Taking local car garage to small claims court

Louma84

Long story short my car went into a local garage for an MOT and while in their possession the rear light cluster & rear bumper were damaged. They acknowledged the damaged by writing on the MOT reciept the rear bumper and rear light cluster were damaged.

They replaced the rear light cluster the next day satisfactory, they said they were ordering a new rear bumper for the car and would contact me as soon as it arrived for fitting. Some time passed and they still hadn't contacted me so I had to keep chasing them. They then asked me if they could have the car over night even though they didn't have a new bumper for it. The rear bumper being chrome which you cannot repair I thought this was rather strange given that they had the reg and VIN number which is all you need to order a new bumper from the dealers

I agreed to take the car to them for them to look at while I was there but said I would not leave the car with them if they did not have a new bumper. They took some pictures and said they would contact me when the bumper arrived . A week later my car went into the garage and they took 4 days to fit which seemed a long time given it was a bolt on bolt off job

When I picked up the car it was dark and I could not see the bumper properly , so the next morning you could clearly see it was a non genuine bumper which did not fit properly very flimsy, had surface rust in places and the rear parking sensors didn't work. It looked like a bumper bought off of Ebay for couple hundred pounds compared to a genuine one costing £1400

I sent them an email the same day with pictures of the bumper and the rust stating that it was a quite clearly a non genuine bumper and the parking sensors didn't work. Having given them the opportunity to rectify the damage to my car while in their possession and for them to act cagey and then bodge the repairs I wanted them to pay another garage to complete the repairs to a satisfactory standard otherwise I would be seeking legal advice

I got a reply back a couple of days later stating they would not pay another garage for the repairs but they would off another repair. After having been through all of the above I did not have any confidence they would carry out the repairs to an acceptable standard so I approached my insurance company who unfortunately could not help me due to the car being in their possession while the damage occurred

My bumper is basically more rust than chrome now and need to get it sorted so my questions are

1.Was I in the right to refuse to give the garage a second attempt at the repair after the way they conducted themselves?

2. Do I have to get the repairs carried out by another garage before I take them to small claims court? Or can I go to court with garage estimates for the repair?

3. I have evidence of them admitting liability via MOT reciept and them admitting the repairs were bodged via email received from them , is this all I need a long with reciepts/estimates for repair to successfully sue in small claims court?

Thanks in advance

Louma84

Bumpty bump

foxtrotoscar_2

Car make and model and year?

TripleH

Not sure, but you might have been wrong to refuse a second chance to rectify the problem. They would argue thst they carried out a task (attach a new bumper) this did not work, but you have not given them the chance to rectify this problem. You need to think of things ad new seperate tasks, ignore that the car was damaged by them when doing another job.

You would probably struggle in court as they would say you failed to give them the opportunity to rectify the problem. If you paid for a new bumper yourself but got this dodgy one, that is a different issue, or if they repaired it (for the second time) and all you got was a bit of spray paint on the bumper, then again your arguement would carry more weight.

pinkshoes

I would perhaps agree to one more chance to repair, but...

1. You want a decent hire car for however long it takes
2. You want the part ordered from the main dealer, and want the order form as proof it is genuine. And they need to give you permission to phone the main dealer so that you can confirm the authenticity of the part.
3. I would make them do it on a weekend too so you can sit and watch!!!