Car Dealership asking for additional payment 6 weeks after car collected

Tahlullah.H

Citizens Advice usually tell you which bit of law they are referring to when giving advice.  If in this instance they didn't, then you should go back to the and ask to speak to a manager and request the case notes which were written at the time of your query.  This should accurately tell you what you were advised.

If you choose to follow CitA advice, and are taken to court for following incorrect advice, then CitA will have to pay the cost through their insurance.

sheramber

The revised car order form did not include the dash cam (in error) and provided a Purchase Price for the vehicle, the same Purchase price in the finance agreement and the car purchase agreement.

Does not mean your contract did not include the dash cam.

Citizens Advice are not always correct. We were given wrong advice about rejecting a car.

Manxman_in_exile

Tahlullah.H said:

...If you choose to follow CitA advice, and are taken to court for following incorrect advice, then CitA will have to pay the cost through their insurance.

Are you certain about that?

Tahlullah.H said:

Citizens Advice usually tell you which bit of law they are referring to when giving advice.  If in this instance they didn't, then you should go back to the and ask to speak to a manager and request the case notes which were written at the time of your query.  This should accurately tell you what you were advised...

If it's true (I don't know if it is or not) that CAB take detailed contemporaneous notes of problems presented to them and that they take detailed notes of the advice they've given, then I'd be inclined to follow this course of action.

Aylesbury_Duck

Sunny_smiles said:

We took advice and have been told the request for the additional money is a breach of contract under common law, as the documents were agreed and signed. 

So follow the advice you want to hear, rather than that which you don't.  Seems simple to me.

Manxman_in_exile

@Sunny_smiles -  the advice CAB gave you may or may not be correct.  It depends on how accurate your account of the ordering and purchase process was, and how far it accords with what actually happened.

Normally contracts are binding on the contracting parties - but there is also the common law concept of "unilateral mistake".  This basically means that where one party unknowingly makes a mistake in some aspect of the contract (eg price or what the price includes) but the other party is aware of (or should have been aware of) the mistake, then the mistake can be corrected.  (Or the contract cancelled).

It is of course more complicated than that, but that is the basic idea - and that's why some people here are saying that CAB are wrong and that you owe the dealer £700.

It's unclear to me whether both you and the dealer have made a mistake, or just one of you.

Surely you must have some idea of the total price you were going to pay for the car and how much you actually have paid?  If the dashcam was an optional extra you must know how much extra it cost.  So how much have you actually paid as compared to what you expected to pay - including the dashcam?

If you seem to have paid about £700 less in total than you thought you were going to pay, then you probably owe the dealer the money.  If you've paid the dealer around about the expected price (including dashcam) then you probably don't.  But it isn't necessarily clearcut.

As suggested above - go back to CAB and ask them to confirm their advice after you have re-confirmed all the details.

Sunny_smiles

Manxman_in_exile said:

@Sunny_smiles -  the advice CAB gave you may or may not be correct.  It depends on how accurate your account of the ordering and purchase process was, and how far it accords with what actually happened.

Normally contracts are binding on the contracting parties - but there is also the common law concept of "unilateral mistake".  This basically means that where one party unknowingly makes a mistake in some aspect of the contract (eg price or what the price includes) but the other party is aware of (or should have been aware of) the mistake, then the mistake can be corrected.  (Or the contract cancelled).

It is of course more complicated than that, but that is the basic idea - and that's why some people here are saying that CAB are wrong and that you owe the dealer £700.

It's unclear to me whether both you and the dealer have made a mistake, or just one of you.

Surely you must have some idea of the total price you were going to pay for the car and how much you actually have paid?  If the dashcam was an optional extra you must know how much extra it cost.  So how much have you actually paid as compared to what you expected to pay - including the dashcam?

If you seem to have paid about £700 less in total than you thought you were going to pay, then you probably owe the dealer the money.  If you've paid the dealer around about the expected price (including dashcam) then you probably don't.  But it isn't necessarily clearcut.

As suggested above - go back to CAB and ask them to confirm their advice after you have re-confirmed all the details.

Thank you, the price had a difference of about £10 which was explained as being a change to the RFL by the Dealership, and so i accepted and signed the document.

It became apparent some 6 weeks later, to the dealership, the dash cam had been forgotten on the agreements, but as the clear view mirror had also been removed from the first order form, and this had included the deposit being deducted and the revised order form did not include the deposit being deducted, there was only a minor difference of £10.

The dealership only realised there was an error when they found their balance sheet did not match and we had no idea until they called and requested payment. 

Sunny_smiles

The Dealership has now acknowledged the error they made when preparing the New Vehicle documents, and they have said they will not pursue the additional payment as it was their error in providing the Purchase Price for the new vehicle. 

Thank you for the comments and advice on this matter, there is still a moral point here and I will consider making a payment to the Dealership. 

powerful_Rogue

Not a bad result in just over two hours since you posted.............

Robbo66

powerful_Rogue said:

Sunny_smiles said:

We took advice and have been told the request for the additional money is a breach of contract under common law, as the documents were agreed and signed. 

So if you have taken advice, why have you come here disagreeing with the advice given so far?

This would only be deemed common law if someone else had the same issue and gone to court and won. here is the definition of common law "Common law rights are individual rights that come from this “judge-made” law and are not formally passed by the legislature."

Do you have any examples of court rulings that you can example where a judge has rule in the favour of the customer?

Sunny_smiles

powerful_Rogue said:

Not a bad result in just over two hours since you posted.............

It has been ongoing for a few weeks, with the Dealership saying they will not address the paint defect on the car until the requested payment had been made. I had a call with them today and I asked them to put their position in an email to me so that i could take proper advice.

 I'm not a legal expert but i do understand the terms that I agreed to when I signed the documents, the comments have been useful on a consumer/legal point and on a moral point. Thank you.