On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 22:51:30 +0100, David Bertenshaw
<
[email protected]> wrote:
> Well, OK - I suppose what I said was a bit ambiguous. You don't *have*
> to give the bike back in the sense that there *are* legal ways in which
> you can retain it - e.g. by coming to an agreement with the owner.
>
> But is that the same as saying that you could choose not to return it
> against the owner's wishes and insist he takes your money? If you don't
> have proper title (and according to the stated case, you don't), if the
> owner wants his bike back, wouldn't it be his decision, not yours? How
> can you make him take money for something that is legally his, not yours?
I don't know. I just know what is written on the document I have.
This is the position, in this case, as I see it. I have found a broken
bike. It is so broken only the frame is useful. At the end of this week I
have some claim to the bike, whatever that means. Now, considering it is
an unridable wreck what do I do?
If I considered that at some point in the future the owner had the right
to claim the bike itself I have no incentive in doing anything to it. I
can't dump it as the original owner might want the bike itself, not the
money. I can't do it up and make it ridable as the owner might want, the
original bike itself. And, I can't cut up the frame and reuse the tubing
to make a decorative sculpture as the owner might want the bike itself.
If what you suggest is the likely legal position then I am now in a no win
situation of having to store a wrecked bike for the rest of my life. If
this really is the case then I have no incentive for reporting found
property under Durham's current scheme---ie where I may come to keep it.
What I am likely to do is strip the bike and reuse the frame, and dump the
old components. What happens then when the owner turns up? It's not his
bike, it's his frame with my components on it. In that situation I can see
no alternative to offering recompense for the original bike, in its found
state.
To be honest I'm not going to worry about it too much. I'll take a couple
of photos of it before it gets the chop just in case there is a claim that
it was an immaculate vintage Peugeot---but I doubt I'll need them.
Colin
