vehicle leasing

alilow

I recently took out a 24 month lease contract for a vehicle to use in my business. When I took delivery of the vehicle it had a serious fault . I informed the lease company and they took it back and returned the previous vehicle I had been leasing from them. It has been over 3 weeks since then and although I have contacted the lease company on numerous occasions they are unable to provide me with any information about the new vehicle or when I will get it back.
My question is have they breached our contract

neilmcl

As we don't know what the contract states we can't say whether they're in breach or not.

DoaM

And as this is a B2B contract there are no consumer rights at play here.

alilow

The contract is covered by the Consumer Credit Act 1974

Fosterdog

alilow wrote: »

The contract is covered by the Consumer Credit Act 1974

Are you sure about that? You are acting in the course of business not as a consumer so your rights are usually limited to what is written in your contract.

alilow

Yes it is on the contract

tykesi

alilow wrote: »

Yes it is on the contract

You really aren't helping yourself get meaningful answers are you?

Have you read the contract? What part of it do you think they have breached? Have you approached them to point out the breach of the specific part of the contract you think has happened?

unholyangel

Fosterdog wrote: »

Are you sure about that? You are acting in the course of business not as a consumer so your rights are usually limited to what is written in your contract.

Section 75 of the CCA is extended to sole traders, unincorporated businesses etc (basically "individuals") so if OP is a sole trader, the contract probably is governed by the CCA.

alilow wrote: »

The contract is covered by the Consumer Credit Act 1974

Which is great - but all the CCA does is make the creditor jointly & severally liable, meaning you only have a claim against them IF you have a claim against the trader.

And while CCA may extend to sole traders, it does not necessarily extend to the consumer rights act or the like. So you'll need to read your contract as others have advised above.

alilow

I do apologise if I seem a little vague, I am new to this but appreciate your advise.
The contract says " any terms ,conditions and warranties express or implied(whether by statute, at common law or otherwise) as to the condition, quality, description or otherwise of the Vehicle or as to its fitness for purpose are hereby expressly excluded". I have understood this to mean that if the vehicle is not fit for purpose they accept no responsibility.
The vehicle they supplied was not fit for purpose. I have read the Financial Ombudsman Service issue 79 September/October 2009. It says Hire purchase agreements are covered by the Sale of Goods Act and that under this Act there are implied conditions to a hire purchase agreement including that the goods are fit for purpose.
The above case was very similar to my own but the claimant was not a business. The FOS did find in her favour that the finance company had breached the contract.
So what I want to know is if the Sale of Goods Act is applicable in my case

unholyangel

The Sale of Goods Act would be applicable to your contract however, the way the soga applied to a consumer sale (pre oct 2015 - after then its the consumer rights act that applies to b2c contracts) is not the same way it was applied to a b2b sale as obviously consumers need far more protection while businesses are supposed to be savvy in contracts so can potentially sign some rights away.

Also note that other legislation may help you too - such as the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

bris

Your contract should state your rights when things go wrong.


The unfair contract terms are very limited for businesses but defective goods are covered "unless to do so is reasonable". This basically means that if the supplier is treating you fair then it's not an unfair contract. The courts would look at how they are dealing with it to decide if it's unfair or not and therefor a breach of contract on their part.


As a consumer you would have automatic rejection rights in the first 30 days but not as a busines