Refund from Company Dissolved and Restarted Under New Name?

willbya

Bit long winded but thank you to anyone who take the time to read and reply!

Middle of July purchased a car from small dealership for £1600 with 1 month warranty.
Within 2 weeks the car was back in the garage as the head gasket among other things needed to be replaced. I asked the dealer for my money back which they refused stating by law they had the right to attempt a fix – which I agreed to.
Then over the next 6 weeks the car was in the garage on no less than 4 occasions with different issues and after many conversations with the dealership they agreed that they would put another month warranty on the car to cover the latest cost of repair and that If the car wasn’t fixed this week I could have a full refund – this was verbal and I didn’t get it written down.
I received a phone call yesterday to say that the car was now beyond repair as it would cost more to fix the car than its actually worth, when I enquired about my money back I was pretty surpised to be told that I wasn’t entitled to my money back as the owners had dissolved the company and then one of them had restarted it. The company was actually dissolved August 5th round about the first time I requested a refund.
The owner has offered me “a little run around worth £1400” as an apology – funnily enough he’s put the car on gumtree for little over £700 and not £1400!

Is there any ways of receiving any compensation for the £1600 or is the £700 the best I can get out of the whole situation?

Fosterdog

How did you pay for the car?

Is it a limited company or are they sole traders/partnership?

willbya

Appreciate the response Fosterdog.

Cash unfortunately.

Having contacted Company House it appears they are sole traders as they don't have them on record. I'm now at a point that I'm not sure if there is a way to check if the company did in fact dissolve. I have checked the "Individual Insolvency Register" but there's no sign of the company name on there yet.

steampowered

The first step is to work out who your contract was with. Do you have an invoice with a company name or company number on it?

If the car was purchased from a sole trader, you can issue a claim against that person personally.

If the car was purchased from a company, it would be more difficult. You could only pursue the new company if you could prove that assets were moved from the old company to the new company in order to defraud creditors.

willbya

Hi Stesampowered, thanks for the reply.

All I have is the receipt I received when I purchased the car, it has a name on it but that's just the "saleman" that sold me the car - i use the term loosely but that's another story!

I contacted the Insolvency Service and they searched for the company name but it didn't bring anything back from their database. Before they can check if the owner has actually filled for bankruptcy I still need to find out his lastname

They informed me of the same thing that you did.... I can claim against the sole trader even if he has dissolved the business.

Having done some further research, it looks as though the business hasn't been dissolved but it had been passed on from one person to the other and both still work at the business.

I think the fact he's tried to offer me a car in replacement of the "beyond repair" car, also backs up my way of thinking that he is just trying to withhold on the refund.

I have a meeting with him this week to discuss options so hopefully he see's that I've done my research and know what I'm entitled to and we can come to an agreement. I don't really fancy taking it to small claims court and that's my last option.

steampowered

Hi there,

You can search the company register here: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

Good luck with the meeting.

The only thing I can say is that you should not be afraid of going to small claims court if you need to. It is a valid option and easier than you think. You'd have to attend a short hearing on a weekday but aside from that it is a pretty straightforward process.

ThumbRemote

7Will whoever you bought the car from be listed as the previous owner on the ownership documents?