Advice please - put deposit on car and just found out it was an insurance write off

fannyanna

Hi All,

Firstly can I just say I know that we were stupid to put a deposit down on a car without carrying out checks. Unfortunately we've learnt our lesson the hard (and expensive) way :-(

Yesterday we put a deposit down on a car and when we got home carried out some checks. Turns out the car was written off last year. It was a category D write off so I understand that these can be made roadworthy again. Well our insurance company will not insure the car (they don't do any write-offs) so we've decided we'd rather not get the car.

We tried ringing the garage to get our deposit back and the guy was having none of it. Before we even got a chance to really discuss it with him he put the phone down.

We did not see any mention of the car being an insurance write-off on the advert and he pulled the advert as soon as we put a deposit down. We managed to get a copy of the advert straight from the advertisers and having looked again we've seen that he did put "cat d" amongst all the other jargon in the advert.

I know that dealers have to tell you if they are selling you a car that was a write off but my question is whether you think it reasonable to state "cat d" amongst other jargon in an advert and not make any further disclosures.

I would argue that it was not fully bought to our attention that the car was an insurance write off but I'd like to hear your opinions.

As I said before I know we have to take some form of responsibility for not making checks before paying the deposit but obviously I'm trying to find an argument in our defence that I could use to help try and get our deposit money back.

Thank you in advance for any help that you can offer.

Fannyanna

vaio

Pretty sure a dealer doesn't have to tell you unless you ask.

By the sound of it you didn't ask and anyway he did put it in the advert. Can't see any legal grounds for getting your deposit back but if you keep hassling him you might wear him down, he might be more flexible if you pick another car from his stock

ETA: but I was wrong, he does need to tell you but could well argue the avert did just that

fannyanna

Hi - thanks for your response. I've been researching this and it is a requirement that they tell you if it's a cat a, b, c or d.

So not sure hiding cat d in an advert is really informing me that the car was an insurance write off.

fannyanna

Sorry - slight error in my reply. It's just cat c and d which they need to tell you about.

Quote below is from the Consumer Direct website

"Selling a car that has been classified as a category C or D write off without making this clear to the consumer is an offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and you should report this to your local trading standards."

vaio

I stand corrected but he'll argue he did tell you (in the advert), so the rest of my post stands

Has he nothing else you fancy?

fannyanna

No nothing else - only had a few other cars and they're quite old and high mileage.

This guy just wont speak to us about it so as I paid the deposit on my credit card I'm going to try and make a claim with the bank using section 75 of the CCA. Mr argument will be that he breached the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 on the following basis:

1) It was not clearly stated in the advertisement that the car had been an insurance write off. It's unreasonable to expect the average consumer to understand that the term "cat d" hidden amongst other jargon relates to the fact that the car had been classed as a write off. In fact when I called the advertiser (to see if they could find the advert) even they said there was no mention the car had been written off - and they specialise in advertising second hand cars.

2) There was no oral disclosure of the fact that the car had been written off.

We've got nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Appreciate your opinion though so thank you for taking the time to respond to my post :-)

Quentin

Cat d write offs sometimes are cars that have been stolen, the original owner paid off, then the car is recovered so sold on by the insurer.

Otherwise they have been damaged but not seriously.

The price should reflect that it's a cat d (is it a good deal?), though this will also be taken into acount should you want to sell it on.

Gene_Hunt_2

fannyanna wrote: »

No nothing else - only had a few other cars and they're quite old and high mileage.

This guy just wont speak to us about it so as I paid the deposit on my credit card I'm going to try and make a claim with the bank using section 75 of the CCA. Mr argument will be that he breached the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 on the following basis:

1) It was not clearly stated in the advertisement that the car had been an insurance write off. It's unreasonable to expect the average consumer to understand that the term "cat d" hidden amongst other jargon relates to the fact that the car had been classed as a write off. In fact when I called the advertiser (to see if they could find the advert) even they said there was no mention the car had been written off - and they specialise in advertising second hand cars.

2) There was no oral disclosure of the fact that the car had been written off.

We've got nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Appreciate your opinion though so thank you for taking the time to respond to my post :-)

Where was it advertised?

fannyanna

It was on auto trader.

I know that cat d's can be returned to the road and can be a bargain but on the basis that we can't get it insured with our insurer we've decided we just don't want the car and had we have known it had been a write off we would never have put a deposit on the car.

Gene_Hunt_2

You may find the Autotrade has a glossary explaining such things as cat d and fsh. So no rules broken buy the seller. How much was the deposit?

fannyanna

Not suggesting he's broken auto trader rules.

I'd argue that he's breached the law though - although that's just my opinion.

The deposit was £300 so not a huge amount of money thankfully but having said that we're not rich so £300 is a lot of money to us.

As I said before it's an expensive lesson to learn - I will now make sure that I carry out a check before making any financial commitment to buy a second hand car.