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Hi all, I have been disputing a used car I bought back in December, it's now been off the road for over 6 months, would love anyone's recommendation on next steps if that's possible.
I bought it on 23rd December 2017 for £9,875 inclusive of a warranty (valued at £595) with Warranty Wise.
The first break-down was on the 14th February 2018 and under the advice of the trader I bought it from it was taken to BMW main garage, they did diagnosis and then repair for a cost of £451 which I tried to claim on warranty but didn't follow process (I paid before getting some code) so ended up paying - that's not the big problem here. The car was unusable for 14 days.
On the 22nd February I spoke to the trader and informed him I was aware of my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and followed up with a recorded delivery letter on the 22nd stating my rights and confirming his recommendation to leave the vehicle with BMW. The vehicle was fixed on 28th February and Camshaft Sensors replaced along with swapping valves etc. I attempted to contact the trader on various occasions but he was not responsive.
The car then broke down again on the 22nd March 2018 (16 days after being returned). Again, it was taken to BMW who diagnosed a host of issues including throttle body housing, head gaskets, sensors and driveshaft with a total estimate for repair of £4,196.
I then wrote to the trader on 23rd April after all diagnosis work was conducted and stated the vehicle was not of satisfactory quality and I requested a refund. I received no response.
I wrote again on the 2nd May stating that my preference was to prevent proceeding to ADR or court and reminding the trader I had left 2 voicemails, 2 messages with a colleague and various SMS messages without response. I enclosed all paperwork from BMW for the quote along with a link to video evidence of the issues.
The trader responded on 4th May by letter saying that I was given an opportunity to examine the vehicle and that it was fully fit for purpose with no fault present at the time of purchase and was in satisfactory condition. He then analysed the quote from BMW and attached a whole host of random print-outs from car part websites of all the components needed to fix the car and suggested that he would pay 50 / 50 for the repair work but only if we used OEM Quality parts or I could get the car fixed at an independent non-main dealer and we would split the cost 50 / 50.
I responded saying this wasn't satisfactory and I asked about his complains process, if he was a member of ADR or if not would he be willing to use a non-membership ADR scheme asking for a response in 7 days. He didn't respond to that letter.
I wrote again on the 14th June stating section 9 and 10 of The Consumer Rights Act 2015 stating that if I didn't hear back in 14 days I reserved my right to start legal action, reminding him that remedies must be performed within a reasonable amount of time, without significant inconvenience to the consumer.
He responded on the 20th June stating he had never refused to repair the vehicle, that I took the decision to take it to BMW (previous letter he admits it was also his advice), he also offers to repair the vehicle if I recovered it to Leicester (140 miles from my home) and I would not be liable for any repair costs.
On the 4th of July I informed him I was going to small claims and I put in a claim for the full £10,000.
He didn't respond within the allocated 14 days but it appears the day after he put in a defence so my request for judgement was rejected.
He states in the letter of 20th June that the faults were not picked up in the first diagnostic check in February. After meeting with him last week where he offered to buy the car for £7,500 (£2,375 less than I paid) he confirmed the corner-stone of his defence was that the first diagnosis should have picked up all the extra faults that the second one did. Therefore, the throttle body housing, head gaskets, sensors and driveshaft were all damaged AFTER the sale of the vehicle, presumably in the time period between 28th Feb and 22nd March.
I have spoken to BMW who confirmed that they do 'progressive repairs' and that one fault often masks another and the argument that all these faults should have been highlighted on the first breakdown was not valid, they had a break-down situation to deal with both times and investigated the faults in hand.
I agreed to Small Claims Mediation on the 14th September but this was unsuccessful as he was not willing to make an offer without inspection and his alternatives at that stage were not suitable to me.
He has since offered for me to take the vehicle to an independent garage to have it repaired at his cost.
I have driven a total of 2,344 in the car over a period of 2.4 months while it was usable. My claim is that the car was rotten when he sold it to me and he should have refunded it a long time ago. The car remains on my drive gathering dust and depreciating.
In terms of cost, I have depreciation on an unusable asset; court fees; wasted insurance, tax and breakdown costs; repairs and diagnosis costs - all in I calculate over £3k of costs.
The court hearing is estimated to be November/December, so my costs go up every day I have the vehicle unusable.
So questions (finally, sorry about long message):
1. Does his defence stack up that the first diagnosis should have picked up all the faults in the second one?
2. I consider his offer to repair the vehicle at an independent garage of my choosing a declaration of his lack of confidence in winning in court, am I reading too much in to it?
3. In order to keep within Small Claims can I go for costs of around £3k, or will that move it to FastTrack and therefore I risk losing considerably more money so I should stick at the £10,000 limit I'm on now and accept the loss of tax, insurance, etc.?
4. Are there any legal experts willing to take on a no-win-no-fee type arrangement for this sort of small value claim? What's a typical fee for this sort of thing or am I daft to think it's an option?
Another detail - Companies House have a Strike Off order against the Ltd company I am pushing through small claims started on 19th September - if the Ltd company is bust I guess I lose either way?
