (AKA that never happened).

        If you were going to cement your legal position, you'd send them by registered post.

        Saying they were hand delivered simply means there were no letters.

        On the other hand, the months and months of waiting without follow up doesn't sound reasonable. I hope the OPs requests and follow ups were by email….

    • "Attempted to contact you (hand delivered letters)"

      At the very least on this point it means nothing. Did you get the letter I hand delivered to you yesterday @jimbobaus ?
      Words are cheap.

      On the other hand OP has learned that laziness and indifference doesn't pay off.

  • What was the value of the work that is in dispute?

    • Hey ewan. Apparently $660 however I have never received an invoice. Cheers

  • +3

    This is incredible - a year goes past with no correspondence with the mechanic and the car is worth $10k. How is that possible?
    So OP expects the mechanic to create space for his car in his workshop all this time?

    • +5

      The vehicle was only worth the $660.

      • +1

        That was the apparent cost of the repairs, which I only found out about after going to the mechanic in person. So he said he sold it for that. He knows his engines and knows that and the gearbox would get around $5000 alone if parted out. For that reason, I think there are a lot of things that don’t add up with the ‘sale’ of the car. Cheers

        • +4

          What sort of car is this?

          • +11

            @brendanm: No reply? I'll assume that car is not worth anywhere near what you claim.

            I've had to deal with customers who don't pay their bills, don't answer the phone, and leave their shitboxes at the workshop for long periods of time. It's extremely annoying. Having said that, the process to sell it is very tedious, have to try to contact, put a notice in the paper, sell at auction etc.

        • Meh you abandoned the vehicle. They can charge you reasonable storage costs over 12 months + the value of the repairs that can easily justify disposing of the vehicle to recover costs. Send it to court and observe carefully how they don't like it when people act unreasonably and try to make dumb excuses.

  • +2

    Lol. You told the mechanic that you were ok with waiting 6 months for a diagnostic tool to arrive?

    To be totally honest I would expect a mechanic to sell my car if I left it with him for 10 months. That is an unreasonably long time.

    After reading the part about him calling you to say the car was ready and you doing absolutely nothing to follow up/pickup the car I think this is your fault. You can’t blame the fact that you didn’t receive the invoice. You could have asked for the invoice in person when you went to pick it up or call him daily until you receive it. You had so many potential options and it sounds like you did none of them.

    • For a common car no less.

  • +5

    Talk to a solicitor.

    Your mechanic will be unable to prove that he delivered the invoices. This is why we use registered mail for official business.

    In the absence of proof that every attempt has been made to deliver an invoice to you, the case would be very much in your favour.

    • +6

      I disagree as someone who has worked in the industry for many years (only leaving recently)
      The courts very much find in favour or mechanics more often than not.
      the car was on site for over 12 months, the mechanic will only have to prove this and the court will consider the car abandoned and as such the repairers lien will be applicable.
      Also i suspect the mechanic got their lawyer to draw up the letters (which is a requirement under the code) the lawyer will have gotten a registered service to hand deliver (similar to those used for service of legal summons etc) and that service will have recorded that no one was home and where the letter was left (letterbox etc) this will be enough for the courts, the service used will most likely issue an stat dec or give evidence in court.

      its also OP's responsibility to ensure contact information was correct when he dropped/towed his car to the mechanic. i know i always check just to make sure the mechanic can contact me… all this aside.. why would anyone wait 12 months to follow up ? i do not think this story has any validity. In my years exp in the trade no one waits that long ever.

      on top of all this, it is going to cost OP more in legal fees than the cars "implied" value to fight it and he will lose. If it was 1 or 2 months he would be very much in the better position, the OP left the car in MID 2018 so we are talking 2 years here. The car was abandoned, the OP did not pay his bills and therefore the mechanic acted within his legal rights and the courts will agree no question.

      • +3

        Mechanic didn't follow due process.

        They can claim that they have held the car for 12 months but they will have to prove multiple attempts to contact the owner for payment and to inform them the job is complete and they'd have to do so over a period of time.

        They would have to put the car up for auction.

