car theft by local mechanic?

[DaveD]

Even if money is owed for diagnostics, or anything, a garage can't hold on to a car until its paid, they may claim they can but legally they can't. Presumably your mother still has keys to the car, just go and take it, it belongs to her. If the garage want to pursue her for any money owed then let them do it and have that argument once the car is returned. I wouldn't inform the garage beforehand that you intend to come and take the car back, you may find it suddenly immobile again!

 

[Bronte]

She confronted them and they refused to give her back her car. The car is still in her name and on the paperwork for ownership. But they are still holding onto the car.

Can you clarify this a bit further? What exactly was said. There must have given her a reason for not handing the car back?

 

[moneyhelp]

Can you clarify this a bit further? What exactly was said. There must have given her a reason for not handing the car back?

The problem is neither of us are clear on it either.

She brought the car in after over heating.

They told her it was undrivable and would cost thousands to fix and not worth fixing.

[I can verify the above because they told me the same thing about the car. I used to use the same mechanic until this happened.]

So she left it for a couple of weeks while she considered what to do with it. Pay the thousands? Scrap? or sell for parts? She didn't think this was a problem as no one from the garage contacted her about it and as she had a good relationship with them and had given them plenty of business in the past.

During that time, she saw the mechanic driving around it in. How could he be driving around in a car that was undrivable? He either lied about it being undriveable or he went ahead and fixed it without her consenting to it or to the costs.

When she went to confront him about it he refused to release the car until she paid for the costs of the repairs, which she did not agree to him doing.

She went to the local guards and they told her this was a civil matter.

 

[Time]

Go get legal advice from a solicitor.

 

[SparkRite]

The problem is neither of us are clear on it either.

She brought the car in after over heating.

They told her it was undrivable and would cost thousands to fix and not worth fixing.

[I can verify the above because they told me the same thing about the car. I used to use the same mechanic until this happened.]

So she left it for a couple of weeks while she considered what to do with it. Pay the thousands? Scrap? or sell for parts? She didn't think this was a problem as no one from the garage contacted her about it and as she had a good relationship with them and had given them plenty of business in the past.

During that time, she saw the mechanic driving around it in. How could he be driving around in a car that was undrivable? He either lied about it being undriveable or he went ahead and fixed it without her consenting to it or to the costs.

When she went to confront him about it he refused to release the car until she paid for the costs of the repairs, which she did not agree to him doing.

She went to the local guards and they told her this was a civil matter.

Now its starting to make sense, just took 23 posts to get the relevant information !

My advice would be to approach the garage and try and come to some arrangement over costs before going down any legal route

 

[Bronte]

When she went to confront him about it he refused to release the car until she paid for the costs of the repairs, which she did not agree to him doing.

.

Very odd that he would do repairs without authorisation. How much is the car worth, how much were the repairs?

Would she not be happy to pay for the repairs and get her car back?