Purchased 'stolen' car - advice needed regarding proof of title

[wales01man]

Re: Purchased 'stolen' car - advice needed regarding proof of title

I still say this needs a Solicitor to sort it we can have case law after case law put on here but the fact remains the OP may or may not be the Legal owner ,

[stevemLS]

Re: Purchased 'stolen' car - advice needed regarding proof of title

Mustn't give up on everybody just because of a few:tinysmile_aha_t:

AND STILL AWAITING CASE LAW

Thanks Des, don't mind not being right, no-one is all the time, I do object to people being obnoxious about it without reason though.

[Johnboy007]

Re: Purchased 'stolen' car - advice needed regarding proof of title

I think that you have to look on the question of 'Did the owner abandon the vehicle?, and if so is there any proof of this?
Clearly in this case, there is no evidence of abandonment.
I cannot see any farmer allowing a car to be dumped on his land for so long, and not being aware of it.
As for the question of when can a farmer remove a vehicle from his land.
The answer is, whenever he wants too, it's his land, not a bloody storage site for abandoned vehicles.
From what has been written by OP, I believe that the car was left on the farm, pending restoration/repairs by original owner.
Probably with the agreement of the farmer, and on a payment of some fee by the owner.
As the owner died without paying the fee (assumed), and no-one claiming the car.
The farmer (wrongfully) assumed ownership and sold it to OP.
The law is very clear about stolen property.
The theft act 1968 states......
Any assumption by a person of the rights of an owner amounts to an appropriation, and this includes, where he has come by the property (innocently or not) without stealing it, any later assumption of a right to it by keeping or dealing with it as owner.
However it will not be deemed as theft by a person who has acted in good faith, as a following section of the act states.......
Where property or a right or interest in property is or purports to be transferred for value to a person acting in good faith, no later assumption by him of rights which he believed himself to be acquiring shall, by reason of any defect in the transferor’s title, amount to theft of the property.The fact still remains, that the property is stolen, and therefore can be recovered by the legal owner.
If the owner in this case is deceased, then his/her next of kin becomes legal owner, unless will states otherwise.

[Wombats]

Re: Purchased 'stolen' car - advice needed regarding proof of title

Does this not leave us still with the issue of the son needing to show good title to the vehicle?

If the father died intestate it would have passed to his spouse. If he died and the mother had already passed away, the estate is divided equally between the children. If there is more than one child, how does the son prove good title?

This point is largely academic as it certainly is not the OP's to keep, though one has to assume the OP could produce receipts for the parts he had bought and replaced, and remove them to recoup some of his losses?

[Johnboy007]

Re: Purchased 'stolen' car - advice needed regarding proof of title

Does this not leave us still with the issue of the son needing to show good title to the vehicle?

If the father died intestate it would have passed to his spouse. If he died and the mother had already passed away, the estate is divided equally between the children. If there is more than one child, how does the son prove good title?

This point is largely academic as it certainly is not the OP's to keep, though one has to assume the OP could produce receipts for the parts he had bought and replaced, and remove them to recoup some of his losses?

As you state Wombats, the point is academic.
As for claiming money back by the OP....
One has to ask if he was entitled to do work on the car?
I am now talking in the legal sense.
If the son is any sort of a man, he should at least negotiate with the OP on this point.

[des8]

Re: Purchased 'stolen' car - advice needed regarding proof of title

As I suggested earlier OP needs to pursue the person who sold him the car. As the seller did not have good title the seller is in breach of contract.

If the rightful owner had to sue the OP for return of goods,,at that point the op could have claimed compensation for the cost of the improvements to the vehicle.
If the vehicle had been returned voluntarily that right is lost.
In this case the vehicle was forcibly taken by the police and returned, and I'm not sure in these circumstances if OP still has right to sue.
But as Jb says , anyone half decent would at least discuss the matter with OP.
Perhaps OP should approach son.

EDIT: for those interested the relevant statute is :Torts (interference with Goods) Act 1977
section 6 Allowance for improvements of the Goods