Selling uncollected goods - allowed under Irish law?

lawrose

Hi all

Was just reading over a garage's Terms and Conditions yesterday on behalf of a client and spotted something about selling uncollected goods.

Under the heading "Uncollected Goods" was the following statement: -
"The company may exercise its rights as regards uncollected goods under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 and if the goods are not collected when the work is completed, or before any notice to that effect expires, the company may proceed to sell the goods subject to any notice under the Act."

That Act was new to me so I checked it up - and it's an English Act! The company involved here is Irish and stipulates that the governing law is the law of Ireland.

I was just wondering, is the sale of uncollected goods allowed under Irish Law. Does the tort of conversion or detinue affect any sale of another person's property?

Is it sufficient to amend your terms and conditions to simply something like "Goods remaining uncollected 7 days after notification of completion of works will be subject to storage and handling charges of €20 per day to a maximum of 30 days. If the goods still remain uncollected, the company may sell the goods and apply the sale proceeds to the invoice for the works carried out and any storage, handling and associated sale costs. Any balance remaining will be reimbursed to the customer."

Thanks for all comments and input.

lawrose

Victor

lawrose wrote: »

Is it sufficient to amend your terms and conditions to simply something like "Goods remaining uncollected 7 days after notification of completion of works will be subject to storage and handling charges of €20 per day to a maximum of 30 days. If the goods still remain uncollected, the company may sell the goods and apply the sale proceeds to the invoice for the works carried out and any storage, handling and associated sale costs. Any balance remaining will be reimbursed to the customer."

That would be venturing into the world of liquidated damages and such amount would need to be reasonable.

30 days might be found to be unreasonable.

lawrose

Thanks Victor. Appreciate the feedback.

When you say that 30 days might be unreasonable, do you think it's too much or too little?

I think myself that charging storage charges for 30 days would be reasonable in circumstances where a customer has already been asked to take their vehicle home and has been given 7 days to do so once the works/repairs are completed. Whether my client will implement it is another thing, but I think the threat of it would be sufficient for most people.

I do think €20 per day is a bit steep and I might suggest to the client to put the figure of €10 per day for 30 days, after which the vehicle will be sold to recoup the repair costs and the storage costs.

Fey!

I don't think that the garage can sell of the car.

I know of one garage local to me which has had a customers car on their premises for 5 years; they're waiting for the customer to pay the large repair bill he had agreed to before work was carried out, but they don't think that they have a legal right to ownership of the car, which they would require in order to sell it.

On a similar note, a lot of shops have notices toat they will sell off repair items not collected within 60 days to recoup costs, but again I'm not sure of the legalities.

Meadows

I have had a laptop waiting for collection for well over a year now, the customer keeps telling me next month, next month, next month. I have told him I must sell to recoup costs. I cant stand looking at the dam thing any-more. "(Interference with Goods) Act 1977" appears UK law. Is it ok that I do that? I kinda feel sorry for the guy, I'm pretty sure he wants it back but cant afford it?

Milk & Honey

There is a common law lien created in favour of a repairer when goods are handed over to be repaired and work is done on the goods.
Garages have a particular problem as they cant register anyone as the new owner, and they are required by law to give good title to the purchaser of a vehicle from them. Other repairers such as dry cleaners routinely sell off uncollected goods.

Meadows

what do the garages do with the cars?