Withdrawing from used car agreement

ZoomyBrumey1989

Hi all. I’m new here and have joined as I wish to know for certain whether Google is giving me the correct information!!

I purchased a car online on the 25th of April. The car was delivered to me on the 27th. After this, I noticed that the alloy wheels were extremely scratched. Plus, there had been a hidden admin fee, which I was not told about.

However, regardless of this, I decided that I wished to return the car and end the agreement. I notified the car dealer, the finance company and the broker on the 30th.
It has now been 12 days and all three keep passing me to one another, telling me I need to deal with someone else. I have sent a lot of emails and made phone calls requesting that the agreement is withdrawn and that the car dealer collects the car.

According to Google, I not only have the 14 days cooling off period but as it was a distance sale, the law says I can indeed return the car without reason.

After a phone call to the broker today, they have told me that the car dealer is rejecting a return and that I can only return it if there is a mechanical fault. Google says this is incorrect!

I have contacted the financial ombudsman via phone today. They couldn’t tell me if this is correct or not and their investigation can take up to 11 weeks!

I would appreciate any advice as to whether by law I do indeed have a right to return the car and end the agreement or whether I am wasting my time?

Okell

Assuming this is a distance contract as defined by The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 then yes, you can cancel it within 14 days of delivery to you, but you have to clearly inform the seller that you are cancelling the contract.

Did you tell them you were cancelling the contract?

If you didn't, by my calculation your 14 days expired yesterday…

You could still try arguing that by telling them you wanted to return the car you were implicitly exercising your right to cancel a distance contract under the above regulations, but if you didn't clearly tell them you were cancelling they can argue that you did not exercise your legal right to cancel.

[Edit: can you provide a link to or name the online seller? there are circumstances in which the 14 day limit can be extended]

Alderbank

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6668011/withdrawing-from-used-car-agreement

Welcome to the forum.

You have two separate contracts - a contract of sale with the car dealer to buy the car and also a contract with a finance house.

The finance house has paid the dealer and you agreed to pay them back in instalments. You had a 14 day cooling off period during which you could decide to pay the sale contract by some other method instead, such as from savings or a bank loan or some other way.

If you bought the car as a consumer (so not in connection with your trade or employment) and you paid for it without having been to the dealership or seen the car, you have 14 days to cancel the contract of sale starting from when the car was delivered. To cancel the contract you must tell the seller you are cancelling the contract. You don't need to give a reason.

If the car has one or more significant faults ( the significance depends on the age, mileage and condition of the vehicle) then under different legislation you have a right to reject the vehicle.

If you would like to share some basic details such as car make, model, age and mileage, any faults the car has, who you bought it from and a timeline of what happened on what date, we should be able to help you.

A_Geordie

If you bought the car as a consumer (so not in connection with your trade or employment) and you paid for it without having been to the dealership or seen the car, you have 14 days to cancel the contract of sale starting from when the car was delivered. To cancel the contract you must tell the seller you are cancelling the contract. You don't need to give a reason.

Not quite true. The regulations say:

6. (1) These Regulations do not apply to a contract, to the extent that it is -

(b)for services of a banking, credit, insurance, personal pension, investment or payment nature

Still going to be liable for the finance side of things. Hire purchase, conditional sale etc. are all excluded from the cooling off period. The CCA provides cooling off rights in this respect.

ZoomyBrumey1989

I notified the car dealer, the finance company and the broker, which is car finance 247 on the 30th. So only 3 days of having the car. I’ve just seen that the finance company even states on their website that I can return the car within 14 days as it was a distance sale but as I say, CF247 are disputing it and saying I can only return it due to a mechanical fault. They seem very much on the car dealers side!

A_Geordie

I have 2 questions.

First, what is your agreement called with the finance company? Is it a hire purchase, PCP, conditional sale, contract hire, personal loan or something else?

Second, did you part pay towards the car in anyway by credit card e.g. a deposit or the first monthly instalment

ZoomyBrumey1989

I think it’s hire purchase on the agreement. I didn’t pay any deposit and no payments have been paid as yet. I keep going back to Google and it states that there are no exceptions. As it’s a distance sale, I can withdraw from the agreement within 14 days without reason. It states it on the finance companies website too. The broker seems to ignore this.

Grumpy_chap

As mentioned by @Okell upthread, did you inform the car dealer and the finance company that you were cancelling the contract under CCR?

Did you stop using the car?

Did you make arrangements to return the car, or to have it collected?

A_Geordie

The distance selling rules fall under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and the regulation I referred to above sits within it. In short, the CCRs apply to the purchase of goods and not things that are taken on credit.

Under a HP agreement you are not actually purchasing the car, rather it is a 3 way arrangement where the dealer simultaneously acts as the seller and the agent of the finance company. So they sell the car to the finance co. who in turn hires the car out to you under a finance agreement. That is why the distance selling rights don't apply.

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 has the right of withdrawal within 14 days which means you can cancel the finance agreement but you are still liable to pay for the finance amount within 30 days. This is typically used where you are able to get a better rate under a personal loan and you use that loan amount to pay off the HP finance and end up paying cheaper instalments under the loan.

The broker's website is irrelevant in all of this because you are contracting with the finance company so if you're relying on that as a way to get yourself out of this, I'm afraid you're barking up the wrong tree.

If the car is damaged and wasn't as described or depicted in the photos online (assuming you didn't view it in person) then you may have a right to reject the car and terminate the contract under the Consumer Rights Act, but you only have 30 days to do that and the burden is on you to prove the car was not of satisfactory quality or as described/shown,

eskbanker

I wish to know for certain whether Google is giving me the correct information!!

[…]

According to Google, I not only have the 14 days cooling off period but as it was a distance sale, the law says I can indeed return the car without reason.

After a phone call to the broker today, they have told me that the car dealer is rejecting a return and that I can only return it if there is a mechanical fault. Google says this is incorrect!

[…]

I keep going back to Google and it states that there are no exceptions.

Chances are that you're using Google's browser, and/or its AI engine, but either way, it's just directing you towards content written or published by others, which will be of varying quality and trustworthiness, so it's misleading to label such content with "Google says…" or to treat it as reliable (unless it's linking to actual legislation, for example).

ZoomyBrumey1989

I notified all of the parties on day 3. I was concerned that the alloy wheels were severely scratched, yet the broker had sold me an alloy wheel plan which did not cover pre existing conditions. Also, there was a hidden admin fee which I was not informed of. It is on the finance company’s website that I have 14 days due to it being a distance sale. So, it’s not just google telling me this.