Repairs

jfisher20

Hintza wrote: »

Have you spoken to Ford Customer service?

Yes and they stated verbally "We would expect parts to last longer but due to age of vehicle we cannot help".
Age refered to was outside Ford 3year warranty.

jfisher20

I know how you feel.
I am working on other peoples opinions and advice.
Can I quote part of a letter from Trading Standards because if they are wrong I need to know.
"Further to your letter I would advise you to ensure that when completing the claim form from the County Court you include all of the advice you have received regarding the life expectancy of the part regardless of whether it is supported in writing. The burden of proof in a civil case is on the balance of probabilities only and it is within the power of a judge to appoint an expert to clarify technical points that are in dispute"
That is what my comment was based on.
I am getting more and more intrigued.
Thanks.

jfisher20

4743hudsonj wrote: »

If im honest your still not making an awful lot of sense, im struggling to dully understand what your saying. what im gathering is that the company are using the age of the vehicle as a defence despite them using low mileage as a sales tactic?

I cant understand what your saying about reports and judges? Judges dont appoint reports at all, if your claiming under the SOGA you will need to obtain an engineers report in your favour stating that the faults are an inherent fault and should not have occurred give the age and price of the vehicle.

TS were correct about writing though, keep everything in writing with copies to spare, send any mail recorded delivery and keep the proof so there is no doubt that they receive any correspondence.

If the claim is for £2000 then that leaves you £3000 to get a report before being beyond the jurisdiction of the small claims court .

Sorry missed first part of your message.
1 Contacted dealer - not our responsibility see Ford
2 Contacted dealer referring to Sales of Goods Act - cannot help age of vehicle.
3 Contacted dealer age not important during sale - dealer replied with message quoted in previous reply

4743hudsonj

jfisher20 wrote: »

I know how you feel.
I am working on other peoples opinions and advice.
Can I quote part of a letter from Trading Standards because if they are wrong I need to know.
"Further to your letter I would advise you to ensure that when completing the claim form from the County Court you include all of the advice you have received regarding the life expectancy of the part regardless of whether it is supported in writing. The burden of proof in a civil case is on the balance of probabilities only and it is within the power of a judge to appoint an expert to clarify technical points that are in dispute"
That is what my comment was based on.
I am getting more and more intrigued.
Thanks.

Right ok! i see what you were trying to explain, what i was stating and what they have stated are different thing, ignore there stuff about the expert, its not of any real use. Ive never seen a judge appoint an expert at small claims, its always relied upon that the claimant/defendant will to strengthen their case/defence.

They were right about the advice from ford too except id try to get as much as possible in writing as possible, what you say could be the truth, or a lie so the judge will in all likelihood ignore it and form his judgement around hard facts he can see (ie written info from ford)

As i said though to get anywhere you need to get your own report really. Heres your next step.

Write to the garage setting out the full details of the case, and your resolution, state the sale of gooods act 1979 and that in any sale it implies terms that goods must be "fit for purpose", "of satisfactory quality" and "durable". State that you feel the seller has breeched these terms with the goods in question and you wish it to be repaired, give him 7 days to respond with a resolution.


If there is no resolution or contact, send the same letter again (almost) but title it "letter before action" and state at the end that if he continues to no provide a satisfactory resolution within 14 days you will issue him with small claims proceedings.

Now i know i said about an independent report, and i stand by that it would increase the probability of success but its probably worth a try first and then if you fail you can re evaluate whether you want to pay for a report and try again.

4743hudsonj

jfisher20 wrote: »

Sorry missed first part of your message.
1 Contacted dealer - not our responsibility see Ford
2 Contacted dealer referring to Sales of Goods Act - cannot help age of vehicle.
3 Contacted dealer age not important during sale - dealer replied with message quoted in previous reply

1 = Theyre talking rubbish
2 = Age is relevant but unless its 6 years since they sold it to you theyre not relieved of their statutory duties
3 = As above.

jfisher20

4743hudsonj wrote: »

Right ok! i see what you were trying to explain, what i was stating and what they have stated are different thing, ignore there stuff about the expert, its not of any real use. Ive never seen a judge appoint an expert at small claims, its always relied upon that the claimant/defendant will to strengthen their case/defence.

They were right about the advice from ford too except id try to get as much as possible in writing as possible, what you say could be the truth, or a lie so the judge will in all likelihood ignore it and form his judgement around hard facts he can see (ie written info from ford)

As i said though to get anywhere you need to get your own report really. Heres your next step.

Write to the garage setting out the full details of the case, and your resolution, state the sale of gooods act 1979 and that in any sale it implies terms that goods must be "fit for purpose", "of satisfactory quality" and "durable". State that you feel the seller has breeched these terms with the goods in question and you wish it to be repaired, give him 7 days to respond with a resolution.


If there is no resolution or contact, send the same letter again (almost) but title it "letter before action" and state at the end that if he continues to no provide a satisfactory resolution within 14 days you will issue him with small claims proceedings.

Now i know i said about an independent report, and i stand by that it would increase the probability of success but its probably worth a try first and then if you fail you can re evaluate whether you want to pay for a report and try again.

THanks again.
I got the letter done with the wording you said to include and got it off yesterday so we shall have to wait and see.
With regard to the report, up to now I have been advised to go on the "should it have gone at that mileage" path as I already have an email from an electrical engineer,who does work on the items, which states that he would expect the part to last 100,000+ subject to driving conditions such as start stop driving would reduce this figure.
The Ford dealer tells me it would be very hard to find the cause of the failure but as stated earlier they have said in writing that in their experience the failure is rare at that mileage etc.
The chap there is back from holiday today so I am going to try and get some more information from him.

4743hudsonj

jfisher20 wrote: »

THanks again.
I got the letter done with the wording you said to include and got it off yesterday so we shall have to wait and see.
With regard to the report, up to now I have been advised to go on the "should it have gone at that mileage" path as I already have an email from an electrical engineer,who does work on the items, which states that he would expect the part to last 100,000+ subject to driving conditions such as start stop driving would reduce this figure.
The Ford dealer tells me it would be very hard to find the cause of the failure but as stated earlier they have said in writing that in their experience the failure is rare at that mileage etc.
The chap there is back from holiday today so I am going to try and get some more information from him.

Yes thats why ive suggested now a report may not be too good and should only be done if the first court case fails. Good luck.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Heres where you go if they dont respond, theres a small fee (£25-£130 ish) to pay up front but you can claim this back if you win.

jfisher20

Thought I would give an update on what has taken place since the last posting.
Today 02/08 the motorhome dealer received the 14 day Letter Before Action letter.
A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from Lawdata who claim to be "The Legal and Trading Standards Specialist to the Motor Trade" informing me they were acting for the motorhome dealer.
The letter contained so many inaccuracies that I wrote back to them.
Also today I visited the Ford dealer to remove some items from the van and was told that last week the motorhome dealer had contacted them asking if they could provide the required part themselves for the Ford dealer to fit.
This call appears to have been made after my letter to Lawdata.
No decision was made and no further contact has been made.
I am a little annoyed that the Ford dealer did not inform me of this call.
I told them that I do not want any cheap stuff fitted to the van and they would only fit parts acceptable to them.
I would assume that they could not carry out any work without my agreement regardless of who supplied the part.
Hope I have expressed myself clearly enough for you to understand.
Many Thanks