used car from Private seller

paseodj

on April 29th I found out that my car I bought at the beginning (7th) of April has severe rust issues underneath.......how did I find this out? I lost my brakes through a ruptured line.

I bought from a private seller who advertised through a classified ad on Ebay.

when I went to look at the car it seemed ok, the ad said " The only advisory was the tyres which have been changed"....the seller said the front lights had been advised due to some carpolish frosting the top of the lights over. he seemed genuine and even owned his owned interior company. he gave some service history with the car and yet the advisory sheet wasn't there but he informed me there was nothing else (yes i should have been weary) and I had a friend with me that can confirm what was said.

I rang the seller up to explain to him that even as a private seller, the needs to be supplied in a roadworthy condition and to be as described. as you can imagine he told me at that point that it was nothing to do with him as the car was sold as seen (thats funny as he never mentioned sold as seen at all)

now to shed further light on this matter my MAIN form of transport is my motorbike. i have done no more than 8 journeys in the car (the advert said the car had 82500 and the car still has only 82487 miles on the clock, which shows how much i have used it!)

after calling him I did a bit more research and found out that you could do an MOT history search on direct.gov


this has showed up that contrary to what the seller said, the current mot also shows up on the advisories various corrosion underneath and a corroded exhaust mount bracket, adding further evidence the previous MOT shows advisories on the rear brake pipes.

this has further supported my case and I have written to the seller asking to be refunded my money within 14 days otherwise I will be taking him to court.

fourteen days passed yesterday and I have recieved nothing from him (the letter was sent to his address via recorded mail, to his business email address and to his ebay account so theres no way he didn't recieve it)

I have now gone to the court with my case and have set it up online to recover costs of the vehicle, loss of earnings, insurance cancellation charges, cost of having a tracker fitted and a couple of other minor incurred costs (now if he'd have listened to my original letter I would have only wanted reimbursing for the cost of the car)

hopefully the seller now realises that although I'm young (26), a student and person who trusts too easily, that I'm also not a pushover and when I say something, I mean it.

I shall keep you updated and hopefully the llink above will come in useful for some others (my neighbour who bought a car last year with only 80,000 on the clock wishes he'd known about the link as he's found out that the true mileage is in excess of 300,000 (oops)

Lee AKA Paseodj

vuvuzela

Lesson here is to check everything fully before buying. I like others I'm sure didn't know about MOT history checks, so hopefully that'll help others.

However, from http://www.autotrader.co.uk/advice/2010/09/buying/returning-a-car it seems that private4 sales are always 'sold as seen'...

"loss of earnings, cost of having a tracker fitted"

Just wondering how you justify claiming for these costs ?

paseodj

loss of earnings.....travelling to work in car, i carry heavy equipment and couldn't get there with it on my bike!

and tracker fitted was with my insurance, pay as you drive scheme, i'll have to pay the same again on next car, wouldn't have been fitted if i knew the car was dodgy!

paseodj

oh and i'm not intending on keeping the car, he can have it back as far as i'm concerned, but if i get left with the car too then the other costs can be ignored

PZH

Hi Lee

Surely an advisory does not make the car unroadworthy ? And it is up to YOU to inspect the car as a private sale ?

I really do wish you all the best - but I feel you may have a fight on your hands (unless the seller simply backs down or fails to show).

Keep us all posted.

EDIT: Having said the above, you do say:-

..the ad said " The only advisory was the tyres which have been changed"....

So maybe could be "Not as described" ?

david39

This very point was covered last week in the BBC daytime consumer programme hosted by that "Dom" fellow - the chap with the bald head.

If you buy something as a private sale it is definitely "as seen", even if the seller does not stipulate that. There is no come back on it.

He may have told you some of the advisory points about the MOT, but obviously didn't tell all of them to you.

Although sympathetic to your plight, I think you should put it down to experience and move on.

paseodj

no, you're right an advisory doesn't make it unroadworthy, however the brake lines are so badly corroded that they ruptured on me on a 17mile journey, which means the car was and is unroadworthy, does that make sense?

the rear brake lines were advised on the mot before last and yet never mentioned again, and to give a bit more info the seller informed me he knew personally the owner of the MOT company (which is a medium sized company and has a few outlets that i know of)......dodgy eh?

The rear differential has also turned out to be faulty (part of the car that turns the back wheels of a four wheel drive car for those who don't know) but the ad clearly stated (and i kept a copy of the original ad) that the ONLY advisory was the tyres, the Only bad point is a small rust spot on the rear wheel arch which was still solid
and that the 4x4 system has been a real blessing over winter..... so definately not as described and the evidence i have from the advert and the MOT search clearly shows this.

I know it is buyer beware but according to citizens advice (adviceguide.org) even in a private sale the car must be as described, and be in a roadworthy condition (I know many of you are already aware)

now in the space of 20 days with little use, the brake lines couldn't have ruptered like they did, unless they were already absolutely !!!!!!ed (if you think about it, we didn't have any rain through april that could cause excessive rusting under the car)

this added to the fact that I asked the seller if there were any other advisories than the lights and tyres, to which he said no (my friend who was with me is witness to this) which is another little bit of not as described

pcombo

Just have the car repaired at a garage,

If you buy a second hand car you cant expect it to run like a brand new one.

You can take it to court and win the case, Doesn't mean the seller will actually pay you.

You bought the car as seen, I.e you inspected the car and was happy to make a contract by handing the cash to the dealer.

paseodj

I sometimes feel what i write is a bit abrupt, and could be taken as a bit belittling, please don't see me like that, it's just how i write, I'm honestly a nice person!

paseodj

pcombo wrote: »

If you buy a second hand car you cant expect it to run like a brand new one.

You can take it to court and win the case, Doesn't mean the seller will actually pay you.

true, but you expect it to be as described and true again but they can always be chased and the person also owns their own company so I'm sure monies are recoverable in this case

Forwandert

How recently was the last MOT? If it was fairly recent you may have more luck with the garage that did the MOT. Your not going to get anywhere with the person you purchased the car from.