Claiming Ownership Of Vehicle

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

We have a car at work that was brought in by a customer for restoration work to be carried out. A small amount of work was completed and he duly paid up. This was 10 years ago. He has never stepped foot in the workshop again, and we have not heard from him in 10 years. We have no phone number only an address from 10 years ago. We now want to go about getting the title for the car as we have stored it for this time, and the storage costs would outweigh the value of it. I can't find any clarification on how long something has to remain in your possession for you to legally claim it as yours. Should I try to apply for the log book or should I speak to the dvla first?

[GilesW 41]

Done this lots with bikes (that I have legitimately acquired).

 

Just apply for the v5 and pay the £25.

Sit and wait a while, and if no problems it will come through your door.

 

Note though that the v5 is only about keeper, not owner. So potentially there could be an issue later on. But unlikely after 10 years. So I'd personally go for it.

Edited January 21, 2016 by GilesW

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

I would try the address first. If you apply for a V5 then the DVLA will send a letter to the registered owner asking if they are aware that someone else is applying for a V5 to change owner.

If you've already spoken to this guy in my opinion you've a better chance of sorting something out.

[nveeate 78]

I normally sigh at these kind of posts, as it's someone that has spotted a car on someone's drive or parked in a car park and want to legally pinch it. Clearly not the case with you - on your/your work's land, and after 10 years the owner must have decided long ago that he didn't want the car! If he did return then presumably the storage costs would be pretty hefty

 

Just apply for the V5 from DVLA (using a V62 form I think). They make an attempt to contact the current owner based on the info they have. If they are unsuccessful, then you can become the registered keeper. The difficulty is in 'ownership' - not something DVLA can action, and not something with a time limit on it. As far as I know, the only way this can be legally obtained is if the current owner relquinquishes their ownership....presumably you've already tried to contact them? To be declared the legal owner you have to prove that that the vehicle became your property by way of a sale/gift or similar, with supporting evidence - preferably in writing. This could become an issue if you want to spend any money on it, or sell it.

[sp_en_ny 17 1 Cars]

I cant imagine anyone would forget about a car, Its more likely something has happened to them such as they died or maybe doing time for her majesty. If you have made no effort to contact the owner then I would do so before thinking about taking ownership or selling it on. I would imagine legally somewhere you would need to give written notice to the owner stating clearly what your intentions are and a deadline by which they would need to act.

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

I believe they could possibley be possibley doing time as the guy had done previously. I haven't yet written a letter, but as you say I think that is the way to go along with deadlines stating that if it nothing is heard by this date we will apply for the log book for the vehicle. Until now it hadn't been an issue but we could do with the space.

[welshpug 1,657]

I forgot about a car, I was given it at 16 iirc, around 17 I dropped it off at local garage for them to have a look over in their quiet times, not long after my parents separated and I moved south with my mother, forgot all about it for a few years and when I did remember about it I wasn't in a position to do anything about it, never heard anything from the garage about it.

 

 

You could send a letter stating you will take ownership in lieu of storage charges?

[erbs 42 1 Cars]

it could possibly be that the owner may have passed away, lots of reasons really,maybe go to the address and find out if he still lives there

[Goliath 94]

From a moral point of view you really should make every effort to trace the owner, not just send a letter to his address, but search on google/facebook/pipl etc for his name. It shouldn't be too hard to track him or his family down. I say this because I remember reading a thread a few years ago (on this forum I believe) of a member who had left his car with a garage for some work, life had got in the way and he didn't have a chance to get back to the garage in a couple of years or so and when he did get back in touch with them they had sold/scrapped his car and he was devastated.

 

From a legal point of view, as stated you can become the registered keeper fairly easily which you should go ahead and do. In your situation it is possible to become the legal owner as you have a claim over the car (for storage costs) but it is a longer process and you would most likely need to at least have established contact with the current owner to let him know the situation. Otherwise it could potentially get very tricky and expensive if he was to sue you in the future.

 

Keep us updated, I'd be interested to hear how you get on.

