Split screen Morris minor discovered in a hous purchase.

[datsundrew]

I once heard a story from one of my neighbours that behind the derelict house at the end of the road I live in, was a garage, and that the owners used it for church on a Sunday and holidays. The elderly owners died, and the car was not seen again, their son who lived with them ( lived at home) didn't drive.
Moving on a few years, it turns out the son still lived in the 'derelict' house, and last year he was knocked of his bike and killed. The house went on the market last week and last week it was purchased by my customers, for me to renovate and for them to rent.
We viewed the house, which is in a terrible state, and at the end of the narrow path, beside the house is a corrugated garage. The path used to be a drive, and the laurel hedge has trunks about a foot thick, and as high as the house.
After viewing the house, which is cleared, I remembered the car story, so climbed up to peer into the only small window, high up, and got a glimpse of the grey split screen Morris, with trafficators and a very 1960s roof rack with sucker feet! It appears that it may have survived quite well, and on a shelf on the wall are several tins of oil, Polish etc, that appear not to be rusty, so it looks promising.tax disc ran out in 1991.
I have bought cars from concrete garages, asbestos roof, and they have been totally rotten, with anything inside the same state. And then some in an open shed/ barn can be surprisingly good.
The garage is locked, and I will not be able to get a proper look until completion. Looks like the car is mine, so will need to register it if it's worth saving, will this be easy? Obviously everything has been binned, as this has just been forgotten.

[johnd]

I would deffo save it

[mikeymk]

Why doesn't this ever happen to me?

[PandaSelecta]

If you want to sell, let me know as I have been after a split screen Minor for a little while. When you get it out the garage, post me some pics please

[datsundrew]

I will save it if I can, I've restored lots of stuff before. My daily is a 1960 Landy, and partner 1960 Amazon . It has come as a surprise to me, I had forgotten all about the story, and it was only when I saw the old garage that I remembered. as its split screen, it's mot exempt, so if it starts its ok to drive to Scotland straight away.....right? Lol I will post some pics as soon as we have access, and manage to get in there.....it's very well locked in, thick corrugated steel to get into, and then a weeks work to clear the trees!
Pandaselecta.....I will let you know. It's not certain that the car goes with the sale, but I'm confident that the seller (elderly relative) is not going to pay to retrieve what could turn out to be junk. Looking at what I can see, and that's not much,it's looking promising.

[bazzateer]

Before you drive it to Scotland make sure the tyres are inflated properly.

[carltonx]

thats great I'm in a sort of simular situation but with a 72 super beetle , i discovered through my work in a concreate garage , been there for 28 years untouched only problem is no idea who the owner is so iv filled in a v888 and sent off to the dvla to trace them ,hopfully ill get it for nothing or peanuts

[fred]

Moved house 10 times - an in all the times Ive moved best thing Ive discovered
was a stuffed squirrel in a loft

[Battles]

I think it's been said on here before that it's worth popping a note to solicitors and estate agents in your area saying that you can help if they come across old motors or old workshop equipment, I certainly know a few people who have had furniture, sheds and their contents, old motors and workshop gear via a relationship (either personal or professional) with a solicitor or estate agent.

Hope you get the car, it would be nice if it ended up in use but still living in the same area. You might be able to find people locally who have old photos of it.

Before we moved to our current house looked at loads of other houses that needed renovated, some of them were full of stuff and some had been totally cleared out. One had two old vans in the garden (nothing exciting) that we had the option, in terms of the legal position, to either keep included in the sale or insist that the sellers (in this case, an estate executor) get rid of.

We would probably have chosen to have the seller get rid of them because it was two rotten late 90s Renault vans but we were advised, in case we wanted to keep them, that telling the DVLA they were included in a property sale should be enough to demonstrate that you had bought them in a legal manner so they should issue a V5.

If anyone came back to you later and said they didn't belong to you, they'd have to deal with the solicitor who handled the sale rather than you. It's not the same legal territory as, for example, buying a stolen car or buying a car that someone didn't legally own despite being the registered keeper.

I think it's for this reason that most solicitors would try and get rid of them with the seller or or the family being responsible so that they never have anyone coming back to them, which is why it might be handy to let solicitors know that you can help.