Dodgy MOT - small claims court advice

Lemmon

This is definitely a long shot, but I'm wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation or can advise me.

I bought a used car at the end of July. I drove halfway across the country to see it and when I got there, it had a fault with the door handle that the dealer hadn't told me about - the passenger door didn't open from the outside. He passed it off as an easy fix. As I needed the car, I'd travelled a long way and it had a fresh MOT with no adviseries on it, I took him at his word and bought it anyway. 

Not long after, my circumstances changed unexpectedly and I no longer needed it. I tried to put it up for sale and had absolutely no interest, until a friend told me it was probably the door handle issue, as it was 'an expensive fix'. I took it to a garage who confirmed this and told me it was actually an MOT failure, and that I should try and recoup the money from the dealer. 

Having no success with the dealer, I contacted citizens advice, who told me that as the car would have been sold with a dodgy MOT, I have the right to either ask for the repair money or return the car. As my circumstances have changed, I decided to go with the latter, but unsurprisingly, the garage has refused. 

Citizens advice are now saying I should pursue through the small claims court, but tbh, I'm scared of going this far, I've never done this before. The garage is completely denying that it even had an issue when I bought it and that it must have happened after I purchased it which is down to general wear and tear, so is not their responsibility. Aside from my husbands corresponding account, it's my word against theirs. They are also aware that the car was put up for sale again by me and have said in their last letter that I'm using this as an opportunity to get rid of the car.

Obviously I'm sure that no-one here will have been in this exact situation, but I'm hoping that some might have experience in the small claims court and can give me an idea if it's worth pursuing, or if I should just shell out for the repair myself and sell the car at a huge loss?

waamo

Have you any evidence the MOT is dodgy? The handle could have worked fine before the MOT and a heavy handed sales goon broke it after. Is that possible?

tacpot12

Your case hinges on the fact that the MOT was fresh. Was the MOT issued before or after you saw the car and saw that the passenger door would not open? 

If the MOT was issued before you saw the car, the dealer can reasonably argue that the door lock failed after the MOT was issued, so the MOT was not issued fraudulently. As you saw the fault when you inspected the car, but still bought it, you have no rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 due to the fault, but you would have rights if the MOT had been issued after you had seen the car - as you know that it should not have been able to pass an MOT with any passenger door not operating from outside. So the date of the MOT and the date of your visit are highly relevant. 

Your big difficulty is that it is your word against the dealers that the car had the fault when you saw it. Can you remember the exact words they used? Did they mention the issue, or did you find it when you tried to open the do. Did they offer to note the fault on your invoice? (They should have as it would have protected them) Make a note now of what you can recall about the exact words the dealer used. You need to try to put yourself back into that time and place, and think about every recollection you have - what colour was the sky? What noise was there in the background? Who was with you or around you looking at other cars? What did your husband say at the time? Did you take a photo of the car? Did you make a note anywhere about the door problem? You need to try to recall whether you did something at the time that would support your story that the fault was present. 

Unless you can find some piece of evidence to support your story, I think you will have trouble convincing a judge that you are right and they are lying. It is very unfortunate that they will not be honest with you if they know the truth of the matter. 

If you can find some evidence to support your story, I think you could win at Small Claims Court, but without evidence, I think the judge will decide that he cannot find in your favour, and you will lose the court fee as well as the cost of repair.
The Small Claims Court is fairly daunting for first time users, but if you have time to research it (and have a good case), you can represent yourself and win.

If you realise that you really have no evidence, then the best option is to pay to get the car repaired. I would get a another quote from a garage that has done the same job fairly recently. I would also check if there are any auto-electrical specialists in your area who have dealt with the same issue - the issue is usually with the door lock motor or wiring.
 

Flight3287462

Long story short, you bought a car you no longer want with a known small insignificant  problem which you now want to use in an attempt to reverse the deal threatening small claims court.  Quality!!

AdrianC

The time to appeal a test result - either way - is within 14 days of the test.
https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/problems-with-your-test-result

You admit that you knew about the issue at the time of purchase, and still went ahead to buy the car in full awareness of that issue.

Jumblebumble

Not quite correct

Time limits

If your vehicle passed, you need to complain within:

within 3 months of the MOT if it’s a corrosion-related problem

within 28 days has passed for other defects
My view is that  the OP will not stand a chance of being successful in the SCC as the garage will say it passed a legitimate MOT and in the absence of a complaint within 28 days no one can prove otherwise

m0bov

You chose you drive a long way, forced yourself into the purchase and accepted the fault. You could have got money off for the door for all we know.

Car_54

Lemmon said:

This is definitely a long shot, but I'm wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation or can advise me.

I bought a used car at the end of July. I drove halfway across the country to see it

Why do people do this? There is absolutely no shortage of second-hand cars everywhere in the country, and it's a buyer's market.

Every tale of woe we read on here is made much worse by the remoteness of the seller.

Dr_Crypto

A few things spring to mind:
1. How do you know the MOT was bent? It could well be that the door failed after the MOT was performed. Unless you have proof otherwise that is what the seller will say. 
2. How much are we talking here? Is this a £500 shed? If so then don't waste money on anything more. 
3. Why did you go so far to buy a secondhard car? Unless it was something esoteric then I don't understand why people go out of area. 

facade

Unfortunately, the dealer is going to say that it was definitely working at the MOT, or it couldn't have passed.

For the benefit of others reading the thread, NEVER fall for the line "It only needs a bulb/switch/screw/drop of oil" or "It's an easy job, only cost £5 to fix" etc.

The dealer knows exactly how much time/trouble/cost it is to fix it, and if it really was a 5 minute/£5 job he would have already fixed it to avoid losing a sale.

Lemmon

Thank you to the people that have given an actual reply. It's a shame there's the usual aggressiveness/rudeness and assumptions from the rest on here. From experience you can't ask a question without getting your head bitten off.

I drove a long way to get the car because it's an MG, and decent ones (or at least, what I thought was a decent one) are not particularly easy to come by these days. It looked good in the advert, so I made the trip. I wanted an MG, so please don't bore me by criticising me or my car of choice, I've no doubt heard it all before. 

It could well be that the door failed after the MOT. I don't know either way. All I know is, the car had its MOT done by the dealer, and I then collected it and the door didn't work. It hadn't done many miles - 23, to be exact - since the MOT. The dealer obviously knew it was damaged because he wasn't remotely surprised when the door didn't open. There were also a number of other things that were not right that I haven't mentioned, such as the stereo didn't come with DAB and Bluetooth as he'd advertised, and there was no cd changer in the boot, also as advertised, so based on this I'm pretty sure he knew and omitted it from the advert. And yes, I still bought the car. I don't know enough about this particular problem, I was planning on replacing the stereo anyway, and I made the mistake of taking the dealer at his word, which I've absolutely learnt my lesson on. For context, the cost of parts and labour is £350, and the car is worth about £1500 if I'm lucky.

The action that I've taken so far has been under the advice of citizens advice, who seem to feel that it was serious enough to report to trading standards. For the one that said I'm clearly just taking advantage to try and return the car, I also had no idea that I apparently have this right. I contacted them in the hope of getting the cost back for the repair, and they told me that as the MOT would have been invalid when I purchased it I'm entitled to ask for either option.