'Stolen' item when left for repairs

[Hexbramble]

Last September (2014) DH booked his chainsaw in for a service in a small owned repair shop (not large chain). He attempted several occassions to collect and business was closed. Between us, we attempted to collect it 5 times.

Fast forward to yesterday when DH tried again to collect and the owner looked very sheepish and admitted to DH that his small unit had been 'ram raided' and that DH's chainsaw had been amongst the items stolen.

It's a small unit type building, metal shutters, no contract (just a shop-bought invoice paper, handwritten with cost when you hand over your item) with nothing on walls to state about time elapsing when collecting items.

DH left. DH not happy! The owner hadn't contacted him (should he have?) and the owner made no attempt to reimburse him either.

Where does DH stand? Can anyone advise? Thanks.

The shop should claim on their insurance.

Agreed, it's for the shop owner to report this to the police, get a reference number and to claim on the insurance for all the items that were taken, which were in his care at the time of the theft.

Ah - forgot to mention. The one thing the owner did say was that he isn't insured

DH didn't think to challenge him at the time, and just left. I think because so much time had elapsed since dropping it in, DH felt that he wasn't in a strong position to make a fuss.

DH doesn't believe that he was 'ram raided'. He thinks the owner sold his chainsaw on (good make of chainsaw) because DH didn't collect within a reasonable time.

You could bring a civil claim for the cost of replacing the chainsaw. You had a contract with the shop (albeit largely unwritten, but this doesn't matter) for them to repair the chainsaw and return it to you. The shop is in breach of the contract by not returning it.

A court may conclude that it was an implied term of the contract that the shop would keep your property secure, and have some sort of insurance or other financial means of recompensing you of they did not. Alternatively, it may be arguable that the shop was in breach of their duty of care to protect or insure your property.

If they did sell the chainsaw, then unless they gave you something in writing to say that it would be sold if not collected by X date, then you could bring a claim either for breach of contract or for tortious conversion.

I suggest that you write to the shop to ask that they either return your chainsaw or recompense you for its loss. Have a look at what the cost of a good second hand chainsaw of the same or a comparable make would be worth and ask for that amount of money.

You should also ask for a copy of the crime report and crime reference number in relation to the ram-raid. If this did happen, there should be no problem in providing it to you. If, as you suspect, it did not, then it will be a start in gathering evidence that they wrongly sold it - if they believed they had a right to sell it they would have said so up front and not tried to fob you off with a story about it being stolen.

If you need help writing a letter and don't want to pay for a solicitor, then you could try your Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) or see if your local university has a Law Clinic who might be able to help.

You should be able to ask the police if they were ram raided, on the basis that H's property was stolen (and he's therefore one of the victims).

If he is operating a business I think he needs to have insurance. Get a police ref number as this sounds dodgy as anything.