Defective Car Bought. Going to Small Claims - Consumer Rights Act 2015 help needed

Anthonyuk_2

Can I post the name of the used cars so people can check this out please?

foxy-stoat

What car is it, price you paid - also, post up links to other cars he has for sale as I am in the market for a used car.

Do you know whats actually wrong with it, as have to weigh up the time it will take to get your money back and being without a car.

arcon5

A lot of people are saying get your claim in -- but are these comments based on emotion or intellect?

Because spending a few hundred quid more to obtain a judgement that will never be enforced is not necessarily money saving when having the car fixed might cost say a hundred quid.

The guy does sound like a to55er, but we don't know what assets the company has, whether he has a history shutting companies down, etc etc etc.

Have you had the car looked at op?

Tinks74

This is the Companies House website, you can find out all sorts about a company here.


https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/help/welcome

straighttalker

As other's have said, you need to do some due diligence prior to issuing Court proceedings. If the guy is trading as a limited company, he will just dissolve the company if you obtain any judgment.

If he's a sole trader, you might get a better chance of obtaining a judgment against him.

However once you obtain judgment, he may give a financial breakdown where he can't afford to pay the whole lot and offers to pay a low amount of say £10 a month or something like that.

It may well be better to invest the time and money you were going to spend on pursuing him through the Courts on fixing the car? I know it's something you don't want to hear but sounds like he's going to be as difficult and obstinate as he can.

Anthonyuk_2

Tinks74 wrote: »

This is the Companies House website, you can find out all sorts about a company here.

[I log back in to find I have got my "been at the forum 8 years" badge, and it still says that because I am new I cannot post or quote links, go figure]

The company I bought it from is not on there. I get the feeling he maybe is just making up a company. As it was a trade buy from Autotrader. But he has 11 other cars all listed under that company on Autotrader.

Anyway I have issued the Small claims proceedings at a cost of £60.

I have done this as the car is seriously faulty. It will not start up at all. Its stuck outside a garage 3 miles from me and I cannot afford to get it towed away. So I risk these charges when someone complains about that as its still parked outside the garage unable to move and I do not know what to do with it. And I have been told I have to tax and insure it. Its a white elephant as it is now.

I have been told by the garage I took it to above that the ECU is likely faulty at a cost of £700 plus to replace. With no guarantees that will fix the problem.

The reason why is the garage has said someone has deliberately tampered with both the dashboard and OBD sensors to hide any faults with the car. So there is no way to know what is wrong with it causing it not to start.

The guy when he came around shouting at me said he thinks its not the ECU. But it's the Cam chain has stretched on the car causing it not to start (And I think that means, it is the cam chain that is stretched and he just hid this from me when buying knowing the car had this serious fault). But this is also not a cheap fix. And would cost about £300-£400 to fix.

Either way the car will not start. The car was bought for £595. So it was not an expensive buy. But when you are skint like I am and desperately needed this car for work. It is expensive. My car insurance is due to be renewed in a few weeks and I am not sure what to do about that.

He has really screwed me over this guy. And this is why I have took him to small claims as he is just an arrogant charlatan who took me for a mug.

arcon5

Well I hope you strike lucky not doing much heard work because then you've got the hearing fee and enforcement fees to pay if he doesn't fall in to line.
And yes if it's not taxed and insured on a public road you will be fined

burlington6

Did you not tax and insure it when you collected it?

AdrianC

Anthonyuk wrote: »

The company I bought it from is not on there. I get the feeling he maybe is just making up a company. As it was a trade buy from Autotrader. But he has 11 other cars all listed under that company on Autotrader.

Don't get a trading name confused with a limited company. It's perfectly possible and legal for a business which isn't a limited company, just a sole-trader, to trade under a trading name.

In that instance, your claim is against him personally, and his liability is limited to the extent of his personal wealth, rather than him being able to close the company down and remove any liability.

The guy when he came around shouting at me said he thinks its not the ECU. But it's the Cam chain has stretched on the car causing it not to start (And I think that means, it is the cam chain that is stretched and he just hid this from me when buying knowing the car had this serious fault). But this is also not a cheap fix. And would cost about £300-£400 to fix.

If the cam chain was stretched sufficiently that the car won't run, rather than running but making a horrible sound, then the car simply would not have run.

The car was bought for £595.

Ah! That puts a VERY different spin on things...

Your consumer rights for used goods are tempered by reasonable expectations for goods of that price and apparent quality. And, for a £600 used car, those reasonable expectations are, frankly, minimal.

You say it broke down "almost immediately", and you've had it "under 30 days" - how long have you had it, how many miles?

Anthonyuk_2

AdrianC wrote: »

You say it broke down "almost immediately", and you've had it "under 30 days" - how long have you had it, how many miles?

I bought it on the 13th April.

It was displaying problems the next day of buying and every day of buying. Where it was taking 10 mins of starting up the car it would immediately cut out after 10 seconds of it starting up and needing to keep starting it up over and over. It did this for 10mins till the engine warmed up and then it was ok and stopped cutting out.

This was until Wesdnesday 20th where it cut out at a set of traffic lights and would not start back up until after 10 mins of the above. This was humiliating and distressing as it was a very public set of traffic lights and the people behind me were not happy. As a result I didn't want to use the car no more till fixed.

So phoned and I arranged to take it to the garage on Friday 22nd April and never got it back as the garage trying to fix it left it in a state where it now wont start up at all.

Like I say the garages senior mechanic says someone has been tampering with the car to hide all of the faults on the car so its impossible to know what is wrong.

So the car showed serious faults the very next day. But I have had it to drive for 9 days till leaving it with the garage. And in this time I have driven possibly 10-20miles in it total over all.

The guy is saying his defence will be £600 for a car, I should have known it was faulty. But it was advertised on autotrader in perfect working order. He told it was perfect working order He told us he had taken it home and been driving it around himself for the last few days and it drives perfectly.

Given the issue where it wont startup from cold shows he knew of the fault. And was clearly using it himself to keep the engine warm so it didn't show its fault when I came around to buy it off him.