        If they followed the process, the court sides with the mechanic even if there are a whole lot of circumstances involved.

        So far, we are told a story by OP that we should take as completely factual. If OP has misled us, the opinions and advice is moot.

        • +2

          Agreed about the advice etc

          100% the mechanic would of followed the process.
          OP said the mechanic got legal advice, the lawyer would of handled the entire process. The service of documents would of been done by the lawyer via a registered agency who are legally bound (this would be the same agency who would serve summons etc)

          Again i agree with you whether the OP's store is factual.
          but i can say i am certain if it is the mechanic would of made sure their position was covered legally.

          we had a situation where we were considering a repairers lien on a car, we called customer and told them and they came in next day and paid (it was only 2-3 weeks and the customer was just ignoring our calls) we went to our lawyer and they explained the process and were going to take it over if we proceeded.

          When you tell someone you are going to take their car they find the money pretty damn quick.
          (it was like $700 for tyres and brakes.. the guy was never going to pay he came in and asked to test drive the car before he paid we agreed and said a mechanic should go with him he was unwilling so we refused., it was very clear he planned to cut and run, so he "went to the bank" and we never heard from him again until we texted and said we were starting proceedings to take his car)

          • +1

            @jimbobaus:

            OP said the mechanic got legal advice, the lawyer would of handled the entire process. The service of documents would of been done by the lawyer via a registered agency who are legally bound (this would be the same agency who would serve summons etc)

            Lawyer here. The kinds of lawyers who do small scale debt recovery work and the like are more likely than not to get something wrong. When these things go to court you can just about guarantee that it will fall over because they have failed to do something properly (address for service, appropriate forms, actually communicating with the right person, actually identifying a valid claim for payment, etc etc).

        • +10

          Op version of the story is at best 50% of what happened.

          • @whooah1979: I understand your scepticism as it was an unusually long time to have repairs completed. The thing was, I had other ways to get around and it was a bit like my car was out of sight, out of mind. I’ve included every detail I could think of and have been truthful in this post. I see no point in trying to get the internet on my side - it really does me no good in reality.

            There are a heck of a lot of useless opinion replies so far, that follow the internet hate trend. It’s really toxic and unhelpful (not yours specifically). Looking for answers that can help me get some clarity backed by facts (I’m waiting for a return call from a solicitor too).

            Cheers

            • +5

              @[Deactivated]: But sometimes you have to step up and take some responsibility for your own inaction. If perse you left the car to a stranger for 6month/ year.
              Do you think you might get it back or in one piece. Understand the mechanic may have taken advantage of the situation with delay tactics, 6 months is ridiculous.

            • @[Deactivated]: The ONLY useful advice anyone can give you is to seek legal recourse.

              The mechanic either followed the process or they didn't.

              This is likely not the first time they have had to deal with an abandoned vehicle and it's not a super complicated process. Finding out where you moved to is not their problem, they can serve documents to you via registered post to your last know address.

              Your out of sight out of mind excuse will be laughed at, you made no attempt to pay the bill or recover your vehicle.

          • @whooah1979: That would be speculation. As reasonable as that speculation may be, it doesn't contribute to the discussion, infact it redirects the discussion into one of OPs motives, choices, etc.

            This can be observed by most of the comments above.

            • @[Deactivated]: Thank you for your post. I’m looking for facts but getting a lot of emotional responses which don’t provide help.

          • +10

            @whooah1979: This…

            I'm betting the story went more like;

            • OP's car broke down and took it to a garage.
            • OP gave ok for it to be diagnosed but then refused to pay for diagnosis
            • Dispute went on for 6 months over diagnosis payment. (no diagnostic tool takes 6 months.)
            • Finally OP agrees to have the work done.
            • Work done, OP again refuses to pay and wants a discount/dispute amount.
            • Leaves it at the mechanic hoping they will just say "fine, just move it".
            • They didn't and mechanic sold the car to recover the debt.

