VIC FJ Holden Repair - Dispute and Enforcement of VCAT Order

Australia's #1 for Law
Join 150,000 Australians every month. Ask a question, respond to a question and better understand the law today!
FREE - Join Now

outofpocket

Member
29 February 2020
2
0
1
Very long story.

Located my mother's old FJ Holden in 2010, badly rusted, missing parts, but repairable, over the next 6 years I accumulated parts to make the car whole, purchasing the final piece mid 2016, I then went about looking for a business to do rust repairs and paint, I was recommended a particular business on Facebook by a number of individuals, the business owner approached me for the job, came interstate to my property to inspect the vehicle and quoted on it, rust repairs and paint only I was completely honest about the history of the vehicle, the amount of rust and the huge amount of work it needed he knew exactly what he was getting.

Due to buying bulk lots of parts (cheapest way to get parts) from people selling off parts after finishing their own FJs I had multiples of various parts, so there would be parts left over, a verbal agreement was made the business owner would get $2500 in parts as the deposit, the business owner never discussed with me as to which parts his offer related to, it was in the contract I'd have control over the vehicle build as he would call me if he needed to buy anything.

The relationship started to break down as I was barred from seeing the vehicle and he organised a trimmer to retrim the interior, even though it was in the contract to be done by me after he'd done his part, he didn't call about it just sent me messages out of the blue that he had organised it, he purchased carpet and a number of other things without my consent, I expressed dissatisfaction and believing the rust repairs and paint done asked him to stop, he sent me a legally worded email that he would stop work and reassemble the vehicle, I thought reassembly he referred to was putting back on everything he had taken off, he expected to put the whole vehicle back together and me pay for it, even though it was in the contract I'd do it, seemingly the contract only applied to me, he was breaking it left right and centre and didn't care, he also said he'd give me the carpet and roll of vinyl the trimmer was going to use (he's now gone back on that offer)

He then started making demands that to re-install the windows he removed he needed new rubber, the door windows can be removed and installed without rubber, he also claimed he needed rooflining before he could install the windscreen and rear window, I requested to view the vehicle to try and work out what was going on and what he was doing, he refused, so I was expected to pay for something I couldn't see, while all this was going on I learnt he was trading under an unregistered business name, I also learnt that vehicles repaired by him were often filled with an unacceptable amount of body filler, it is apparent now that he wanted the rubber kit, the rooflining and the interior trimmed to hide rust.

Early 2018 I lost my job, I had only 7800 left owing as I had been paying above the payment plan amount, he told me to stop paying and made me an offer to take another project vehicle I had and parts vehicle in exchange for settling the amount owed, I agreed just to get the FJ back, I organised the change of ownership paperwork, I had by then opened a VCAT case for mediation of the problem of the repair contract not being adhered to by him and exit contract he was trying to force me to sign signing away my rights under consumer law I of course said no as I had sought out a solicitor and was told outright the contracts were illegal, as part of his agreement to settle he demanded I withdraw the VCAT case, so I did, he responded by backing out of the settlement offer and opening his own vexatious VCAT case demanding payment and making legal threats to sell the vehicle, my solicitor contacted him by phone where they negotiated another settlement offer, one vehicle and $3000 I again agreed and my solicitor sent letter advising we agreed to the settlement offer, when advised I'd raised the $3000, the business owner then backed out of settlement again by alleging the amount was $4000, so we were forced to go to VCAT.
Once at VCAT the business owner made things difficult by not supplying me a copy of his evidence or CCing me in any correspondence with VCAT like he was supposed to and was allowed by the member to show photos on his phone that I didn't get to see, we managed to convince the VCAT member to get a vehicle assessor in to view the FJ due to our continued expectance to pay sight unseen and being unable to view the vehicle due to his holding it hostage.

Vehicle assessor went in, viewed it and deemed it the worst repaired vehicle he'd ever seen, 138 pages of poor repairs, bad paint, hidden or painted over untreated rust and fibreglass in structural sections, vehicle was deemed completely unsafe.
Business owner was required by an order to get his own vehicle assessment and supply a copy to me by a certain date, he applied for an extension which he was granted, which I didn't know about until I contacted VCAT advising he'd missed the deadline, he was warned he needed to copy me in correspondence, even despite the extension he did not supply an assessors report, instead supplying a letter of opinion on some of my assessors observations, his opinion letter was completely irrelevant to the vehicle or the case.

