Go and talk with a solicitor, a real one!

And threw good money after bad with a solicitor.

The OP faied to insure the property/car The person on whose drive it was parked has no duty of care (Unless it was driverable and they left the keys in it)

Agreed.

If a friend of mine left their car at my house while they were away on holiday, and it got nicked, I'd expect them to claim on their insurance. Nothing at all to do with me, or my house insurance.

The fact that I've got a farm quad bike (locked up in a shed) and 2 Ivor Wms trailers (both secured) is irrelevant. I'm under no duty to secure their property to the level I secure mine to.

(Minor edit) : If, for example, they left the keys with me and I was going to do a few jobs on it, then I'd be under more of a duty of care. To lock the car. To make sure the keys were put away safely. But that's all.

Edited by RobJP on 22/09/2017 at 15:17

I've spoken to a solicitor on the phone, who said I may be able to claim, but that's a solicitor who will want £100+vat to sit down and discuss. To me it soulds like he wants me to come in a pay for him to say otherwise.

What some of the guys have said seems legit, so maybe I should just let it go.

Thanks guys.

Let it go. If it went to court you will have to say why you did not insure it whilst outside the secure storage area. It is not a third partys responsibility to insure your goods. The only way you could possibly move forward is if the third party was negligent in any way, i.e left it unlocked, keys in ignition etc. But I suspect this will be hard to prove if it were true. Thats my view on it.

The OP stated there was no engine in it, so keys in the ignition would make no difference.

I have a very similar case with my catering trailer. My GF's brother in law took my trailer to do some work on it (adaptions) it was being changed so that my GF could use it and work was being done free.

Similar to OP I had no need to insure at my unit and would have stayed there safe. My GF and B.I.L transported the trailer to his drive. The handbrake wasn't functioning as it should, which he mentioned to me, even stating how easy it could be to steal.

My question is...if he was aware of this, why didn't he make it secure like jacking it up and taking the wheels off??

I understand it's my fault it wasn't insured. They were both aware of this and trusted that they would take care of my property and sort insurance if she was going to trade in it.

Would I be able to take either or both to court.....I understand this would be the end of my relationship, but they both don't seem to be bothered or offered any money or apologies.

Your property, your responsibility.

He has told you, as clear as day, that it would be easy to steal.

If you are then so negligeng as to do nothing about it, then the blame rests on you. Why should he do stuff, when you can't be bothered ? He sees you not caring about your property, so why should he care about it either ?

Ah. As you just pointed out, you GAVE it to her. In fact, you say it twice.

I gave it to her/them to help get her back on her feet.

I was doing her the favour of giving my trailer to her to make some money.

Not your trailer any more. No different to giving ... well, anything, to anyone. You might like to think, you might hope that they'll look after it.

But it is hers, to do with as she sees fit.

I think you might want to carrect that : One legal professional says "I'll say maybe on the phone, but you'll have to pay me £100 +VAT to give you a proper answer"

In the case of the second person, he says, quite clearly, that he GAVE the trailer to his g/f. He says it twice.

If he thinks he has any legal rights to it, then he's living in cloud cuckoo land.

We've had people questioning the legal status of advice given in this part of the forum before. I think it's generally understood that we are all non-professionals who are interested in legal matters. As such, advice is offered informally. There's no point in starting an argument about how good the advice is and whether a solicitor is a better bet.

Are you aware of all the details surrounding the issue and are you knowledgeable and qualified enough to give sound legal advice based on a couple of sentences?

You really should extend these people a courtesy and place a disclaimer at the end of each your statements. Something like ......

Please note: "Anything I say is based on personal opinion, not legal principle. There is no substitute for professional advice"

That should do it.

No, I don't have all the details. By it's very nature, this forum is one side of an argument. In addition, the question could be a highly embellished version of events.

I'm also not a solicitor.

However, the last two letters of my username, as well as being the initials of my second and surname (my name is Robert J... P.........), are also the (voluntary, unpaid) job that I did on a part-time basis for over a decade, until the local Magistrate's Court closed in 2013.

So I probably have a reasonable idea on how a court would rule in such a case. I saw similar cases on a few occasions.

In one of the cases (as an example), the plaintiff stood up in court and swore that he'd lent an old car to his girlfriend, and at the breakup had expected it to be returned. It wasn't, and he was claiming the value of the car back from her.

Unfortunately for him, she still had the same phone, and on it, in a text as clear as day, was the word 'give' regarding the car.

Just as, in the second case here, the person says, quite clearly, that he GAVE the car to his g/f. He says it twice.

In a magistrates court, that would be the equivalent of a smoking gun. It's clear, irrefutable evidence of where possession of the goods actually lies. It was a gift. Ownership was transferred, and it cannot be claimed back, only voluntarily given back.

So yes, to both of the original people on here, go get professional legal advice. Pay for it. But you're unlikely to hear any good news, and it's most likely to be a case of throwing more money away.

If there is no clear proof (e.g. a signed document), establishing the status of what you claim is your property could well be a problem. You may be clear in your mind, but a court (if you're involved in legal action) will want proof.

Edited by FP on 28/09/2017 at 15:31

Ok, maybe a poor choice of words.

I loaned/lent it, either way, I wanted it back or if she made a success of it, could've bought it off me in instalments.

As pointed out above , you have clearly stated you GAVE it to them, that is not the same as loaned/lent. Unless you have written evidence you wanted it back, you have no case.