I had a similar experience many years ago, but I was on the buyer (donor)
side. I met a man who had his TR at a restoration shop that went under.
The city police took all of the cars as the city owned the property the shop
was renting. They stored all of the cars and tried to find the owners.
Since there were not many records the cars sat for several years. After
talking to the owner of the TR, he offered to give me the car for the
storage fees that had mounted up over the years. The next day I made
several calls to a town in Illinois and found the car. The police told me
that there were no storage fees and they just wanted to get the car out of
their storage lot.
I flew to Illinois from North Dakota, installed a new battery and fresh gas
and drove the unrestored car home sans a top. Couldn't drive a night as
turning on the lights and the wipers at the same time produced a lot of
smoke from under the hood and rain came and went hourly.
Bottom line, the car belongs to the owner of the title, not the restoration
company and they have no right to sell the car unless the owner is negligent
in paying any repair costs. If there are bills due on the car, then the
shop could get a mechanics lien and eventually sell the vehicle to recover
their costs. Without the state providing a lien or title of some sort, the
sale couldn't have been legal.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: british-cars-bounces+pryner=verizon.net@autox.team.net
[mailto:british-cars-bounces+pryner=verizon.net@autox.team.net]On Behalf
Of WSpohn4@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 5:30 PM
To: british-cars@autox.team.net; triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [British-cars] TR3A Long Island
In a message dated 8/30/2007 1:54:21 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
tr3driver@ca.rr.com writes:
I'm certainly no lawyer, but I think you need a second opinion. Seems to
me
the landlord had an obligation to at least attempt to contact the rightful
owners of the stuff he sold; and if you can show that he made no such
effort, you would have recourse against him for negligence.
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