Just thought I would throw this out there to get opinions, cuz it don't sound right to me. A guy I work with came into my office yesterday and started telling me that he was having 65 Fastback Mustang restored at a shop in town. He tells me that he has been slowly paying a guy, over a period of years, to restore his car. Well the other day he gets a notice in the mail saying that the shop went bankrupt and the car has been seized by the property owner due to moneys owed by the shop. Now in my mind this doesn't sound right. Outside the fact that he should have been performing his own restoration, a second party can't seize property that isn't his can they. I told him to get a lawyer, and quick. He will probably only get back the shell of the car due to it being stripped to the bare nut. The engine, drive train, and most the body is gone (off to the engine shop and the rest probably used on different projects by now). If anyone has any insight to how this may end, it would be appreciated. thanks
Its pretty hard to take possesion of a vehicle and impose a lean when the person owing the debts name is not on the title. If he has a title in his name all he needs to do is call the local authorities and they will help him retreive his car. Pictures of the car when he brought to the shop certainly would help sort out the parts. You would be suprised how compliant people can be when you have a cop with you!!
If the guy has the Title to the car, no problem. What happens in cases like this is the Shop has a pad lock slapped on it so that the person going Bankrupt can't strip the place of any assets...such as tools, equipment, etc. Anything in the Shop that belongs to someone else (including the Shop building itself), such as your buddys car, rental equipment, etc. needs to be seperated out before the rest is sold off to cover the debt. If your buddy can't prove the car is his, then he's up the creek...
IF the guy doing the work had a mechanics lien on the vehicle he was working on then it might be kinda bad for the guy who was having his car restored.
He needs a lawyer fast, you need to get a grip, with your statement Watson, Barris, Hines, Roth all should have only built cars for themselves.. get over it already.
Actually in MO you can put a mechanics lien on any vehicle and the state will issue you a title. I don't know the legal ramifications in this particular situation. I'm with the rest of the fellas here. Get a lawyer. I don't think that the property owner can keep the car as the fella who owns the car doesn't owe them anything, but I don't know the intricacies of the law.
been slowly paying the guy over a period of years. sounds to me like he left the car and now wants it back , if it has took years , the work is deterating as fast as it is getting done . i bet both of them are loosers in this deal .
The phrase "slowly paying a guy over a period of years" is the first red flag in my mind. Based on personal experience with several body shops over the years, if a car is disassembled and left sitting around for too long, parts will start to grow legs or just get lost, and from the sound of it he probably hasn't got a chance in hell of getting everything back. Especially on a project that is on the shops back burner. Hopefully he can at least get the rolling unibody out of there.
Whoa now big shooter, I was making a joke about doing his own work beings thats kinda what most of us do here on this board. The point of the post is trying to figure the best solution to getting back his ride. I do appreciate the recipicating the need for a lawyer though.
Does he have receipts to show he's paying for work on the car? If he's paid some with in the last month or so, he's probably ok. If he hasn't paid within the last year, he might not own the car anymore. I was gonna say there is no reason to file a mechanics lien if work is being done and the owner is making payments, but if he hasn't paid in a while that's out the window. If he's serious about getting the car back, talking to a lawyer might be a good idea. Larry T OK, if the property owner sent him a letter, he's probably still the registered owner. I think I'd give him a call to see what's going on.
we have a car in our shop now that was involved in the same situation. restroration shop went bankrupt. car owner went to local sherrif and explained. sherrrif escorted him to get his car and parts out of locked building. im sure there are some details i dont know, but the car owner got his car and all of the parts they could find that belonged to the car. so, call local sherrif and follow his directions.
Leaving a car in a shop for "years" is a recipe for disaster. Shops go out of business and you'll never know something is up unless you're in and out of it regularly. Owners are notorious for selling parts out the back door if they plan on folding up the business. One shop I worked in did that PLUS burning the place down to the ground to cover it up. This creep owed me for 3 weeks pay and everybody under the sun for parts and supplies. Bob
He needs a attorney, Local police will probably call it a civil matter. I was moving from AZ and I had done about 15 trips to UT I had a boat down there still and a friend said no problem I will store it for you outside if you want. So I did just that It was winter and I didnt want to tow it, I talked to the guy a few times a month He had it for three months every thing seemed fine till I called him and said I was coming down to get it. Then he said he had been having money problems and that I had abounded it there and he sold it... I found out he had sold it about a month after it had been there, the state gave him a title on a 30K boat on one month for abandonment based on his word. I called the local police and they just told me it was a civil matter. I sued the guy and got a judgement and he filed a BK on me and others for similar crap. If I did not have a family the POS would be worm dirt...
I think both of the parties here are screwed! In the state of CT once the bankruptcy paperwork is issued, everything is on lockdown! A bankruptcy puts a "stay" on everything, not even the cops can get your stuff back! Now with the comments of getting a lawyer, yes in some cases that might help, but it is going to cost you more than its worth I bet. He might be better off calling the attorney who is handling the shop owners BK filing, but again if there is a lien on the vehicle it will be auctioned off to the highest bidder! Man this is a brutal situation! CHUCK
Not sure about your states laws, but if he hasn't paid anything in last 30 days, doesn't have a title with his name on it, or have receipts for past payments or some sort of contract about work/payments performed then he doesn't have a case. In Kansas, someone can tow your car, charge WAY too much, tack on a ton of bullshit charges (after hours, winch fee, flatbed fee, excess mileage......) and file for a title in fifteen days!! It all depends on how much money you're willing to pay to either get the car or fight it! I'm really surprised more people don't get shot over situations like this.