Thank you so much for any help, I'm struggling here on what to do!
Rob
I bought it on 23rd December 2017 for £9,875 inclusive of a warranty (valued at £595) with Warranty Wise.
The first break-down was on the 14th February 2018 and under the advice of the trader I bought it from it was taken to BMW main garage, they did diagnosis and then repair for a cost of £451 which I tried to claim on warranty but didn't follow process (I paid before getting some code) so ended up paying - that's not the big problem here. The car was unusable for 14 days.
On the 22nd February I spoke to the trader and informed him I was aware of my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and followed up with a recorded delivery letter on the 22nd stating my rights and confirming his recommendation to leave the vehicle with BMW. The vehicle was fixed on 28th February and Camshaft Sensors replaced along with swapping valves etc. I attempted to contact the trader on various occasions but he was not responsive.
The car then broke down again on the 22nd March 2018 (16 days after being returned). Again, it was taken to BMW who diagnosed a host of issues including throttle body housing, head gaskets, sensors and driveshaft with a total estimate for repair of £4,196.
I then wrote to the trader on 23rd April after all diagnosis work was conducted and stated the vehicle was not of satisfactory quality and I requested a refund. I received no response.
I wrote again on the 2nd May stating that my preference was to prevent proceeding to ADR or court and reminding the trader I had left 2 voicemails, 2 messages with a colleague and various SMS messages without response. I enclosed all paperwork from BMW for the quote along with a link to video evidence of the issues.
The trader responded on 4th May by letter saying that I was given an opportunity to examine the vehicle and that it was fully fit for purpose with no fault present at the time of purchase and was in satisfactory condition. He then analysed the quote from BMW and attached a whole host of random print-outs from car part websites of all the components needed to fix the car and suggested that he would pay 50 / 50 for the repair work but only if we used OEM Quality parts or I could get the car fixed at an independent non-main dealer and we would split the cost 50 / 50.
I responded saying this wasn't satisfactory and I asked about his complains process, if he was a member of ADR or if not would he be willing to use a non-membership ADR scheme asking for a response in 7 days. He didn't respond to that letter.
I wrote again on the 14th June stating section 9 and 10 of The Consumer Rights Act 2015 stating that if I didn't hear back in 14 days I reserved my right to start legal action, reminding him that remedies must be performed within a reasonable amount of time, without significant inconvenience to the consumer.
He responded on the 20th June stating he had never refused to repair the vehicle, that I took the decision to take it to BMW (previous letter he admits it was also his advice), he also offers to repair the vehicle if I recovered it to Leicester (140 miles from my home) and I would not be liable for any repair costs.
On the 4th of July I informed him I was going to small claims and I put in a claim for the full £10,000.
He didn't respond within the allocated 14 days but it appears the day after he put in a defence so my request for judgement was rejected.
He states in the letter of 20th June that the faults were not picked up in the first diagnostic check in February. After meeting with him last week where he offered to buy the car for £7,500 (£2,375 less than I paid) he confirmed the corner-stone of his defence was that the first diagnosis should have picked up all the extra faults that the second one did. Therefore, the throttle body housing, head gaskets, sensors and driveshaft were all damaged AFTER the sale of the vehicle, presumably in the time period between 28th Feb and 22nd March.
I have spoken to BMW who confirmed that they do 'progressive repairs' and that one fault often masks another and the argument that all these faults should have been highlighted on the first breakdown was not valid, they had a break-down situation to deal with both times and investigated the faults in hand.
I agreed to Small Claims Mediation on the 14th September but this was unsuccessful as he was not willing to make an offer without inspection and his alternatives at that stage were not suitable to me.
He has since offered for me to take the vehicle to an independent garage to have it repaired at his cost.
I have driven a total of 2,344 in the car over a period of 2.4 months while it was usable. My claim is that the car was rotten when he sold it to me and he should have refunded it a long time ago. The car remains on my drive gathering dust and depreciating.
In terms of cost, I have depreciation on an unusable asset; court fees; wasted insurance, tax and breakdown costs; repairs and diagnosis costs - all in I calculate over £3k of costs.
The court hearing is estimated to be November/December, so my costs go up every day I have the vehicle unusable.
So questions (finally, sorry about long message):
1. Does his defence stack up that the first diagnosis should have picked up all the faults in the second one?
2. I consider his offer to repair the vehicle at an independent garage of my choosing a declaration of his lack of confidence in winning in court, am I reading too much in to it?
3. In order to keep within Small Claims can I go for costs of around £3k, or will that move it to FastTrack and therefore I risk losing considerably more money so I should stick at the £10,000 limit I'm on now and accept the loss of tax, insurance, etc.?
4. Are there any legal experts willing to take on a no-win-no-fee type arrangement for this sort of small value claim? What's a typical fee for this sort of thing or am I daft to think it's an option?
Another detail - Companies House have a Strike Off order against the Ltd company I am pushing through small claims started on 19th September - if the Ltd company is bust I guess I lose either way?
Thank you so much for any help, I'm struggling here on what to do!
Rob
