Car repair issue

discodancing

Looking for advice on where I stand legally with below issue.

I have a convertible car, last Monday the roof was stuck down so on the Tuesday I took it to an independent specialist with 4.9 star reviews on Google so thought they'd be quite decent.

Their communication has been really poor and they berated me on Monday for calling for an update after six days.

 I called again today and have been told they are at a loss on how to fix the issue. I have said I will come collect the car. They have said it won’t be possible for me to drive it away as part of the roof is now stuck open and they cannot get it back down. I would therefore need to hire a recovery vehicle to transport it to another garage to fix etc as it isn’t driveable.

As I handed it to them in a driveable condition, are they legally obliged to hand it back in same condition? Or should they at least be responsible for the costs of the recovery vehicle and onward transport? They are charging £50 for the manual labour.

Really fed up with it all and can't believe they've been sitting on this knowledge and not given me an update sooner.

tacpot12

I don't think they do have to hand it back in the same condition.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 doesn't require them to have fixed the issue unless they said when you left the car with them that they would be able to fix the roof, i.e. they gauranteed to fix it. If they gave this guarantee verbally, you are in thoery protected, but it will be your word against theirs if they disagree with you. 

The same Act only requires them to have shown the same level of professional skill in diagnosing and attempting to fix the problem that any reasonably competent person in the same trade would have shown. So they might be liable for any damage they have caused, if another repairer can show that they did not exercise this reasonable level of skill in attempting to diagnose the fault, but if they can show or suggest that any garage would have run into the same issue, and you can't find any evidence to refute this, then they would seem to be in the clear. 

Their advice not to drive the car in the state it is in is reasonable. £50 for the investigative work they have done is reasonable, or would be had they not managed to get the roof partially up. I think they should be offering a discount, however if you pay them anything they might be entitled to regard the payment as in full and final settlement of their laibility to you.  

The only area that I think thye have clearly failed in is that their service was not provided in a timely manner. Normally if I take a car to my mechanic it is because I have booked it in to have work done on it that day. I know the car will be ready to pick up after 5pm, and I will get a call if he has had a problem and the work will slip into the  following day, but I know he will get it done the next day because he has other customers booked in for the following day and he can't afford to get behind. 

When did they say they would look at the car?

Do you have home insurance? If you do, check to see if you have legal expenses cover, and if you do, call the legal helpline for further advice. They will be able to confirm whether you paying them in full or in part would still allow yo to sue them if they have caused damage to the roof that is not evident yet. Although I'm not clear how another garage would determine the difference between damage they caused and the original cause of the roof being stuck (which could be down to a lack of maintenance).     


 

angrycrow

The roof was broken when you took it in. It is still broken. The only difference is it is now partially open. I can't see that garage covering the cost of recovery to another garage and pushing the issue could see an invoice for labour to investigate the fault far higher than the recovery cost.

You mention part of the roof being stuck which leads me to think it is a hard top convertible rather than rag top as most rag tops can be manually overridden if they jam.

What car is it as somebody may be able to suggest a way to manually open or close the top allowing you to drive the car away from the garage. 

AdrianC

If it's partially open, and can't be driven, then it can't be open-trailered, either.

The issue is not the vehicle moving under its own power, it's that any kind of windspeed will catch and take the roof off, causing more damage. It would need to either have the roof removed, manually closed, or be taken in a closed trailer.