Mechanic and Car Repair

shane_by

The incident that I describe below is entirely fictitious. It is not a request for legal advice.

A 18-year-old girl ‘borrows’ her parents’ car while they are away on a break. She has a road traffic accident resulting in minor damage to the car that requires a repair at her local garage. The mechanic (who is also the garage owner) inspects the damage and informs her that it ‘should’ cost ‘around €500’ to repair. She leaves the car in the garage on Saturday and intends to collect it before her parents’ return later in the week.
She receives a call from the garage owner on Monday telling her that the car is now ready for collection.
At the garage, she is about to hand over the €500 when the mechanic says, ‘sorry love, the cost is €900’. When she reminds him that they had agreed on €500, he replies, ‘the cost is now €900 and until I am paid in full this car and its keys are staying here with me’. He repeats this reply when she asks him how the cost could possibly have jumped by €400.

I would welcome opinions on the legal rights of the girl and the mechanic e.g. can he legally hold on to the car until the €900 is handed over; although the €500 is an estimate, can he unilaterally almost double the price without first advising her that the job is going to cost more than originally thought.

P.S. As I said, this is not a request for legal advice.

seamus

Not really. What she would have received was a verbal estimate for the work, not a fixed price. Good practice would dictate that the garage owner would contact her before overshooting it, but he's not legally required to.

He would be obliged however, to provide her with an invoice for the work, detailing where the cost was.

A garage owner would be entitled to hold onto the vehicle until the bill was paid in full. I can't remember the specific term for it, but it's the same law which allows a hotel to hold onto a patron's belongings (left in the room of course) until the room bill is paid.

Stirling

Just to be utterly pedantic its called a Mechanic's Lien - also available to Solicitors to hold onto Title Documents etc until they get paid

BrandonBlock

A mechanic did that to me before but it was only from €400 estimate to €440 final price, was still a bit annoyed though. I think the best thing to do is tell them you want a fixed price before they carry out any additional work that would make the bill higher, because you don't have the money.