Contents of car bought at auction

jason_247, Jun 20, 7:12am
Just a thought.
If you buy a damaged or stolen/recovered car off an insurance company at auction like turners etc.

do you have a legal right to anything still in the car like tools or phone etc? or could the previous owners come back and claim its their property

tony9, Jun 20, 7:15am
Not if it is not part of the car. Tools for the car (like a jack) would be yours. A tool box full of tools belongs to someone else unless it was mentioned as being part of the auction.

msigg, Jun 20, 7:17am
stolen property. if the owner has not claimed for the property then it is still their property. of coarse they will never no anyway.

jason_247, Jun 20, 7:27am
Id obviously run it past an auctioneer doing the sale first but id expect a car where the insurance company only ever paid for the car the original owner could claim the contents but a work van where insurance has paid out for the van and contents they wouldnt have rights anymore?

lookoutas, Jun 20, 7:38am
It should have been sanitised long before the auction takes place.
What about all the coins under the seats?
Same difference.

I bought a write-off once that had a weeks wages in 50c coins throughout it.
Good score.

And then there's other things?

Always wondered what the excitement would be like to buy a Yank car and find a pistol stashed under a seat. Would have't give it a try!

shaun16, Jun 20, 7:40am
surely they check the cars before they sell them

marte, Jun 20, 7:44am
I brought a DVD and opened it and it had $300 in it, a few weeks ago.

Was really funny as I did it all in front of a friend, who stills not sure that I didn't fake it.

There's a deja vu thing about it too, sorta likesomeone told me he had sold a DVD with his savings in it, by accident.

brapbrap8, Jun 20, 10:48am
I traded in a car that had a broken glovebox latch, I couldn't get it open and I couldn't remember if there was anything valuable in there so I didn't bother taking a wrecking bar to it on the off chance I had left an emergency cash supply or anything in there.

sifty, Jun 20, 8:30pm
I'm married with kids.
No chance of a secret stash of cash.

andrewph, May 17, 3:10am
If i buy a damaged car at the auctions whatever is in it is mine. I found an envelope with $40 in it under the spare wheel in one I bought last year. I've also had one that had a nice hunting knife under the front seat, 3 worn tyres in the boot and a $10 bag of sausages jammed between the grille and radiator, so sometimes you win and some times you don't. I only found the bag of sausages after I'd had it for 2 weeks. LOL