Small Claims question in regards to poor repair on car

lmr1342

Good afternoon all

I originally posted in the motoring section of the forum however as things have escalated it may fall under consumer rights more  as people may have more experience in this field 


My car was hit by a 3rd party in march 2023 , driver admitted full liability and before I even had chance to notify my Insurance I was contacted by there Insurance 3rd party team admitting full liability and asking me to let them fix my car.... before the end of the day I had a like for like hire car on my drive awaiting there garage to collect mine.....so good so far..... car was collected a week later and this is where it gets interesting....couple of weeks go by I find out car repair work has been approved and are awaiting parts , I was  still in a hire car so all is good .... (  I know there was /is a massive delay in car parts , I understand that) , fast forward to June , notified my car is fixed and finished  ! But due to time it's taken MOT has now expired , Garage arranged for car to be sent to another garage for an MOT at my expense, MOT garage makes me aware parking sensors are not working ( News to me as i had not  seen the car in months and the parking sensors where one of the things repaired.

Car sent back to repair garage who stated they had not fitted the correct part...hence the error ( meaning the error had been there when they had "completed"   


Anyway fast forward to the end of July I was informed my car was now ready and was dropped off to me , the first thing the driver that dropped my car off to me said was where really sorry we have miss placed a plastic cap of your bumper it's on order and we will drop it off to you when it arrives,  I let That slide and that was that , when he left I had a proper look at my car to discover the Exhaust looked odd, I further looked into it to discover the rubber mounting brackets had cable ties round them and further looking the wrong bumper had been fitted to the car.

The paint work also was not the best and you could see masking tape resdue in the body panel gaps 
 I Immediately called the driver ( 15 mins after he left ) to Inform them .

He stated he will let his boss know,  they then phoned me back shocked by this and stated they will look into it ,

I was made aware that they admitted they messed up and stated they have ordered the correct parts and will be in touch once they arrive,  my car was just sat on my drive whilst I was still in a hire car ( I of course made the insurance aware ) 

fast forward to September,  I was notified that the new parts had arrived and there ready to fix my car again ..... off it went with a 5 day estimate,  I found out a couple of days later that the new parts that have arrived are also the WRONG parts so more delays , This happend two further times 

To add insult to injury the like for like hire car is had to be returned as the insurance don't cover a hire car for Rectification work and it's down to the garage who have provided a fiat 500 ( my car is a 4x4) 

My car finally returned to me completed mid October  8 months after the car left me for repair ! 

Due to this my service is now overdue by 5 months 

I submitted a complaint to the 3rd party insurance who apologised for the issues and offered £50 which would hardly cover the major service its due, I was advised by the 3rd party insurance to go the financial ombudsman if i was not happy , I tried that but was told by FOS that i cannot use them as im not a direct customer of them

My only hope now is small claims to try and get them to pay for the service of the car, 


Dose anyone have any further advice for me , or am i fighting a loosing battle

thanks again 

eskbanker

lmr1342 said:

My car finally returned to me completed mid October  8 months after the car left me for repair ! 

Due to this my service is now overdue by 5 months 

[...]

My only hope now is small claims to try and get them to pay for the service of the car

I can understand why you might be aggrieved about not having the car for an extended period, but why do you expect someone else to pick up the tab for the service that you'd have had to pay for if you'd had the car at the time it was due?  It won't have done any significant mileage while in for repairs so now you have it back then just take it for its service and pay as usual?

lmr1342

eskbanker said:

lmr1342 said:

My car finally returned to me completed mid October  8 months after the car left me for repair ! 

Due to this my service is now overdue by 5 months 

[...]

My only hope now is small claims to try and get them to pay for the service of the car

I can understand why you might be aggrieved about not having the car for an extended period, but why do you expect someone else to pick up the tab for the service that you'd have had to pay for if you'd had the car at the time it was due?  It won't have done any significant mileage while in for repairs so now you have it back then just take it for its service and pay as usual?

Thanks for the message , I  understand your viewpoint , And yes you do have a point , I just feel i have been fobbed off with there response / Attitude, given the amount of stress and phone calls i have had to make during this whole process.

If it was a case of my car took 8 months to repair due to lack of parts i would understand but due to the countless issues , I feel they should be doing more but have no where else to turn as FOS has said they cannot help

I do see where your coming from and fear its a lost cause , If i could use FOS it would be 100% classed as a unreasonable delay in the car getting repaired but due to going via the 3rd party my options are now very limited 

Im grasping at straws here could you not go down the route of loss of value as the car would not been serviced within the gaudlines   set by the manufacture as regardless now when i get the car serviced now there will be a gap 

eskbanker

I agree that it must have been an irritating and frustrating time but that doesn't necessarily translate into anyone being liable to pay you any money (in terms of a debt that could be claimed in court if necessary), unless you can make a compelling case that you've suffered any actual financial loss?

sevenhills

lmr1342 said:

My car was hit by a 3rd party in march 2023 , driver admitted full liability and before I even had chance to notify my Insurance I was contacted by there Insurance 3rd party team admitting full liability and asking me to let them fix my car.... before the end of the day I had a like for like hire car on my drive awaiting there garage to collect mine.....so good so far..

I was made aware that they admitted they messed up and stated they have ordered the correct parts and will be in touch once they arrive,  my car was just sat on my drive whilst I was still in a hire car ( I of course made the insurance aware ) 

"made the insurance aware", is your own insurance aware of this accident, are you sure it was the other drivers insurance company and not just the driver getting your car repaired?

It does sound bizarre that you drove a 4x4 and you were given a Fiat 500.

When my car was repaired, I had to take it to their repair center and they did an excellent job.

What companies did you deal with, garage/insurance company?

Types of complaint we see
You might complain to us because:

    the repairs have taken too long
    the quality of the repair work is poor
    further damage was caused during the repair
    your insurer won’t repair all of the damage
    the repair work isn’t guaranteed
    a replacement vehicle wasn’t provided

    you think the vehicle should have been written off

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/motor-insurance/vehicle-repairs

Nothing listed there, if your repair was good, in the end.

GrumpyDil

The OP is unable to use FOS as they are not the client of the insurance company which is the downside of letting a third parties insurer deal with repairs

lmr1342

Hello All 

Thanks so much for all your feedback , It is taken on !

and yes as stated above i cannot use FOS sadly!

My only last thing to try but it will be subjective..... , In my contract that i received with the 3rd party insurance it states the following 

• We will provide you with a vehicle of equivalent standard to your own at absolutely no cost to you whatsoever.
• The vehicle will be provided for the entire period that your own vehicle is being repaired

they then provided me with there hire cost list and stated i am eglbile for a car at £** per day which would be equivalent for my own .

Now as stated this did happen at the start  however as i rejected the repair given the state it returned in and it got returned to the garage , The insurance stated that its down to the garage to arrange a hire car not them ( Although it dose not state this in the contract) , I was given as stated a VW polo... Which is a whole different world to what i was driving.


Is that an option to go down that route for a sort of breach of contract ?