Private Car Sale Transaction, Car Unroadworthy.

Aylesbury_Duck

Playing devil's advocate: Assuming the car was sold with either a new or fully-charged battery, to 'hide' the alternator problem for a bit, does the fact that safety-essential functions like head and tail lights, hazard lights, the horn, etc. would start to not work and then fail entirely, make the car unroadworthy?

lincroft1710

Alternators can fail at any time, they are consumables. Alternator was working when car driven away, could OP prove seller knew it was about to fail  I doubt it.

Aylesbury_Duck

lincroft1710 said:

Alternators can fail at any time, they are consumables. Alternator was working when car driven away, could OP prove seller knew it was about to fail  I doubt it.

Worth looking to see if the battery warning light indicator has been disconnected or taped to hide it?

lincroft1710

Aylesbury_Duck said:

lincroft1710 said:

Alternators can fail at any time, they are consumables. Alternator was working when car driven away, could OP prove seller knew it was about to fail  I doubt it.

Worth looking to see if the battery warning light indicator has been disconnected or taped to hide it?

Yes, but if I were the seller and had done one of those, I would deny it and maintain the buyer had done it to strengthen their rather weak case

born_again

lisyloo said:

born_again said:

lisyloo said:

I don't think you can charge them for not having a recovery policy in place. That's your responsibility as a motorist.

Do you have any report on the faulty alternator? do you still have it?
The issue it whether it could be proved they knew the car was unroadworthy.
Or did the alternator unfortunately fail at that time?
I'm not a mechanic but would have thought there were states that could be proven they knew e.g. the connection was broken.

If you think they definitely knew then report it to your bank as fraud.

Not sure they would even entertain that, as OP got a car. Only asked if "The car works" Witch it did. 

If you read the whole post and the context, the bold bit is in the context of knowingly selling an unroadworthy vehicle which is a criminal offence if that is the case and can be proven.
The devil is usually in the detail.

Sadly the only detail, we have is in the OP.

Which has nothing to say the car was unroadworthy. 
Just because a car breaks down. Does not make it unroadworthy. Maybe something else 🤷‍♀️

powerful_Rogue

honestgaz said:

Wondering if anyone can help me with legal advice.
A seller advertised a car on Facebook Marketplace, I made contact by both FB and Whatsapp with the individual to arrange collection of the car.
Before agreeing the transaction, I provided a Private Car Sale Contract which was signed by myself and the seller.
I travelled down on the train, so I could drive the car home...During my journey, I asked the seller 2 things
1. The car works
2. It has petrol to drive away
The seller confirmed yes to both.
After paying £1,400 by bank transfer when at the sellers property, I got the key with the intention of driving the car home.
All was fine, until around 20 minutes in to the journey, where the car just died entirely. Everything stopped working.
I broke down on a busy A Road A446, which put me in a seriously dangerous situation.
My partner had to call the AA who charged me £443 to recover me home (this took 9 hours to even get to me, but this is another story)
When I messaged the seller advising the car had broken down after 20 mins, he replied with "Can you imagine (Laughing face emoji)"
The alternator on the car is faulty, hence the battery just drained after 20 minutes leaving me stranded, which I do not believe the seller sold me a car in a roadworthy state.
Seller has no interest of helping, his first response was "He is a minor and will call the police?", followed by "Me messaging him is gonna make him harm himself".
I would like to know where i stand, as to resolve this issue, I want one of the following
1. The seller arranges collection of the car, as it is UNROADWORTHY and refunds me £1,400 plus £443 AA charges
or
2. The seller refunds me £443 for the recovery charge, as well as the cost to replace the alternator.
Be grateful for any responses, or individuals that have been through a similar experience.