            Every single time I have had to threaten to sell a customer's car over unpaid debts, this is the exact flow every single time. A lot of people think that the mechanic can't sell the car from under them, so, in some weird, broken logic, they think their car is untouchable and leaving it at the mechanic is a pain. It usually isn't, as it gets stuffed in a corner until it's sorted out or sold.

              • +10

                @[Deactivated]: Opinion, yes (hence the reason I started it with "I'm betting…") Emotional, hardly. It's not my car or my mechanic. I have no vested interest in your vehicle, other than the lols.

                No facts and pure speculation.

                You have stated a few times now that it's hypothetical, so not even you are being forward with the "facts". If it's all "hypothetical", then why cant my version of what happened be treated as a version?

                Do you have anything to offer the discussion?

                Yep. Previous experience dealing with no-paying customers. And my experience on forums that suggest that most times there is only one side of the story getting told and it's usually coloured to suit the story teller (aka: xBox switcharoo thread/single bed hotel fiasco) that later turns out to be, as @whooah said, about 50% true (at best).

                • @pegaxs: apparently…… not hypothetical, but regardless of whether it's relevant to the discussion or not, they still wont say what kind of car this is.

                  unregistered, more than 10 years old, sitting on the street outside the mechanics for who knows how long, gets a council notice about it and still doesn't go down to the mechanic to say, "what is going on", until a couple of days ago. apparently…..

                  or is the legal term here allegedly….

                  • +5

                    @jimdotpud: "allegedly"

                    I want to know what car, over 10 years old, with mechanical issues, that you don't care enough about to just leave at a mechanic for two years is worth $10,000…

    • Yes, however cars and other things can be parted out. The engine has an engine number which is registered with the RMS.

      • So it’s pure speculation the engine isn’t still in the same vehicle. Despite the RMS recording the engine number they don’t really care about it and probably won’t disclose due to privacy.

        • The engine number and VIN are the two most identifiable parts of the car. I’ll have to enquire with the RMS as to whether the car has been registered again or the engine put in another car. Maybe they can’t disclose it, I’ll have to see. Why don’t you think they’ll care about it?

          • @[Deactivated]: Cars are easy to engine swap. The pink slip inspections I’ve had over the last decade haven’t included a thorough engine number check ergo the RMS don’t care if the vehicle has a different engine to what is listed.

  • +4

    I'm not a lawyer, but I can google so this may assist.

    https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/trades-and-businesses/bus…

    You need to ascertain whether the mechanic did each of the following.
    1. A business can’t dispose of an uncollected motor vehicle unless the Commissioner of Police has given them a certificate stating that the vehicle is not recorded as stolen. After this certificate has been issued, follow the above guidelines.
    2. Between $500-5000 the business can only dispose of the goods by public auction and only if:
    - written notice has been given to the consumer and each other person claiming an interest in the goods of the intention to dispose of the goods; and
    - the goods are still not collected after 6 months of that notice; and
    - a copy of that notice is published, at least 28 days before the goods are disposed of, in a daily newspaper circulating throughout NSW.

    Personally if someone did unauthorised repairs to my car and I wasn't stoked, I'd have followed up sooner. You had other arrangements but the mechanic wouldn't have taken kindly to his garage becoming a free carpark. Fault on both sides but the above is in your favour (if the mechanic didn't follow the required steps).

    • Thank you for your helpful post. Cheers

  • +12

    Q1: None and last known address that they had on file.

    Q2: Yes, answered above multiple times.

    Q3: Speak to a lawyer.

    Q4: You cant. You may report it stolen, but if the car has been sold over a lien, you may be making a false report. And no, the RMS wont help you. Something about privacy laws.

    Q5: Possibly. Speak to a lawyer.

    As a ex-service manager, I have had to threaten possessory liens a few times, but this is the first I have heard of someone actually ignoring it and it being enacted. The whole story sounds like it's full of shit. 6 months to get a tool? You didn't do any follow ups. You didn't do anything about chasing up invoices and disputing costs. To me it sounds like you didn't have room for the vehicle at your new residence and decided to use the mechanic as a psuedo-storage facility thinking that the mechanic cant sell it.

