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.
As a random internet user, I agree that would be entertaining. Unfortunately I’m involved which sux 😆