legal advice for poor workmanship on car repairs

keeley_n_dean

Hi,

My boyfriend bought a car back in Jan, on the way home it broke down (he bought it knowing there was a fault).
He took it to a garage who said one of the pistons needed replacing which meant the engine would need a rebuild, he took it to engine warehouse in heathrow who done an engine "rebuild" they gave him a quote and after being told they needed payment as the car was finished we paid the amount which had risen by £2000 from the original quote.

We were then messed around for quite a few weeks being told that there were parts that had not been delivered so they were waiting on them, after weeks of being given the run around by all the staff my boyfriend went to pick the car up.

On the way home it broke down again, we called the AA and they found that one of the drive shafts had not been fitted which caused the transfere box and gearbox to go, we have since had to upgrade our AA membership to have it towed to a different garage (we wasn't prepared to wait for another 2 or 3 months for the engine warehouse to repair it).

Since it has been at the new garage they have noticed that there were other things that hadn't been done properly as well as the drive shaft not being fitted, the mechanic also confirmed what the AA man said that the drive shaft being left off caused the transfere and gear boxes to go.

All in all the job that was quoted at £1800 for the engine rebuild cost us £3800 plus a further £4000 for parts and labour in the garage its currently in, then there is the insurance and tax that we paid and haven't been able to use the car, and an engineers report as evidence should it go through court.

Can anyone advise whether we can claim compensation, as well as the insurance from the start date (which was during the period it was having the engine rebuild, we started it as we were told the car would be ready that week) to when the car is usable, the tax during the period the car has been in both garages and lastly the £4000+ it has cost having it repaired? If so how do we start the procedure?

Also since all the problems we have googled the engine warehouse and it appears that they are known for giving people a quote and then charing them a lot more when the person collects the car, and also for charging for work they have done when they haven't done it, such as an fitting a reconditioned engine when they have actually just power washed an engine from a scrap car and fitted it.

They have also preciously been investigated by watchdog and trading standards.

As you can probably imagine we are very angry as we had been trying to save for other things such as a 7 seater car and bits our 4 children need but we've had to spend it on getting the car repaired instead.

Thank you in advance for any information you can give

Regards

Keeley and Dean

montyrebel

for that money you could have got a new car, but you should be able to get some sort of compensation, get in touch with a solicitor and get them to issue a threatening letter to the garage

Pssst

OMG..what make and model is this?

keeley_n_dean

yea i no we could have bought a really nice 7 seater for the money we've spent.

its a mitsubishi gto twin turbo

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

You can reclaim the engineers report.

You can't really claim for the insurance as you bought the car with faults knowing it would need to be in a garage.

Re the repair costs elsewere. You really need to give that garage the opportunity to fix things first. You cant just pay to get it fixed elsewere and give them no opportunity to resolve the problems.

keeley_n_dean

well after the car broke down on way back from the rebuild we wrote to them stating that they had 14 days to get back to us otherwise the car would be going to another garage. this never happened and the car therefore went to another place to be repaired.
personally i'm glad they never as they couldn't manage to complete the work they have been paid for let alone any work that is down to them to put right.
but have been told since that as the work which they carried out on the car was suspect there was nothing saying that the car had to go back to the engine warehouse for repairs.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Any proof they got that letter?

keeley_n_dean

no i sent it normal post so got no proof. but phoned them to confirm they received the letter and got told yes but again no reply

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

So basically you have no proof you gave them opportunity to fix it. If they have any brains they will deny it and your pretty screwed.

keeley_n_dean

that will obviously all depend on what course things take because we have the form from the AA stating that the drive shaft was left off which caused the transfer and gearboxes to go which happened on the way home from the engine warehouse and the engineers report will confirm what the AA said plus it will also state the other pieces of work they done were faulty and if it does go to court we are going to print off some of the complaints we have found on google to show it has happened lots of times before.

Pssst

Well its a nice motor and deserves to be repaired by someone who knows what they are doing. not some backstreet butcher.