Part exchange rejected after sale

buyersbeware

hi everyone,  have a question
I recently purchased a new car and negotiated the sale of my old car as a part-exchange. The dealer accepted the keys ect on the day and I was off on my way. 
A week or so later the dealer has come back to me and said that the car I part-exchanged is a category n write-off - which I was completely unaware of and nobody notified me of this when I purchased it, nor did my insurance company when I insured the car! 
They have given me the option to either take the car back or pay them more money to make up for the difference. 
Is this legal? The car hasnt been in my ownership for a 11 days at this point. Isn't it their responsibility to ensure the car is worth what they offered? I don't know where the law stands on this, but I don't see how this is correct?
Any helps is welcome. Thanks

prettyandfluffy

I don't see that the dealer has any come-back on this, they should have checked before they completed the part exchange with you.  My understanding is that category N does not appear on the V50 document and there is no reason why your insurer would have told you.  

bluelad1927

Did you sign any agreement regarding the part ex. If you have signed something to say there is no outstanding finance or an insurance write off then the dealer may possibly have a case.

Yes he could have checked beforehand just like you could have when you bought the car. 

Grey_Critic

A Cat N car, short for Category N car, is a term used by car insurance companies to describe ‘non-structural’ damage to a vehicle. ‘Non-structural’ means that a car’s structural frame or chassis have not been damaged in an accident.

However, the insurance provider has decided that it is not worth fixing the car and that getting a new one would be less expensive. But it doesn’t mean that Cat N vehicles cannot be returned to the road. In fact, many insurers do have them repaired and sell such cars for salvage.

I would have expected them to do a HPI check etc when they negotiated the sale - they did when I traded in my last car.

littleboo

They are the experts, checking this before PX should be bread and butter to them. 

caprikid1

This can only come down to the contractual terms of the new purchase / Part Ex.

You need to go through these or get them to show you something you signed that can allow them to do this.

The response on this has to be.

"thats really unfortunate, I had no idea or I would have declared it, you as a professional buyer would I expect check this before completing the deal, if I had known I would have told you , I a pretty annoyed about X dealer I bought it from. I sold this car in good faith so nothing more I can do".

If they can produce a signed agreement that says "If we identify a material error / ommission / issue that would materially affect the value of the vehicle we can do X or Y then there is a conversation to be had.

They are the trader not you !.

As it stands IMHO it's FOXTROT OSCAR.

BTW We see this story many times and it is potentially the sales guy  / sales manager who has screwed up and tryng to balance the books on the revised trade in value.