The short question:
I was told that if the body shop’s landlord gets tired of dealing with Frank and his lack of paying rent, they can sell off Frank’s tools and my car to cover their back rent. I was very clear that I have the title to the car and I was told that is not how it works. This can’t be true. How can someone sell my titled car to recover back rent?
The long story:
First of all, things are not quite as bad as the title suggest.
Frank has been doing great body work and paint on muscle cars and local hot rods for 22 years. But he is a bit charter and most employers would not put up with him. I have talked to one of his past bosses and there is no complain about his work. But it is best if he works for himself. He can’t keep a schedule. If he says he will stop by Tuesday, forget it. It most likely will not happen.
Back around November he had four to six cars in his rented shop and he disappeared. I found him a month later and he said he was getting his life back together. He and his friends think he just had to much work (I don’t understand that point). He had been taking payments from me as he did work.
Around January he started working for someone else so he had a steady income to pay the bills and he did manage to get the primer on my car while working the weekends at his shop. He also got the Pro Stock Nova and 66 Mustang done and out the door.
In March I saw my car with a blue ‘sealer’ on it.
Frank rents his space from Cobras by Maxx and just a month ago he needed another 500.00 to make is rent. I gave it to him. But I don’t think he has touched the car since March. He said it was “to stinking hot to paint” or “He can’t work seven days a week, he needs to get away”.
Now I am starting to run out of patients. I want to nail down the final price ( I did add some additional work to the original quote) and then press him for a completion date. But he never stops by when he says he will. I don’t want to be hard nosed about not paying him more rent money when he is in a hard place. If I saw progress I would be glad to give him more money.
Now for the kicker. I was told that if the body shop’s landlord gets tired of dealing with Frank and his lack of paying rent, they can sell off Frank’s tools and my car to cover their back rent. I was very clear that I have the title to the car and I was told that is not how it works. This can’t be true. How can someone sell my titled car to recover back rent?
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