Went back to VCAT for the final hearing, he attempted to get an adjournment due to not having an assessment report (he'd had 3 months!) Him having wasted nearly two years of my time trying to settle, hearing went ahead with just my assessor giving evidence and the assessors report, due to the unsafe nature of the repairs, lies from the business owner (his story kept changing) and numerous consumer law violations, the VCAT member ruled in my favour, refund of money paid, reimbursement of expense for the vehicle assessor, $5000 for stripping the vehicle (in theory to put us back in the position we were in before his involvement) and return of the vehicle and parts, you'd think this would be the end of it, nope here's where it comes to now.

About a week after the hearing the business owner emailed me demanding collection of the vehicle, I was awaiting the orders in writing but knowing he knew what the orders were I co-operated with his demand and organised two trailers as he'd been given a second vehicle body as part of my spare parts, (prior to VCAT I caught him trying to sell the spare body on Facebook) which was in a list of parts supplied to VCAT that he verbally agreed to return.

The day of collection he started sending me harrassing emails and texts demanding to know where I was, what time we were coming (he'd already been told) and that he wouldn't be returning anything unless I had a copy of the VCAT order, so I made an urgent request to VCAT for the orders, stating that we had organised collection per his request and he was harrassing me, making demands and being aggressive and refusing to follow orders until he had them in writing, my request was granted with the VCAT orders being rushed through 2 hours later, it stated the vehicle and all parts supplied were my property.

When we arrived he was immediately hostile, he refused to return the spare body alleging to have cut it up, he had an argument with my husband due to having removed the driveshaft and it was neither on the vehicle (where it was when supplied) or amongst the parts, he eventually gave in and had someone he knew go offsite to retrieve it, the brake lines, fuel lines and a number of other items from on the vehicle were missing he admitted to cutting the brake and fuel lines (they were tested previously as usable), even going so far as to start another argument with my husband over asking for the exhaust which had also been cut up and even threw the pieces at my husband!
I ended up calling the police who did show up but would not do anything despite the aggression and threats which he started again after the police left.
In the end having got all we were going to get, I went to leave, business owner wouldn't let me leave until I signed a piece of paper with a small list of things that he agreed were still missing with a promise they'd be posted, including the vehicles identification plate (that he'd removed and denied having until we told the police it was missing and he'd taken it) when we arrived home we compared what we had got back to the photos of what he was supplied (as I had so many parts I had documented photo inventory of everything) I've found that numerous parts are either missing or damaged, between when the assessor viewed the vehicle and when we collected it he swapped good parts for seized or damaged parts and taken a number of parts off the vehicle, I'm looking at close to $10,000 in replacement costs, as I also found some of the parts given don't even belong to me.
I'm not entirely sure what to do with the parts I've identified as not belonging to me, I definitely want to get my parts back but can't see him co-operating it was hard enough just to getting the car back, VCATs website says non monetary orders are enforceable through the supreme court but I can't find any information on how to enforce it, my solicitor advised me to write the parts off to put an end to the relationship, as I accomplished my goal of getting the vehicle back, but I feel the business owner should not get away with what is essentially theft.

The monetary part of the VCAT order was effective immediately, it's been a month and he hasn't paid so on instructions from my solicitor I sent him a letter of demand giving him a week to pay, which he didn't sighting that he's waiting for a reply to an email to VCAT, another lie as VCAT confirmed he hasn't sent anything so I've registered the monetary order with the magistrates court for enforcement with a sheriffs warrant of seizure and sale.
 

John R

Well-Known Member
14 April 2014
689
174
2,394
Sydney
Hi @outofpocket
Your opening is accurate - Very long story about a poor FJ Holden (and an out of pocket @outofpocket!).
I'm trying to make sense of what your outstanding questions are.
Is it what you should do with the parts which are now in your possession but don't belong to you or something else?
 

outofpocket

Member
29 February 2020
2
0
1
Hi @outofpocket
Your opening is accurate - Very long story about a poor FJ Holden (and an out of pocket @outofpocket!).
I'm trying to make sense of what your outstanding questions are.
Is it what you should do with the parts which are now in your possession but don't belong to you or something else?
Hi John,

Basically my issues are: he's given me parts that aren't mine, some from incompatible models, he's swapped practically everything on the vehicle with damaged or seized parts, withheld a lot of my parts, destroyed things and stolen parts off the vehicle, I'm not sure where I stand or what to do.

VCAT order had two parts monetary and non monetary, the non monetary section relating to return of my vehicle and parts is supposed to be enforced in the supreme court but I can't find information about enforcing the VCAT order to return or reimburse me for my vehicle parts that he refused to return and the others that he has stolen off the vehicle.