Dealer’s Diary
Keeper or owner?
► I’ve just read a rather sad case on a Facebook enthusiast group I’m a member of. In a nutshell, a member bought a restoration project seven years ago, and has spent most of the intervening time returning it to first-class condition, including sourcing parts.
It was bought as part of a clearance of vehicles owned by a family, and a receipt was given, but no V5C was available. The person ‘selling’ it also asked, almost as an afterthought, to be kept informed of progress. A not-unusual nor unreasonable request, and one which the buyer/restorer complied with, in the same spirit as it seemed to be requested, and accordingly, he let the previous owner know when the car was finished.
What happened next was, however, a total surprise. Another person – apparently the ‘brother-in-law’ of the person who had ‘sold’ the car, got in touch. He claimed that he was still the car’s legal owner as it had been sold without his permission. He therefore now wanted ‘his’ property returned ‘forthwith’…
Now I’ve no way of knowing whether this was as stated – which of course would be basically theft by the person selling it. Or is it a matter of someone, on seeing ‘his’ old car had been restored deciding that, with that restoration funded and completed by someone else, he’d like it back? Or was it even a case of two family members working a deliberate long-term scam to have someone else finance a car’s restoration?
