I bought a dodgy campervan through Ebay but I didnt find out until the next MOT a year later!

reynajane

Hi, I expect and deserve a lot of 'you should have been more careful'.
I had always wanted a campervan, and after getting a little wind fall I found just what I wanted on Ebay. It was fairly local to me, we checked it out and it was only a bit cheaper than similar age make and models, and needed bodywork rust dealing with so seemed a fair price. My partner got on the floor and looked underneath and apart from a bit of tidying up looked fine. It was sold with a full MOT. A year later I took it for its next MOT to find it failed as the tidying up was actually major structural work  which had been filled with filler and hidden with a bit of paint! But I had foolishly only paid the deposit by paypal, and the rest by cash. And we dont know who was responsible for it as the guy I got it from had bought it from a local to him camper sales company who had taken it in part exchange and sold it to him. He told me he bought it to use and his wife hated it so he was selling it again, but after visiting the camper business they told me he buys occasionally from them, does them up and sells them on so he was obviously lying. I suppose my point is, do I have anything I can do for redress, is it worth trying and if so who do I complain to? It could be the guy I purchased from, the camper company, or the person who sold it to the camper company! I paid just over £8000 for it.
Another problem is its been with someone foe 12 months who was meant to be fixing it with me, we finally just got it back and awaiting a quote from a reputable garage.

soolin

I can’t see that you have any claim at all after a year , but this isn’t my field of expertise so I might be wrong. However anything could have happened to it in the year your owned it.

theonlywayisup

As you are a new poster I will keep my answer brief.
The fact you paid a 'deposit only' by PayPal is neither here nor there.  Vehicles aren't covered under buyer protection.
Your time for checking the vehicle was prior to shaking hands and paying the cash balance.  

mattyprice4004

No, you should have had a full inspection done (structural) if you were worried about this sort of thing.
You have no redress. 

reynajane

Thanks for the replies, you confirmed what I thought. I will never buy a vehicle again without getting it checked over! Im just too trusting but Ive learned my lesson.