    The value of the car is about $10,000

    What car was it?

      • +11

        You didn’t cite anything to back your information.

        Are you unable or unwilling to use Google?

        Q1: There is no legal requirement for them to go hunting around for your details through different sources…

        Uncollected Goods Act NSW 1995, Part 3, Section 27

        Any notice under this Part may be given to or served on the person:
        (a) personally or by a letter addressed to the person and left at, or sent by post to, the person’s last known address

        Q2: Already answered above. If you want some light reading, you can find it under the Uncollected Good Act 1995 NSW

        Q3: The best way to take civil action to so "speak to a lawyer", not a bunch of armchair barristers on a bargain forum…

        Q4: You cannot "track" an engine. It may have been sold as spares, scrapped, sold interstate, etc. The only way would be to flag it via way of theft, but the police may ask where it was stolen from and you would have to tell them this story, and they will most likely just say its a civil matter.
        AND the RMS is not in the game of (willingly) giving out information. If you have the vehicles VIN, you can run a PPSR check on it and if it is registered, will give you the current registration details, but this is still useless.

        Q5: Possibly. If The mechanic sold it to their brother without due course, possibly. If the mechanic sold it at auction after the correct paperwork and time, possibly not. For this avenue you would need to "speak to a lawyer"…

        And it's only aggressive because you are shopping for a version you like and didnt get it from me. Have you tried Whirlpool??

        • -7

          Thank you. That was more helpful. I’m not using the comments as offical legal advice so don’t worry. More after links and sources to information. I did google and came up with some good information, but it’s always good to hear from educated people too (whilst also tuning out from the hate noise). You seem like one, just a bit frustrated with this scenario, which is an unusual one I admit, and perhaps more proactivity could’ve helped resolve this. Thanks for the links. Cheers

          • +4

            @[Deactivated]: And there it is. "and perhaps more proactivity could’ve helped resolve this"and up vote to @pegaxs

  • +2

    why do you keep throwing up "use it as a hypothetical". you aren't helping your case at all.

    you also don't seem to answer questions. what car is it? how old is it? why did you not follow up? after not getting the invoice after a week, why not call them back?

    whole thing seems ridiculous. if he got legal advice, he would not be palming it off to some guy on facebook, he would have followed what legal advice he got, which would be public notice and public auction.

    mechanics don't want your car sitting around. every single mechanic i've ever used, is on the phone regularly to tell you what and when and how much, before they do anything.

    • -2

      Well if I’m getting emotional responses with no facts, because someone doubts the story, what help is that to the discussion? I guess those who can’t hypothesise and take the post at face value, probably aren’t going to help me.

      There are anomalies and mistakes made by everyone everyday. Lawyers and mechanics make them too, that’s why I’m getting clarifying advice. With the ‘sale’, I’m going off what the mechanic told me in person.

      The details outside of the value of the car of no consequence and I’d rather keep that to myself at this point. Your other comment is answered above in various posts.

      By the looks of it, a court order is required to sell the car. Cheers

      • +7

        i notice you still didn't answer any questions

        • -4

          Even though it is not relevant, if you really need it to assist with answering the questions, reread the thread. The info is there.

          The point of making the post was not to figure out why I did what I did, just the facts of what happened. I’m looking for useful information based on legislation. Can you help? Cheers

          • +1

            @[Deactivated]: sorry i can't seem to find any of that except some vague reference to :

            I was the last registered owner for the previous 10 years or so

            so its more than 10 years old and is still worth $10k, but you left it at the mechanics for close to a year and a half and couldn't be bothered to chase it up.

            if this story is true, you best contact legal advice

  • +15

    The mechanics side of the story would be interesting.

    • That’s true, he might be able to shed some light on what his legal advice and thought processes were. Cheers.

      • +1

        Can you invite the mechanic to join this forum? We may get to see more “facts” and not much of “hypothetical” information. Thanks in advance.

    • +12

      I want this to be like the hotel fiasco thread, where the hotel manager turned up and debunked OP's post or the xBox thread where the buyer turned up and proved OP was being a shifty arsehole.

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