My husband sold a person (whom who thought to be a friend) a car on April 20, 2005. My husband, on the side, restored British sports cars. This gentleman did not want to put a lot of money into the car so he asked if he could do as much of the work himself to save money. No one knows exactly what Mark's part was going to be. As it was this person called to see if he could come over to our house and my husband showed him how to take car parts off and he then took them off and took them home and cleaned them. He had been doing this for two years. So, I do not know if my husband was going to show him how to put the parts back on or what. I do know he had promised my husband he was not going to be slow about the matter and it had been two years now and my husband had complained and told him he need to take the car own home that this had not been part of the deal. My son had been present during this part of the conversation. My son was also present when my husband was asked to help work on this car and he refused because he had four other cars that he had to work on and he told this was also not part of the deal. My husband did not do body work or paint jobs so I know he was going to have that part of the work farmed out. The only thing is any parts this man needed, body work this man needed, and the paint job he was going to get, he was going to get at a discount because of my husbands contacts. Also, over the past two year when he did come over to our house and my husband showed him how to take thing off the car, he did not charge him. This person also had the keys the whole two years. The only thing my husband did wrong was that he had this habit that when he sold someone a car, until it actually left the property, he did not give you the title (which was an open title by the way). This came to bite him in the butt by the way. Well, my husband died this past May 6, 2007. Eight-teen days later I am sent a letter from this person's attorney that he is dissatisfied with the lack of work that had been done on his car by my husband and therefore wants me to buy the car back. I called the attorney because I went to school with him and asked him what the heck was going on that the car had never been in my husband's shop (it had sat outside the shop the entire two years), Jay (his client) had done all the work on the car over the past two years and my husband had never touched it and also his client had had the keys the entire time so there was no way my husband could have ever worked on it even if he even wanted too. His argument was..........it was never Jay's car because he did not have the title and that my husband had agreed to do the entire car for $8500. This I told him was a lie because my husband never quoted an exact amount because you never knew what you were going to get into until you actually got into working on the car and he had not touched it and the only thing I had heard from my husband was that this was Jay's project car. Needless to say, I hired an attorney who did little to nothing. I did most of the leg work trying to come up with some angle. My husband was a veteran........I researched if widow's of veterans' had to become administrators of the estate or if they were exempt. My lawyer thought this was a good idea but made no attempt. That did not pan out. Then I told him I was not willing to pay Jay the full cost of the car back because he had been taking parts off for two years and he had depreciated the value of the car. He does fax this to Jay's lawyer and the response I get is that he feels he has actually appreciated the value because he has done such a good job at cleaning them. So, I tell my lawyer I am contacting two restoration businesses to get their expert opinion. Which I did and I pass this info along to my lawyer which he passes along to Jay's which only says if I do not become the administrator by the following Friday, Jay is going to petition the court to make himself the administrator. My son and I found three cars that my husband had in his name only so yes, my husband had an estate. Not a large estate, but yes an estate. Jay knew we had several cars so I figured he assumed my husband had some in his name only. My lawyer pressured me to let him make me the administrator for about $2000.00. I had a lawyer friend who did not deal with estate law but gave me the name of a person who told me if you just have a small estate you can go to your court house and fill out a small estate form for $92.00 and you get the paperwork the same day. When I told my lawyer I did this he told me I no longer needed his assistance that he and Jay's lawyer had discussed that Jay really had no case and he was going to close his files. It was just I was not the administrator. I have not heard from Jay and this has been about two weeks ago now. Now that I have totally bored you I am going to ask you my question. On July 18, 2007, my lawyer informs Jay's lawyer that I am starting to charge $10.00 per day storage fees. I have heard that there is a time frame in which you can store property on someone else's property. After that time frame, the person on which your property is stored gains control of your property.
Is this true and if so, what is the time frame and what is the law so I can quote to Jay's lawyer? Also, should Jay stop all of this nonsense and come finally decide to take the car and try to refuse to pay me storage, all I have to do is refuse to give him the title.....correct?? Thank you very much for your time.
Is this true and if so, what is the time frame and what is the law so I can quote to Jay's lawyer? Also, should Jay stop all of this nonsense and come finally decide to take the car and try to refuse to pay me storage, all I have to do is refuse to give him the title.....correct?? Thank you very much for your time.
