When does your 30 day to reject start from?

qwertyasdfgh

Hello,

I’m looking for a bit of help please.

I viewed a second-hand vehicle at a car dealer on the 2nd June and agreed to buy the vehicle paying £800 as a deposit on the day. I agreed with the car dealer that he would keep the car until the end of the month when I would collect it and pay the remaining £10,000 balance. Shortly after collecting it I noticed an oil leak and informed the dealer on the 12th of July (12 days after picking the car up) who arranged for the oil leak to be fixed. However, after collecting the car from the garage after it had been repaired, I noticed the oil leak was still there. I informed the car dealer that I wanted to reject the car under the consumer rights act 2015 – all this was done within 30 days of collecting the car.

However, the dealer rejected my right to right to reject offering me £10,000 for the vehicle. Since this was less than I paid for it I have refused his offer stating that I believe I was entitled to a full refund under the consumer rights act 2015. After writing several letters to the car dealer offering to work with him using a resolution despite service or motoring ombudsmen, he stopped communicating with me.

Since communication with the car dealer has now broken down, I then approached my credit card provider and asked then for a refund under section 75 as I paid the deposit using my credit card. I provided them with all the evidence I have including copies of receipts, invoices, report for Ford stating oil leak still exists and the correspondence I’ve sent to the car dealer. My credit card provider has rejected my claim stating the reasons as….

• The car was stored at the car dealership from the 2nd of June when I paid my deposit until the time I collected it on the 1st July and they are indicating that my right to reject stated from the 2nd of June and not when the point I paid the balance and collected the vehicle.

• They also say because the car dealer offered me £10,000 as a partial refund, they haven’t breached their contract with me.

So, the two questions I would like help with are.

1. When does my 30-day period of the right to reject start from? Is it the day I viewed the car and paid the deposit or the day I collected the car from the garage and paid the balance?
2. Has the car dealer meet his obligations under the consumer rights act by only offering me a £10,000 refund instead of the total £10,800 I paid for it.

Any help or extracts from the consumer rights act detailing these points/questions would be much appreciated.

neilmcl

The period starts from the day you take possession of the goods, in this case the vehicle. You need to go back an contact your CC company and make sure they understand that the balance was paid and car collected in July. If they still don't budge then make a formal complaint followed up by a complaint to the Financial ombudsman.

visidigi

How many miles did you do in the car between pickup and the point at which the dealer offered £10k?

(I would have cut my losses).

qwertyasdfgh

Thanks for your help. I will write back to the credit card company as my view is my rights started when I collected the car and paid the balance (1st July) not when I viewed and paid the deposit (2nd June).

I 'formally' rejected the car within 30 days (starting 1st July) at which point I had done just over 200 miles in the it + around another 150 miles taking it to and from his garage & the ford dealership to get a report on the oil leak from them. 

neilmcl

Just to back up what has been said - Section 22 (3) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 states the following:

"The time limit for exercising the short-term right to reject (unless subsection (4) applies) is the end of 30 days beginning with the first day after these have all happened—

(a)ownership or (in the case of a contract for the hire of goods, a hire-purchase agreement or a conditional sales contract) possession of the goods has been transferred to the consumer,

(b)the goods have been delivered, and

(c)where the contract requires the trader to install the goods or take other action to enable the consumer to use them, the trader has notified the consumer that the action has been taken."

Given that ownership didn't take place until after the balance was paid and car was collected I don't see either the dealer or credit card company have a leg to stand on as the law is very clear..

sheramber

If ownership doesn’t happen until he takes possession does that mean that the purchase date is the date of ownership? Does that mean the credit card payment  is not part of the purchase as it was paid before ownership started.

born_again

Never sure why the dealer is not the one being chased through the courts before S75 is being considered.

Given that S75 funds come from the card company (read other users).

neilmcl

born_again said:

Never sure why the dealer is not the one being chased through the courts before S75 is being considered.

Given that S75 funds come from the card company (read other users).

Because the CC company are equally and severally liable as the dealer.

neilmcl

sheramber said:

If ownership doesn’t happen until he takes possession does that mean that the purchase date is the date of ownership? Does that mean the credit card payment  is not part of the purchase as it was paid before ownership started.

No, the deposit still forms part of the overall contract, regardless of when ownership takes place.

DB1904

neilmcl said:

born_again said:

Never sure why the dealer is not the one being chased through the courts before S75 is being considered.

Given that S75 funds come from the card company (read other users).

Because the CC company are equally and severally liable as the dealer.

I think born agains point was why should the dealer keep the money when selling a pup and other pay. 

neilmcl

DB1904 said:

neilmcl said:

born_again said:

Never sure why the dealer is not the one being chased through the courts before S75 is being considered.

Given that S75 funds come from the card company (read other users).

Because the CC company are equally and severally liable as the dealer.

I think born agains point was why should the dealer keep the money when selling a pup and other pay. 

That kind of depends if they actually do in the end or if the CC company then goes after the seller to recover the funds they've paid out.