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Hi all! New member here, getting my head spun by my bank and a dodgy used car seller. Would really like some advice.
I bought a car 2 weeks (and 1 day) ago from a used car trader, screen price was £1895, however he lowered the price to £1500 (plus 3% service charge for paying on credit card making the total £1545) due to two faults that I discovered with the car at the time - that the rear passenger side door did not lock using the key, only with the internal lock, and that the bonnet release handle was loose and not popping the bonnet. It had worked the first time I'd looked but snapped the second time the guy went to release the bonnet for a second inspection. The guy handed me a small piece of plastic that had fallen out of the bonnet release handles bracket and said "ahh this will only be £20 and it'll be cheap to fix". The car had an (almost, only 3 week old) full MOT that was totally clean, no advisories.
12 days later, I book the car in at my local dealerships garage to get the bonnet release looked at and to get a quote. At the dealership, they offer me a free wash and a free "health check", so I say sure, why not, free is free right? A couple of hours later, the senior service advisor calls me to say they found many faults with the car, several things are dangerous (including the brake servo pipe having a hole in that was covered with tape!), broken suspension spring, corrosion on the brakes, etc. In all, I think 13 faults of which 4 or 5 were "requires urgent attention" and I was told would probably fail an MOT.
As the MOT was so new, I have arranged for a DVSA inspector to come look at the car and reach a verdict on whether the car should have been issued an MOT or not - and if not of course, action will be taken against the issuer. This report should be complete by Monday.
I contacted the seller and explained the predicament, was very polite and gave him the choice of repair (expensive!) or just a straight refund and for him to collect the car (probably cheapest and easiest all round). He flat out refused. I explained that I had rights under Consumer Rights Act, and he said "I'm well versed in the law, you voided any warranty* by taking it to an outside garage instead of letting me inspect for any faults**"
*No idea where the talk of warranty's came from, I wasn't aware he even did warranty's, I was talking about my rights in law
**He is just a trader, not a mechanic, so the idea of me getting him to inspect for any faults seems absurd, especially as I didn't take it to a garage to find faults, it was just to get a quote on a problem I knew about and the others were found by accident
So as the seller seemed a dead end, and was also hugely unpleasant, I figured I'd go to the bank and put in a claim under Sec 75 as I paid on a credit card. I submitted the email to the address that they asked me to do, received a follow up call and was told they wouldn't be looking at Sec 75 yet but wanted me to provide proof to see if they have a Charge back right first? This seemed weird, I didn't ask for them to do a charge back on the seller, I was asking for my refund to come from the banks own pocket as they are jointly liable with the seller?
I was hoping for some advice on the problem, I should have the independent engineer report on the car by Monday evening, I have 14 days from yesterday to get back to the bank with all the proof they require or they will "deem the matter resolved".
Should I let them try a charge back first? Am I giving my right to then later ask for a refund under Sec 75 if I agree to try charge back first? Also, under Charge Back, I will only get my original £1545 back, but I also want money back for the time I have had the car out of action - I'm still paying for it to be taxed and insured the whole time it is sitting in the garage out of action, I'm out of pocket on my transport costs on top of this, i.e I have had to use taxis and buses to get around since then, and of course I will not be paying to repair anything on the car out of my own pocket so will probably need to pay to have it towed away from the dealerships garage to my home address so I can SORN it - I doubt the dealership will let me keep it on their site indefinitely.
also (Sorry for the long long post!) what other legal recourse against the seller would I have other than my money back and (potential) additional costs back? for example, is selling an unroadworthy car something the police are interested in? I have already submitted a complaint to trading standards
Thank you so much for getting to the end of the post! Advice would be really appreciated.
JB
I bought a car 2 weeks (and 1 day) ago from a used car trader, screen price was £1895, however he lowered the price to £1500 (plus 3% service charge for paying on credit card making the total £1545) due to two faults that I discovered with the car at the time - that the rear passenger side door did not lock using the key, only with the internal lock, and that the bonnet release handle was loose and not popping the bonnet. It had worked the first time I'd looked but snapped the second time the guy went to release the bonnet for a second inspection. The guy handed me a small piece of plastic that had fallen out of the bonnet release handles bracket and said "ahh this will only be £20 and it'll be cheap to fix". The car had an (almost, only 3 week old) full MOT that was totally clean, no advisories.
12 days later, I book the car in at my local dealerships garage to get the bonnet release looked at and to get a quote. At the dealership, they offer me a free wash and a free "health check", so I say sure, why not, free is free right? A couple of hours later, the senior service advisor calls me to say they found many faults with the car, several things are dangerous (including the brake servo pipe having a hole in that was covered with tape!), broken suspension spring, corrosion on the brakes, etc. In all, I think 13 faults of which 4 or 5 were "requires urgent attention" and I was told would probably fail an MOT.
As the MOT was so new, I have arranged for a DVSA inspector to come look at the car and reach a verdict on whether the car should have been issued an MOT or not - and if not of course, action will be taken against the issuer. This report should be complete by Monday.
I contacted the seller and explained the predicament, was very polite and gave him the choice of repair (expensive!) or just a straight refund and for him to collect the car (probably cheapest and easiest all round). He flat out refused. I explained that I had rights under Consumer Rights Act, and he said "I'm well versed in the law, you voided any warranty* by taking it to an outside garage instead of letting me inspect for any faults**"
*No idea where the talk of warranty's came from, I wasn't aware he even did warranty's, I was talking about my rights in law
**He is just a trader, not a mechanic, so the idea of me getting him to inspect for any faults seems absurd, especially as I didn't take it to a garage to find faults, it was just to get a quote on a problem I knew about and the others were found by accident
So as the seller seemed a dead end, and was also hugely unpleasant, I figured I'd go to the bank and put in a claim under Sec 75 as I paid on a credit card. I submitted the email to the address that they asked me to do, received a follow up call and was told they wouldn't be looking at Sec 75 yet but wanted me to provide proof to see if they have a Charge back right first? This seemed weird, I didn't ask for them to do a charge back on the seller, I was asking for my refund to come from the banks own pocket as they are jointly liable with the seller?
I was hoping for some advice on the problem, I should have the independent engineer report on the car by Monday evening, I have 14 days from yesterday to get back to the bank with all the proof they require or they will "deem the matter resolved".
Should I let them try a charge back first? Am I giving my right to then later ask for a refund under Sec 75 if I agree to try charge back first? Also, under Charge Back, I will only get my original £1545 back, but I also want money back for the time I have had the car out of action - I'm still paying for it to be taxed and insured the whole time it is sitting in the garage out of action, I'm out of pocket on my transport costs on top of this, i.e I have had to use taxis and buses to get around since then, and of course I will not be paying to repair anything on the car out of my own pocket so will probably need to pay to have it towed away from the dealerships garage to my home address so I can SORN it - I doubt the dealership will let me keep it on their site indefinitely.
also (Sorry for the long long post!) what other legal recourse against the seller would I have other than my money back and (potential) additional costs back? for example, is selling an unroadworthy car something the police are interested in? I have already submitted a complaint to trading standards
Thank you so much for getting to the end of the post! Advice would be really appreciated.
JB
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