SODeM Charity Bike Club, Legal advice wanted please

[Borg]

Three years ago I moved into a flat with no garage. I joined a disabled motorcycle club/charity. I am registered disabled.

They said they would take my trike away and re wire it, build a new electrical box and sort it out and MOT it. Well work was slow and the excuses seemed probable, moving unit and getting new premises.

Then a few months ago they admitted that an ex member had stolen a lot of the parts, a huge HD tank, radiator/fan and loads of other stuff.

In the mean time the trike had been passed around a few members and work had been done to it and stuff but no real progress as far as I could see. I reported the theft of my parts to the local to them police, even though they said they had stuff stolen as well they seemed very reluctant to help the local police with their inquiries.

I was then phoned and told that work had finally started on the trike to finish it and it would be delivered to me last week MOTed. I had booked a 2 week holiday in anticipation of the return of my trike after 3 years.

Nothing happened and contact was hard to make. When I did get through to the charity boss/chairman he was in Spain on holiday and said there was nothing he could do as he didn’t know what was happening with the trike.

Now I am very pissed off and wonder what legal rights I have to compensation and getting the trike finished and returned .

OK I know I have left it a long time and maybe I have been stupid and slow over this but now I’m going to make a stand and get it sorted once and for all.

Any help or clues would be very welcome as to what I can do. Can I put in a small claims court claim for the cost of the trike or the cost to have it taken to a proper bike/Trike shop and have the work done, or am I stuffed ?

Many thanks

The club in question is SODeM from South Wales

http://groups.msn.com/TheSocietyofDisabledMotorcyclists/aboutus.msnw



Registered Charity No 1081240

[Born2bVile]

I'll pass this round our solicitors here and see what they say.

Cheers,

Byrnie.

[Yoda]

As you know i am aware of the 'Charity' of which you speak
and i would say that as they had your trike, they had a duty of care to ensure its safety
i would say that you have (at the very least) a claim to get the trike returned to you in the condition you gave it to them in.

[TaxiDave]

If I offered to do some work for you either as a business or a mate doing a favour, and my garage gets broke into resulting in some of your property being damaged or stolen, it is my responsibility to replace or repair your trike or whatever.

Get some legal advise from a Citizens Advice Bureau. This won't cost you anything and they've got access to a more varied group of specialists, before you go spending any more money with a solicitor.

Hope it turns out ok for you.

[Borg]

I'll pass this round our solicitors here and see what they say.

Cheers,

Byrnie.


Many thanks, I'm getting to the stage where its going to be upsetting now

[Borg]

Get some legal advise from a Citizens Advice Bureau. This won't cost you anything and they've got access to a more varied group of specialists, before you go spending any more money with a solicitor.

Hope it turns out ok for you.


They didn't have a clue. I had to explaine to them for 20 mins what a Trike was

[Choprocker]

you a member of MAG or nabd, if you are see if they can help?

[Dusty]

I was one of the original members of this club,but have had nothing to do with them since they decided to let all and sundry descend on the unit and use it as a doss house,tools and god knows what were walking and people were dumping and storing scrap all over the place.Nothing was sacred and even less was safe.You wont find many if any of the early founder members still associated with the club,which is a shame cos it was set up with the best of intentions.
The best advice I could offer is to contact a solicitor through your insurance company,also report the club to the charities commission,I've got a feeling they have moved from Cwmbran but again, report them to the council and trading standards.These people will have a lot more clout in court than you or me,The loss of charitable status would be a major kick in the nuts, so fight hard mate but fight clean(ish),you will be better in the long run and no-one can accuse you of contributing to the problem.
I know how you feel about the violence bit but it might be an idea to edit that bit on your posting in case you do start legal action,it wouldn't do your case any favours if some-one printed it off and used it against you.
all the best whatever happens
Dusty

[Borg]

The best advice I could offer is to contact a solicitor through your insurance company,


the trike wasn't insured while it was in the workshop, their insurance should have covered it. What I can't understand is why this 'you know his name' fellow who stole the stuff is still allowed to get away with it and why they didn't go to the police.

Well as of Monday legal action will be take starting with a small claims court claim against the registrant of the 'charity' for £5,000, the most I'm allowed to do, for the cost of a replacment trike

[Yoda]

Well as of Monday legal action will be take starting with a small claims court claim against the registrant of the 'charity' for £5,000, the most I'm allowed to do, for the cost of a replacment trike

i would suggest that if you are going for court action then i would be more reasonable in your claim and either get them to return the bike to the way it was originally and some 'recompense' for the inconvenience
or
get an independent quote as to how much the work could be completed for, and base your claim on that.

HTH
Yoda

[Borg]

OK there has been a little progress on this trike, it is now in a worse state that when they took it away from my place for minor repairs

What I have been told though is the very large tank that was stolen was seen on a bike at the Builth Wells bike show the other week. so If anyone here went to that show could they send me any pictures they have of any bikes with large petrol tanks please.. I will also post this as a new post so everyone will hopefully see it.

Many thanks

[BikerGran]

Good luck with your claim, but I have to tell you, even if you get a settlement in your favour, you still have to extract the money/goods from them. If they don't pay up you can ask the court bailiffs to enforce it but they will only try a couple of times then you will be into getting a private bailiff to try (My other half used to be a bailiff so I've seen some of this). Of course, as you say, you have the leverage of them possibly losing their charitable status so that may help.