have temporary car and owner wont take it back

triple-M

Hi all well basically I recently bought A car off a garage,the car needed some minor work done to be brought upto standard for the nct which the salesman said he would carry out if i dropped the car in 2 days before the nct which I did.While the car was in the garage I got a lend of a car off him to keep me on the road nothing too fancy but a nice car all the same (97 merc c200)After the car passed the nct A member of staff from the garage dropped my car back on a tow truck but as I wasnt home he could not get the keys for the merc and left my car keys with the neighbour which was fine,After many phone calls and a trip upto the garage(2hour drive) I realised the garage didnt seem to be trading any more and the phone doesnt even ring anymore,Im quite confused as to what to do with the car now its been nearly 2 months sitting in my driveway and its gone to the point where i'd class it as an abandoned car as nobody seems to be interested in collecting it,it feels as if the cars in limbo at the moment i'd love to keep it if theres any way possiblei could or if not i just want it gone,any advice would be great

corktina

drop it at the gargae and put the keys through the door?

omb0wyn5ehpij9

corktina wrote: »

drop it at the gargae and put the keys through the door?

+1, was going to say the same thing

Chriscl1

i'll have it

triple-M

the garage is gone out of business e.g boarded up windows and doors.cant contact them,might just leave it on the side of the road and ring the council and tell them its abandoned,although if possible i'd love to be able to claim ownership of it,i know it can be done in the states but not sure about ireland

Hotwheels

Not as easy as USA to claim a car here...

I'd park the car back at the garage, and stick the key in a envelope and post it....letterbox or no letterbox, not your problem then.

challengemaster

It'd be an awful waste to get it scrapped if its grand

Joey the lips

Why not go to the police and tell them this story. Ask how you go about keeping the car if they dont want it.

opinion guy

Joey the lips wrote: »

Why not go to the police and tell them this story. Ask how you go about keeping the car if they dont want it.

Agreed. At the very least they should be able to tell you what to do with it. Presumably it now belongs to the firms creditors.

This all strikes me as a bit strange by the way. Even if a company goes bust someone has ao account for the assets etc.

sirrah

If you know of someone else who works in a garage find out off them, alternativly ask the gardai but a car like that defo don't scrap it

corktina

alterantively, write a " to whom it may concern" letter to the garages address stating you have the car and for them to contact you if they want it back...and just continue using it. (logbook will be a problem though I guess...)

rs8

strip it down and sell it for parts!!!

BrianD3

See if the garage appears on www.insolvencyjournal.ie you might be able to find who the liquidator is (if there is one) and contact them.

Drummerboy08

You need to find out if the dealer shut down voluntarily or was shut down by a liquidator.

If its the latter, you need to make contact with them as it is their property. Chances are they dont even know about it.

Eric Cartman

run up some speeding fines and toll bridge notifications on it, let them find the people who own it

DublinDilbert

I would guess it's still in the name of the previous owner who traded it in and not the garrage. It's probably a lovely car, but not worth much on the open market.

It's really a gray area. The previous owner should be able to order a replacement vlc...

corkcomp

triple-M wrote: »

the garage is gone out of business e.g boarded up windows and doors.cant contact them,might just leave it on the side of the road and ring the council and tell them its abandoned,although if possible i'd love to be able to claim ownership of it,i know it can be done in the states but not sure about ireland

drop it at the side of the road next to the boarded up premises and drop the keys in the door

Vertakill

rs8 wrote: »

strip it down and sell it for parts!!!

Yeah and then get a phone call a couple weeks down the line from the garage's creditors looking for the car back..


You won't be insured on the car anymore seeing as it's no longer a courtesy car and it's not covered under the garages insurance policy seeing as they're probably no longer in business.

And you won't be able to take an insurance policy out on it either if it doesn't belong to you (which it doesn't).

So I'd be wary about driving it until you've got some clarification on things.

robtri

Vertakill wrote: »

Yeah and then get a phone call a couple weeks down the line from the garage's creditors looking for the car back..


You won't be insured on the car anymore seeing as it's no longer a courtesy car and it's not covered under the garages insurance policy seeing as they're probably no longer in business.

And you won't be able to take an insurance policy out on it either if it doesn't belong to you (which it doesn't).

So I'd be wary about driving it until you've got some clarification on things.

insurance wouldnt be an issue, all you ned to do is a temporary transfer of insurance, I have done this plenty of times to cars that are uninsured

bijapos

Don't drop the car off and stick the keys through the letterbox, you may be held liable if the car disappears and you might be in for negligent or reckless behaviour.

Tell the local Guards first of all, at least that way you can show that you are acting responsibly. On top of that local Guards may know the dealer or something about him. Make enquiries in the area to motor factors, mechanics and other dealers as to whether they know the guy or not. And as someone suggested contact the Companies Registration Offfice to see if there is a liquidator in charge of the wind up, or you might get the guys home adress from the CRO.

There is a possibility that the car was not his, was left in by somebody to be sold and that the actual owner is on the look out for it, so it may be registered as stolen, therefore the first thing I would do is contact the Guards and get them to run it through the computer.

Not surprised he went bust if he can't keep track of a Merc C200.

opinion guy

bijapos wrote: »

Not surprised he went bust if he can't keep track of a Merc C200.

Indeed something seems well suspect really doesn't it?

kasper

just send the liquidator a bill for storage charges for more than the value of the car and let him bargain you down from there

Ricardo G

If you could ever get in contact with the owner of the gargae i'd offer him 200 quid, i'm sure he'd be grateful of whetever he can get at this stage !! Shame to scrap if the car is that good

crosshair1

If its not in your way hold it for say 6 months and If you havent had anyone look for it back go to your local tax office and get an affedavitt (wrong spelling i know) form filled in then you will be issued vlc in your own name.
No one in the motor trade will put any value on a 97 202 so forget about it, its up to them to look for it back and if the dont claim it as yours.

kasper

i think its a year and a day before you can keep it legally

Drummerboy08

I'd just get in touch with the Gardai. You dont know the history of the car - someone could actually own it for all you know. Not only that I'm sure the garages creditors would like it back (if indeed they went bust in the first place).

O.A.P

Why is it a 2 hour drive? do you live on an island or something? Who goes so far out of there way to get a car fixed.

Anan1

O.A.P wrote: »

Why is it a 2 hour drive? do you live on an island or something? Who goes so far out of there way to get a car fixed.

The answer is in the first sentence of the OP's post.

vectra

Can you not find out the previous owners name and contact them?

Vertakill

robtri wrote: »

insurance wouldnt be an issue, all you ned to do is a temporary transfer of insurance, I have done this plenty of times to cars that are uninsured

Well, I just meant that if the OP was going to drive this car around for a while, he would probably run into insurance problems seeing as he doesn't own it.

cyrusdvirus

i wish my garage did a Buy one Get one Free offer.

triple-M

I was thinking of just dropping it off at the premises
as some posters suggested but was told I could be held to account if they eventually came looking for it and it was nowhere to be found,I rang two other garages in the area and they did indeed confirm that the garage has gone into liquidation and that his assets premises/cars were sold/auctioned off a good while ago and said the guy who runs the garage in question has moved out of the area but they would try contact some of his staff(family members me thinks) for me and see if anything could be done about the merc but im starting to think he was just a cowboy who was upto no good who has "vanished" into thin air,all his garage really was was a converted cottage with a workshop next door and a few cars parked on the grass and a few in front of the house i'll keep yous updated anyways on how it goes,the poor mercs stuck in limbo

Muckie

Thats a strange one alrite, not a bad spare car to have.
Park it up till you hear futher from the garage really.