In Jan 2019, my son (19yrs old) decided to pawn 'hock' his vehicle to help pay some of his bills. He pawned his 2009 Holden SV6 VE Commodore for a $1000 loan. The pawn dealership valued the car at $5,500 and pawned it against the $1000 loan payment and agreed monthly interest payments. The redemption period was 3 months and pawnbroker stored the vehicle at his premises. Unfortunately, my son wasn't able to pay back all of the monies as agreed. Consequently, the pawn dealer kept the vehicle and informed my son that the car would be sold to recover monies. My son learned a hard, an expensive lesson in life, one he hopefully won't ever endure again! My son fully accepts he has a legal contract in place and due to failing to make the agreed repayments, he lost his vehicle. This matter is not under dispute.
The issue is what happened to this vehicle and the significant debt my son is now facing. The redemption period expired on 14 April 2020. My son didn't receive any further correspondence from the pawn broker. As the broker had valued the car at $5,500 my son was hoping to get back some money after the sale of the vehicle and monies paid to the broker. (According to the loan contract, my son owed $1,750. The broker was entitled to claim costs and expenses incurred in recovering monies owed). In late May, over 6 weeks after the redemption period expired, my son saw the vehicle parked at a local shopping centre. He knew it was his vehicle because the registration plates were still the same. This obviously concerned my son, so he contacted the pawnbroker to inquire re selling of the vehicle. The pawnbroker said they hadn't sold it yet and that the vehicle had never left the business premises. My son accepted this response and resigned to the fact he might never see any funds from his car. My son moved residences in July, but failed to update his address with the QLD Dept of Transport.
In November, my son was contacted by SPERS via email notifying on pending suspension of licence. He soon called SPERS and was told that infringement notices totalling approx $3,000 had been issued and sent to his previous address. The infringements were for 2 x use of unregistered vehicle, 2 x use of uninsured car, 2 x speeding offences and 1 x parking offence and were dated between late July to mid November!
I personally contacted the pawnbroker to find out what happened, but soon discovered the business offices were no longer a 'pawn business' but was now a boxing / fighting club. The owner and staff were still the same people, but they said they had closed down their pawn business. End of discussion. I then sent an email to request details of the sale of the vehicle - price, date, etc. The director replied and said he sold the vehicle back in July to a person called XXXXXX, but said he couldnt provide contact details due to privacy laws. I again explained the matter of SPERS debt and questioned why the vehicle had been sold without transfer or registration. He failed to respond. I later discovered the person who supposedly purchased the car was a family member of the director (son). After obtaining an email contact for the new owner, I sent him an email and explained what happened. He replied and apologised for what happened and said he would pay whatever he has to. I didn't hear back from him again. I contacted the 'director' - his father, who simply replied telling me that he can't help me further and that he's disappointed with his son - no communicated since (Dec 23, 2019).
SPERS were not very helpful re this issue but did remove penalty fees. I paid the debt in full in Jan 2020. I believe the director of the pawnbroker business has some sort of legal liability here? What legal options do I have / my son have to recover the monies paid to SPERS? What about the sale of the vehicle? Was this a legal and genuine attempt to recover monies owed? Any legal advice would be greatly appreciated.
The issue is what happened to this vehicle and the significant debt my son is now facing. The redemption period expired on 14 April 2020. My son didn't receive any further correspondence from the pawn broker. As the broker had valued the car at $5,500 my son was hoping to get back some money after the sale of the vehicle and monies paid to the broker. (According to the loan contract, my son owed $1,750. The broker was entitled to claim costs and expenses incurred in recovering monies owed). In late May, over 6 weeks after the redemption period expired, my son saw the vehicle parked at a local shopping centre. He knew it was his vehicle because the registration plates were still the same. This obviously concerned my son, so he contacted the pawnbroker to inquire re selling of the vehicle. The pawnbroker said they hadn't sold it yet and that the vehicle had never left the business premises. My son accepted this response and resigned to the fact he might never see any funds from his car. My son moved residences in July, but failed to update his address with the QLD Dept of Transport.
In November, my son was contacted by SPERS via email notifying on pending suspension of licence. He soon called SPERS and was told that infringement notices totalling approx $3,000 had been issued and sent to his previous address. The infringements were for 2 x use of unregistered vehicle, 2 x use of uninsured car, 2 x speeding offences and 1 x parking offence and were dated between late July to mid November!
I personally contacted the pawnbroker to find out what happened, but soon discovered the business offices were no longer a 'pawn business' but was now a boxing / fighting club. The owner and staff were still the same people, but they said they had closed down their pawn business. End of discussion. I then sent an email to request details of the sale of the vehicle - price, date, etc. The director replied and said he sold the vehicle back in July to a person called XXXXXX, but said he couldnt provide contact details due to privacy laws. I again explained the matter of SPERS debt and questioned why the vehicle had been sold without transfer or registration. He failed to respond. I later discovered the person who supposedly purchased the car was a family member of the director (son). After obtaining an email contact for the new owner, I sent him an email and explained what happened. He replied and apologised for what happened and said he would pay whatever he has to. I didn't hear back from him again. I contacted the 'director' - his father, who simply replied telling me that he can't help me further and that he's disappointed with his son - no communicated since (Dec 23, 2019).
SPERS were not very helpful re this issue but did remove penalty fees. I paid the debt in full in Jan 2020. I believe the director of the pawnbroker business has some sort of legal liability here? What legal options do I have / my son have to recover the monies paid to SPERS? What about the sale of the vehicle? Was this a legal and genuine attempt to recover monies owed? Any legal advice would be greatly appreciated.