Small claims court - car issue

Aylesbury_Duck

dr78 said:

photome said:

I would let them have the brake work invoice ( maybe a copy) if it meant they would communicate

They said want original copy and to be able to keep it and no I won’t give them invoices of work they haven’t paid for . Especially when they only offered a small portion of the repair bill. As it’s £430 to repair yet I paid £65 already for an air con regas and have to pay £430 on top for repair. 100 is not a good offer for such a bill. I’d sooner try in court and see if I can get half 

Don't go to court without knowing exactly what amount you're seeking and for what.  I'm confused by all the stuff you're mentioning.  Set it all out in writing and work through it logically.  A scattergun list of known and assumed faults, along with numbers being thrown in, £430 here, £65 there, an offer of £100 for brake work, you want half, and so on.  It sounds a total muddle.

dr78

Aylesbury_Duck said:

dr78 said:

photome said:

I would let them have the brake work invoice ( maybe a copy) if it meant they would communicate

They said want original copy and to be able to keep it and no I won’t give them invoices of work they haven’t paid for . Especially when they only offered a small portion of the repair bill. As it’s £430 to repair yet I paid £65 already for an air con regas and have to pay £430 on top for repair. 100 is not a good offer for such a bill. I’d sooner try in court and see if I can get half 

Don't go to court without knowing exactly what amount you're seeking and for what.  I'm confused by all the stuff you're mentioning.  Set it all out in writing and work through it logically.  A scattergun list of known and assumed faults, along with numbers being thrown in, £430 here, £65 there, an offer of £100 for brake work, you want half, and so on.  It sounds a total muddle.

No the £100 was their offer for the £430 air con repair

i paid £65 for re gas which is one of those things but to get the air con repaired it’s £430. I wanted half repair costs for air con which I feel is being fair. But haven’t asked for brake costs, as just opted it’s wear and tear so I didn’t think there was so many issues on the car at that point. But it has a clutch judder. Garage will have to look at the car to be sure of issue but assume courts won’t help with clutch as it’s classed as a wear and tear item isn’t it. 

dr78

Aylesbury_Duck said:

dr78 said:

photome said:

I would let them have the brake work invoice ( maybe a copy) if it meant they would communicate

They said want original copy and to be able to keep it and no I won’t give them invoices of work they haven’t paid for . Especially when they only offered a small portion of the repair bill. As it’s £430 to repair yet I paid £65 already for an air con regas and have to pay £430 on top for repair. 100 is not a good offer for such a bill. I’d sooner try in court and see if I can get half 

Don't go to court without knowing exactly what amount you're seeking and for what.  I'm confused by all the stuff you're mentioning.  Set it all out in writing and work through it logically.  A scattergun list of known and assumed faults, along with numbers being thrown in, £430 here, £65 there, an offer of £100 for brake work, you want half, and so on.  It sounds a total muddle.

Would it be worth filing for the clutch too? As unsure if courts see it as wear and tear and don’t help with it, but I did message garage to inform them of the clutch judder the day I had car and I said hoping it’s just me getting used to the car, he replied saying it’s a used car it wouldn’t of passed mot if car had any faults. So I don’t know what you want me to say. 

Aylesbury_Duck

As I advised earlier, you should get the car fully inspected.  Whatever the rights and wrongs of the selling dealer, you need to know what on the car needs attention immediately to make it safe and roadworthy, and what is likely to need attention in the medium term so you can budget accordingly.   Once you have that report, coupled with the work you've had to have done already, will tell you what faults were probably present at the time of purchase and which you might have a valid claim for.   If this does get as far as court, you'll need that expert independent opinion, anyway.

dr78

Aylesbury_Duck said:

As I advised earlier, you should get the car fully inspected.  Whatever the rights and wrongs of the selling dealer, you need to know what on the car needs attention immediately to make it safe and roadworthy, and what is likely to need attention in the medium term so you can budget accordingly.   Once you have that report, coupled with the work you've had to have done already, will tell you what faults were probably present at the time of purchase and which you might have a valid claim for.   If this does get as far as court, you'll need that expert independent opinion, anyway.

 

Would a inspection from a general garage be ok for this or do I need to pay for rac for example
inspection 

Aylesbury_Duck

Find a recommended local independent garage.  Their written report is all you need.  Then you can assess the findings, decide what might be claimable from the selling dealer and ultimately, whether any imminent expensive work is going to make it better to sell the car on or persevere with it.

If successful in court, you may add the cost of the inspection and report to your claim.

If you do decide to sell the car on, you will have to declare any known problems with the car to prospective sellers.  Don't get yourself into a new problem by being a seller someone sues further down the line!

dr78

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Find a recommended local independent garage.  Their written report is all you need.  Then you can assess the findings, decide what might be claimable from the selling dealer and ultimately, whether any imminent expensive work is going to make it better to sell the car on or persevere with it.

If successful in court, you may add the cost of the inspection and report to your claim.

If you do decide to sell the car on, you will have to declare any known problems with the car to prospective sellers.  Don't get yourself into a new problem by being a seller someone sues further down the line!

Price I paid was so high I’d loose so much money selling it and I’d not have the heart to sell with issues. So im stuck I think. I am going to contact trading standards, get the garage to do a full inspection and quote for repairs and take it to court. I’m a nervous person so it’s going to be so scary going to court, but I know I am not lying about the faults and how long they have been there. I just have to hope the judge sees the truth and helps me, as worry as seller garage knows more about cars they may talk themselves out of things or lie about checking things that was fine when they had it. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Trading Standards probably won't be interested and can't be contacted by individual consumers, either.  I believe Citizen's Advice can be contacted and they may work with TS if there's a pattern of dodgy trading by the dealer.  A one-off problem isn't a TS matter.

Small claims court shouldn't worry you.  It's not like a criminal trial on the TV.  Have a look online at how it works.  It's designed to be accessible and to provide some equity between consumer and seller, even if the seller is more expert.

Don't stubbornly hold onto the car if it's a lemon.  Selling it honestly for less than you paid for it is galling, but if the garage start talking about expensive things like gearboxes and the clutch then you do need to weigh up whether you'd be throwing good money after bad.

dr78

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Trading Standards probably won't be interested and can't be contacted by individual consumers, either.  I believe Citizen's Advice can be contacted and they may work with TS if there's a pattern of dodgy trading by the dealer.  A one-off problem isn't a TS matter.

Small claims court shouldn't worry you.  It's not like a criminal trial on the TV.  Have a look online at how it works.  It's designed to be accessible and to provide some equity between consumer and seller, even if the seller is more expert.

Don't stubbornly hold onto the car if it's a lemon.  Selling it honestly for less than you paid for it is galling, but if the garage start talking about expensive things like gearboxes and the clutch then you do need to weigh up whether you'd be throwing good money after bad.

I feel I’d hardly get any money back for a car with a clutch issue. I will contact citizen advice and get a report of car done to find issues and take it to court. Because court may possibly rule in my favour and make garage pay. I have the messages that I sent the garage the same day I bought the car about the clutch judder issue, so shows issue was there on day of purchase. Garage said it’s a used car what do you expect ? So wasn’t much help 

dr78

They after this message said it’s a used car what do you expect? Not sure I agree that a clutch judder and creek on suspension is ok to have just because it’s a used car 😂