 

Feel free to PM me his name and address and I will see if I can find any info on him if you like.

[nveeate 78]

 

Sorry - unintended quoting!

Edited January 21, 2016 by nveeate

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

From a moral point of view you really should make every effort to trace the owner, not just send a letter to his address, but search on google/facebook/pipl etc for his name. It shouldn't be too hard to track him or his family down. I say this because I remember reading a thread a few years ago (on this forum I believe) of a member who had left his car with a garage for some work, life had got in the way and he didn't have a chance to get back to the garage in a couple of years or so and when he did get back in touch with them they had sold/scrapped his car and he was devastated.

 

Sorry but from my perspective its the owners hard luck. No matter what happens in your life it takes only 30 seconds to ring the garage and let them know. Most folk will be sympathetic to life issues so long as you talk to them. No matter what has happened there is no excuse to not be able to spare 5 minutes within say an elapsed month. At least they know then where they all stand. Leaving it YEARS is just not acceptable and I'm not suprised at all that the garage has to take action. People in the modern world like to make all sorts of excuses for non communication, most of which are not truly valid.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Sorry but from my perspective its the owners hard luck. No matter what happens in your life it takes only 30 seconds to ring the garage and let them know. Most folk will be sympathetic to life issues so long as you talk to them. No matter what has happened there is no excuse to not be able to spare 5 minutes within say an elapsed month. At least they know then where they all stand. Leaving it YEARS is just not acceptable and I'm not suprised at all that the garage has to take action. People in the modern world like to make all sorts of excuses for non communication, most of which are not truly valid.

I absolutely have to disagree with this Tom, as it doesn't give consideration for ALL possibilities. Example, guy could have died suddenly and his family/friends may have had no knowledge of the car being at that particular garage, or may not have even had knowledge of the car at all. Now you could argue that what the family don't know, can't harm them, but I know that if I found out 10 years after a family bereavement that their car had been sold/disposed of because the garage had not made any effrot to try and make contact, I'd been pretty P'd off.

 

There's an obligation on both sides here. Yes, the owner shouldn't leave their property at a business for an extended period without contact, but surely the business should/would try to contact the owner after a period of significantly less than 10 years (perhaps this has been done, not clear in the posts above).

 

From a moral point of view, I'd say that it's absolutely the right thing to do to try and make direct contact (not just by letter) with the owner or his family before anything else. It may take some effort/door knocking, but to be frank if you are going to wait 10 years to do something, then it's kind of your own fault too.

 

EDIT: To be clear, I don't disagree about the sentiment with regards to people who make no effort to communicate when they can. Idiots with no regard for others who simply can;t be arsed to make a quick call as you said, really boil my piss. As I said, it's absolutely possible that there are circumstances that have prevented any contact. So without actually taking the bull by the horns and trying to make contact to find out what's happened, Acox won't know, and everything is then based on assumption then.

Edited January 21, 2016 by GLPoomobile

[speno 239 2 Cars]

I could fore see a problem in the fact that 'said' storage costs you are stating , Doe's it state on invoices about collection of cars in a certain time limit or the owner has to to pay a fee a month ?

If it was me running that business there is no way i would have a car taking space up in my unit or car park that long ( just saying )

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

I can see it from both sides. Why wait until now to take action? Has the company just unearthed it or have they turned a blind eye to it over the years hoping the guy wouldn't come back?

[acox99 74 1 Cars]

The guy used to sporadically turn up. The workshop has a large amount of space and it has been put in the corner out the way and covered up and forgotten basically. The space wasn't needed his current bill was paid up waiting for the next stage of work to take place which never happened, time elapses and it's now got to the point where something should be done. There aren't storage charges all the time work is taking place, but if a project is halted it has to 'go into storage' otherwise customers take the piss as its out of sight out of mind. I agree with some of what tom says and some of what GLP says. When I started I wasn't in a position to say what's what around the place but 8 years on I can. If it was my decision I would have done something sooner. That's Goliath. Il do some digging