Buy used car with credit card from private seller

pmoule101

I would be very grateful for any assistance.
I bought a car from a company that was selling an old company car. The company is not an auto trader. The car sale was a private sale.
Fortunately they agreed to take payment via credit card as I believe this offers protection.
Unfortunately the car has a couple of electrical faults that they were unaware of as they did not use these features of the car.

My question: Am I entitled under Section 75 of the consumer credit act to be able to claim from my credit card company for the repairs of the faults or do i have no protection as the car was a private sale?

dannyrst

pmoule101 wrote: »

I would be very grateful for any assistance.
I bought a car from a company that was selling an old company car. The company is not an auto trader. The car sale was a private sale.
Fortunately they agreed to take payment via credit card as I believe this offers protection.
Unfortunately the car has a couple of electrical faults that they were unaware of as they did not use these features of the car.

My question: Am I entitled under Section 75 of the consumer credit act to be able to claim from my credit card company for the repairs of the faults or do i have no protection as the car was a private sale?

Have you contacted the seller asking them to fix the faults?

pmoule101

Yes, they were unaware of the issues but unwilling to fix.
Problem 1) Radio does not work as antenna is disconnetced. Garage says would need to take out all internal panelling to see where issue is.
Problem 2) Bending headlights not working.

Not SERIOUS issues I relaise! however could potentially be constly if having to take it to a main dealer to diagnose and sort out which is why I thought perhaps the credit card company may be liable under section 75.

Fat_Walt

dannyrst wrote: »

Have you contacted the seller asking them to fix the faults?

Does the seller have an obligation to fix them?

Clive_Woody

pmoule101 wrote: »

I would be very grateful for any assistance.
I bought a car from a company that was selling an old company car. The company is not an auto trader. The car sale was a private sale.
Fortunately they agreed to take payment via credit card as I believe this offers protection.
Unfortunately the car has a couple of electrical faults that they were unaware of as they did not use these features of the car.

My question: Am I entitled under Section 75 of the consumer credit act to be able to claim from my credit card company for the repairs of the faults or do i have no protection as the car was a private sale?

I suspect the car was sold as seen, but it is unusual for a private individual to take credit card payments and if there was a business name on your statement from the transaction you may be able to make a claim against them.

Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the credit card company is jointly and severally liable for any breach of contract or misrepresentation by the retailer or trader.

It might be tricky to make a claim unless the advert listed these items as features and said they were in working order

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/can-i-claim-on-my-credit-card-when-something-goes-wrong

dannyrst

Fat_Walt wrote: »

Does the seller have an obligation to fix them?

Regardless. First place to ask is the seller.

Whether they are obliged to fix the issue depends on what the description in the advert said. I'm also not 100% certain on the technicality of paying using a card machine which is no doubt registered to the company.

shaun_from_Africa

pmoule101 wrote: »

I bought a car from a company that was selling an old company car. The company is not an auto trader. The car sale was a private sale

As it was a company selling the car and that car was a company asset, there is no way that this could be regarded as a private sale.
Irrespective of them not being an auto trader, it was still a business to consumer transaction.

neilmcl

I can't see many private sellers accepting credit cards, surely this is was a trader you were dealing with.

takman

pmoule101 wrote: »

Yes, they were unaware of the issues but unwilling to fix.
Problem 1) Radio does not work as antenna is disconnetced. Garage says would need to take out all internal panelling to see where issue is.
Problem 2) Bending headlights not working.

Not SERIOUS issues I relaise! however could potentially be constly if having to take it to a main dealer to diagnose and sort out which is why I thought perhaps the credit card company may be liable under section 75.

If these faults were there since you bought it then it could easily be argued that you accepted the faults considering how easy it is to test the radio. Headlights are not as easy to test but on all the cars I have seen them on they still work when stationary so someone in front of the car while your turning the wheel should see them working or not.

So why didn't you test this before you bought the car?

foxy-stoat

What car is it?

Removing a radio and re-fitting it should be a diy fix, bending headlights - have these on the RX300 and I cant say that I would miss them if they didnt work....although when you switch the lights on they test themselves by moving from left to right and looks cool for about 2 seconds.

George_Michael

One thing that I would suggest getting done is to go to a garage and ask them to test the headlight aim.
It's possible that the bending mechanism has failed when the lights were not pointing forwards and if this is the case, it could mean an MOT failure next time the test is due.