I just checked with him and he told me he gave the guy 10k up front and hasn't paid anything on it since then, which turns out to be about 8 years. All he got back from the restorer was a note stating that work would be done at the restorers discression. He initialed it. I have a bad feeling about this situation.
Identical thing happened to a friend of mine. He drove a fairly nice 65 Mustang to a Mustang restoration place, wanted to get some rust fixed and a repaint. Car was there a total of three years. My friend gave the guy money occasionally, guy died, son took over the restoration shop, ran it into bankruptcy. I went along with my friend and the sheriff to retrieve the carcass. Car was missing fenders, engine, interior was mostly gone. Several other cars were also sitting in the lot, in same or worse condition. My friend finally sold the carcass for a few hundred dollars. No recourse to get any restitution, contract was with the guy who died, wasn't worth the lawyer fees to try to sue the son for money the kid didn't have.
Many years ago my friend had a frame being sandblasted at a place that went out and the owner went to jail. After he found out the frame was laying out back behind the shop with lots of other junk he did the only reasonable thing at the time, he went there with his pickup and stole his frame back one night.
I have to evict people all the time. Its fucked for sub letters. Anyway you need to contact the property owner and tell them your side of the story and offer to pay some money for your car or youll get a lawyer. the property owner just wants some money and will do anything to get something back form rent not being paid. What he really wants is for you to lean real hard on the shop owner to pay up.
Back in the 70s I had a customer car in an upholstery shop and the job was paid for a per the agreement. Upholstery guy decided he wanted more money or would'nt let the car go. I went to the shop with the customer one night and he kicked in the door and we took posession of the car. A week later the guy went bankrupt. Nothing was ever said about our evening episode. I would have lost the customer car as there were no numbers on the frame. I've mellowed and times have changed.
10k wouldn't cover the storage for 8 years, much less any work that was done or parts purchased. Sounds like the shop probably owns the car now, and rightfully so.
How do ya figure that? If the guy has the title to the car, it is still his. The rip-off restorer guy can't charge storage for a car he was supposed to be doing work on. Like a few guys have already said, get a lawyer and do it now!
What kind of idiot pays in full up front to have work done, then lets someone dick him around for 8 years? They can restore a car in 6 days on Overhaulin' with like 30 or 40 guys doing the labor.... if you make that one guy with a helper and not working on it every single day, the guy still should have been driving this car 5 or 6 years ago. Even if the weekly labor amounts to working on the car one day per week, that's five years max. I don't see this ending well either, if he sues the judge is liable to ask the same question, albeit more politely.
This guy pays $10,000 for results, fails to get them after EIGHT years, and is held at bay by a NOTE that states the restorer has an INDEFINITE time limit on when he is to return these results that were paid for....wow. This is me paying for a big mac, having the cashier tell me they'll hand that over as soon as the cooks find a moment to make it for me, and me waiting patiently at the counter for a week.
I'll chime in too. If he owes and the shop can legally document that he does owe, it must be paid to pick up the car. If not much or 10K worth has not been done he calls the sheriff and picks up his car and is out the money not spent on work or parts. It's not complicated it just needs a mutual paper trail. Titled property is titled property, period. If it's not paid for there will be a lean or a judgement against it/him and he'll no doubt still lose by legal forfiet or pay the bill. If parts were stolen, lost, damaged, ruined, whatever then proof will be needed of prior condition and the shop's negligence if that's the case. I'd also like to notice how many are quick to label shops as crooks right away. None of you that say things like "...parts disappear out the back door.." and "...most shops have a habit of..." don't know a fuckin thing about this place and have no right to slam the guy. NEWS FLASH!!! THE ECONOMY SUCKS!!! Film @ 11:00. How do you know that most of his clients maybe held up funds and he went broke trying to keep open? How can you just assume the worst? I'll tell you why, because those with that mindset probably shop only on price and little else, fancy themselves as big shooters for what they want but have no funds to make it materialize. It's in very bad taste to label custom and restoration shops as crooks. I know a few talented folks that are struggling right now due to the current state of things. They're not crooks, they too are falling on hard times. Not one person reading this post NEEDS their hotrod to survive. NOT ONE. It's buisness that starts life behind the 8 ball, driven by passion and talent, and one can only hope his work attracts a 1st rate customer base to avoid the suffering. Anyone who labels these shop as crooks are probably the type that lays in wait to take advantage of em. Or in plain English, y'all ought to fuck off. If this guy is a crook I'll be the 1st to cheer if he get what he deserves. If this Mustang owner is no-pay douche, he'll get his too.
Folks are missing the point here, the mechanic didn't seize the car. the property owner took possession of the shop because the mechanic was in debt. as long as he can show he owns the car, won't be a problem sounds like he even has a reciept for the work that was to be done the property owner can't seize assets that the renter doesn't own
WELL SAID! And quite true. Everyone is so quick to judge with little or no facts. They are also quick to blast the owner of the car. just because he obviously wasn't in a hurry to get the car done and gave the guy cash up front for possibly a better deal, doesn't mean you need to rip him apart either. The truth is, if the guy can prove legal ownership and there isn't any kind of lien on his car, he can and should get it back legally. End of story Original question answered
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