If the part in bold is correct (The seller is a minor), I'm presuming that would rule out court action for breach of contract due to their age?

honestgaz

Thanks for all your comments and replies, seems like basically i am screwed then
In answer to some of the questions, yes when viewing the vehicle, there was no battery light on the dashboard or any other warning lights.
The battery light came on after 15 minutes of driving it away, before finally the car totally died.
I did bring a LEGALLY BINDING USED CAR SALE AGREEMENT, which was signed by the seller.
One of the questions was : There are no deliberately hidden faults on this vehicle.
But I hear everyone, the seller can just argue that he didn't know about any faults before selling to me.
Thanks for all of your responses, well 99% of them

jon81uk

I know hindsight is wonderful, but why didn't you do a fifteen minute test drive with the owner in the car to check it all works, before handing the cash over? That would have been significantly more use than a "contract".

honestgaz

Aylesbury_Duck said:

lincroft1710 said:

Alternators can fail at any time, they are consumables. Alternator was working when car driven away, could OP prove seller knew it was about to fail  I doubt it.

Worth looking to see if the battery warning light indicator has been disconnected or taped to hide it?

Battery light indicator came on during the drive home

honestgaz

powerful_Rogue said:

honestgaz said:

Wondering if anyone can help me with legal advice.
A seller advertised a car on Facebook Marketplace, I made contact by both FB and Whatsapp with the individual to arrange collection of the car.
Before agreeing the transaction, I provided a Private Car Sale Contract which was signed by myself and the seller.
I travelled down on the train, so I could drive the car home...During my journey, I asked the seller 2 things
1. The car works
2. It has petrol to drive away
The seller confirmed yes to both.
After paying £1,400 by bank transfer when at the sellers property, I got the key with the intention of driving the car home.
All was fine, until around 20 minutes in to the journey, where the car just died entirely. Everything stopped working.
I broke down on a busy A Road A446, which put me in a seriously dangerous situation.
My partner had to call the AA who charged me £443 to recover me home (this took 9 hours to even get to me, but this is another story)
When I messaged the seller advising the car had broken down after 20 mins, he replied with "Can you imagine (Laughing face emoji)"
The alternator on the car is faulty, hence the battery just drained after 20 minutes leaving me stranded, which I do not believe the seller sold me a car in a roadworthy state.
Seller has no interest of helping, his first response was "He is a minor and will call the police?", followed by "Me messaging him is gonna make him harm himself".
I would like to know where i stand, as to resolve this issue, I want one of the following
1. The seller arranges collection of the car, as it is UNROADWORTHY and refunds me £1,400 plus £443 AA charges
or
2. The seller refunds me £443 for the recovery charge, as well as the cost to replace the alternator.
Be grateful for any responses, or individuals that have been through a similar experience.

If the part in bold is correct (The seller is a minor), I'm presuming that would rule out court action for breach of contract due to their age?

powerful_Rogue said:

honestgaz said:

Wondering if anyone can help me with legal advice.
A seller advertised a car on Facebook Marketplace, I made contact by both FB and Whatsapp with the individual to arrange collection of the car.
Before agreeing the transaction, I provided a Private Car Sale Contract which was signed by myself and the seller.
I travelled down on the train, so I could drive the car home...During my journey, I asked the seller 2 things
1. The car works
2. It has petrol to drive away
The seller confirmed yes to both.
After paying £1,400 by bank transfer when at the sellers property, I got the key with the intention of driving the car home.
All was fine, until around 20 minutes in to the journey, where the car just died entirely. Everything stopped working.
I broke down on a busy A Road A446, which put me in a seriously dangerous situation.
My partner had to call the AA who charged me £443 to recover me home (this took 9 hours to even get to me, but this is another story)
When I messaged the seller advising the car had broken down after 20 mins, he replied with "Can you imagine (Laughing face emoji)"
The alternator on the car is faulty, hence the battery just drained after 20 minutes leaving me stranded, which I do not believe the seller sold me a car in a roadworthy state.
Seller has no interest of helping, his first response was "He is a minor and will call the police?", followed by "Me messaging him is gonna make him harm himself".
I would like to know where i stand, as to resolve this issue, I want one of the following
1. The seller arranges collection of the car, as it is UNROADWORTHY and refunds me £1,400 plus £443 AA charges
or
2. The seller refunds me £443 for the recovery charge, as well as the cost to replace the alternator.
Be grateful for any responses, or individuals that have been through a similar experience.

If the part in bold is correct (The seller is a minor), I'm presuming that would rule out court action for breach of contract due to their age?

He is NOT a minor, he said that to try and stop me contacting him