Private car purchase-unknown s cat and insafe

Mercdriver

Herzlos said:

Scrapit said:

452 said:

fred246 said:

The car was described as in perfect condition. The seller obviously knew it wasn't. I have a barrister who lives near me. He is very entertaining to talk to. Lawyers can tell very quickly who is telling the truth. If you got the buyer and seller in a court you would know exactly that the seller knew that this was a dodgy car.

But could you prove it?

Car ad and a report saying it's cat s would sort that quite quickly. 

The seller could claim it was in their view a in perfect condition for a cat s, which they never hid. It was on the V5.

It's worth a punt though.

The best avenue is to prove they are actually a trader (if they are) and use that to get them to buy the car back from you.

Courts work on the assumption of what a man on a number 10 bus would think.  In other words it is about what an average person might define as perfect condition.  If there is any literature, online or physical stating this, then the average person with no technical knowledge would take it to be in perfect condition, either in and of itself, some might take it as perfect condition, bearing in mind its age and mileage.  I don't see any average person thinking it reasonable to even consider a write off as being perfect in any context.  Someone going in with their eyes open, knowing it was a write off might consider it to be in great condition for a write off, but the average person would expect to be told explicitly it was a write off.  

Sure, the OP could have made their life so much easier by reading all the documentation...

Herzlos

Mercdriver said:

Courts work on the assumption of what a man on a number 10 bus would think.  In other words it is about what an average person might define as perfect condition.  If there is any literature, online or physical stating this, then the average person with no technical knowledge would take it to be in perfect condition, either in and of itself, some might take it as perfect condition, bearing in mind its age and mileage.  I don't see any average person thinking it reasonable to even consider a write off as being perfect in any context.  Someone going in with their eyes open, knowing it was a write off might consider it to be in great condition for a write off, but the average person would expect to be told explicitly it was a write off.  

Sure, the OP could have made their life so much easier by reading all the documentation...

You've just said though that perfect still factors in age and mileage. You could argue (badly, I admit) that if the cat S was disclosed then it was in perfect condition for a write off. I'm sure the seller will claim that in their opinion it was in perfect condition as they didn't notice the damage and it passed an MOT.