Help please

[Nurse0309]

I won a case against a very dodgy used car dealer last month in county court. The dealers have paid the money to me as ordered. The court order didn't say what should happen to the car but on enquiring I was told it was not the courts concern and it was up to me.
The car hasn't been collected a month down the line so I decided to keep it and repair it. I also removed the private registration plate that was included in the sale and put it on retention, I also had to buy a new battery in order to move the car which has stood for over 12 months.
The dealer has now decided they want to collect the car and state it is their property and are threatening me with legal action via a company called Legal Solutions 4u. They have said the car is to be collected immediately and the new battery and registration number must be included to avoid being taken to court. I am a single Mum and frontline nurse and can't keep fighting these unscrupulous people. Please advise me. (I do not yet have the new V5 yet they say that they are collecting the car. I just had a call to say they were on the way and I've said they can't take it.)

[ostell]

If you still have the old battery then put that back in, or any compatible battery. For the plates are these yours? So why should you lose them? The garage have trade plates, they can pickup with those.

Legal Solutions 4u have appeared here many times and opinion about them is not good, indeed using opinion that they are not actually solicitors.

So you now perhaps present an invoice to them for parking and safekeeping at, say £10 per day.

What are the details of claim for the threat of taking you to court?

[R0b]

You've not actually said what your claim was for and what exactly you were seeking but based on your post I am assuming it was a refund of the amount paid and not just a reduction in the sale price. If I am right, then you have no legal title to the car and ownership reverts back to the dealer; you can't have your own cake and eat it.

Refusing to allow the dealer to collect it wil mean that they can take legal action either for an order that you deliver the car back to the dealer or damages to the value of it in lieu of it's return.

If the private plates were part of the sale then I'm of the view that they also belong to the car dealer, not yourself. Anything that was purchased in the course of that sale reverts to the dealer.

You could argue under section 6 of the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 that you are entitled to a deduction for improvement, so if they want the new battery kept in the car then they can pay for it when they come to collect it, or you can put the old battery in as Ostell has said and they can remove the car as necessary with a tow vehicle or other means.