We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

[juju020]

Hi, new here

I need some advice and don't really know where to turn next! Car expert gave me this forum/website for help.

I bought my son a car from a Bulgarian Auto garage for £1400 in Croydon Surrey. Looked nice, seemed to run well got a months warranty 'Gearbox and Engine. The man signed his boss's name on the Warranty.

VERY NEXT day engine light comes on. My son rings 'boss' and is told he's going to Bulgaria for 3 weeks. My son takes Car to independent garage for inspection. Three minor faults in engine, safe to drive. Son tells 'boss' this and he tells him fine, carry on driving car and he'll repair it upon his return much cheaper than the £300 odd bill quoted by other garage.

A week later son parks car, goes to work, car catches fire (really badly) under bonnet. Police, fire brigade attend. Car write off. He rings 'boss' who says...."talk to my solicitor". Engineer from insurance company says fire emanates from battery area probably electrical, but can't be sure due to extensive damage. MOT history shows car as CAT 3 ex write off!

After many calls and letters rang Fair Trading who gave me some advice. Wrote to him quoting consumer rights 2015, reply came back from his solicitor with a pile of lies and advice to NOT give money back. Son has had car 2 weeks!! Have no car to return to garage as it went up in smoke.

Can anyone advise me whether I stand a chance in hell of getting my money back, I had to scrape to get that money. Very upset.

Many thanks for any support.

[CLL1]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

What has his solicitor said?

[wales01man]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

Is there an insurance claim?

[juju020]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

What has his solicitor said?

He pretty much said my son should not have driven it with the engine light on, but my son took it to an independent garage as soon as he saw the light. The owner of the garage was well aware as he asked for the garage's report which my son emailed to him. He said he was going away and told my son NOT to let the other garage fix the 'minor' faults as he could do it cheaper upon his return. He told him to carry on driving the car and bring it in when he got back.

Solicitor said he shouldn't have driven car with engine light on and that the owner told him not to over and over...lie! But the fire was electrical, it started by the battery. Isn't it true that if the car breaks down within 30 days then the fault is considered to have been there when it was sold?

Thanks for your reply.

[juju020]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

Is there an insurance claim?

Unfortunately my son chose not to make a claim as he only has 3 years no claims so it is not protected and he would lose that. Plus they took 20% off the value of the car as it was an ex CAT 3 write off. Also he has a £750 excess. He stood to get about £350 back as the insurance company were also going to make him pay for years insurance (which he had obviously just started when he got the car). He/we just thought as it was under warranty we would get the money back with no trouble.

I can't believe traders can just sell you a dodgy car and keep your money after such a short time?? This wouldn't happen if you bought anything else, say from a shop. I know they've got this new consumer rights act to help protect us more but it's not really much good to me as it seems his solicitor can wriggle out of this by saying anything....even lying. How can we fight lies. I know get everything in writing, but we didn't know this would happen at the beginning and he was out of the country and hard to contact at all.

Thanks for your reply.

[wales01man]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

You have plenty of rights here some one on here will advise the solicitor does not know consumer rights you can put him right after you get advice plenty on here just needs others to see the thread

[juju020]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

You have plenty of rights here some one on here will advise the solicitor does not know consumer rights you can put him right after you get advice plenty on here just needs others to see the thread

wales01man..... Thanks alot for that..that's re-assuring!

[R0b]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

First of all when you say a CAT 3 write off do you mean a CAT C? Traders are legally obliged to notify consumers if this is the case and should have been on the advertisement or he ought to have been told in person. Was there anyone at the time with your son when he went to view the car and/or pay for it?

Is there evidence that the owner of the garage said to carry on driving it or was this done over a telephone call? Ultimately, its clearly not fit for purpose and the owner of the garage has misled your son as well as being in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.

If the solicitor is denying any liability and the owner of the garage is unwilling to refund you then the only other option for your son to get his money back will be through small claims unless he paid a portion of the cost on credit card.

[juju020]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

First of all when you say a CAT 3 write off do you mean a CAT C? Traders are legally obliged to notify consumers if this is the case and should have been on the advertisement or he ought to have been told in person. Was there anyone at the time with your son when he went to view the car and/or pay for it?

Is there evidence that the owner of the garage said to carry on driving it or was this done over a telephone call? Ultimately, its clearly not fit for purpose and the owner of the garage has misled your son as well as being in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.

If the solicitor is denying any liability and the owner of the garage is unwilling to refund you then the only other option for your son to get his money back will be through small claims unless he paid a portion of the cost on credit card.

Hi, sorry yes I do mean a CAT C. I was with him when he bought the car, he never said a word about the write off. In fact he said they had done a lot of work on the car so he would not drop the price, he eventually offered us the warranty instead of dropping the price. The first we heard about it was when the engineer inspected the car after the fire. the solicitor said it was irrelevant that they didn't tell us about the CAT C write off as I has questioned that they never told us, as it would have need to pass an MOT so it must have been roadworthy. I said we would never have bought it if we had known that, so I do have written proof that they admit they never told us.

Mostly all correspondence before the fire was by phone. Although we have proof we took it to a garage when the engine light came on, and proof we sent him a copy of that report.

Thanks for your reply, all so helpful. I feel so alone with this and pretty helpless!

[juju020]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

One more point bothering me. The man at the garage was not the owner, he was his associate. But he wrote the 'owners name' and signed it under that name. The signature looks very similar to the owners signature as I had sent a recorded letter that the owner had signed for, so I compared signatures. Technically he has signed a document in someone else's name, does that mean anything?

Thanks

[R0b]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

How much did your son pay for the car?

Regardless of whether the car passed an MOT does not mean that it is deemed roadworthy, in fact I also believe (or at least used to be the case) that the MOT certificate in fact says that it is not proof that the car is roadworthy, so the solicitor has a duff argument there.

If you were to make a claim it would be based around The Consumer Rights Act, misrepresentation, and/or Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. The car is not of satisfactory quality, and it is not as described as the owner should have told you that the car had been in an accident (failing to do so is considered misleading and 'not as described') which also means it is not fit for purpose.

If your son wants to pursue this then the small claims route will be the best course of action to take, your son can use you as a witness to confirm that certain conversations did not take place such as not being told about it being in an accident. To begin any proceedings you must first send a letter before action which outlines the issues and why you are seeking to take them to court. They should usually have around 14 days to respond and put their case forward before proceedings are commenced.

Regarding the associate, he may have been given authority to sign the documents on the owner's behalf, but that is an issue between the associate and the owner really.

[juju020]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

How much did your son pay for the car?

Regardless of whether the car passed an MOT does not mean that it is deemed roadworthy, in fact I also believe (or at least used to be the case) that the MOT certificate in fact says that it is not proof that the car is roadworthy, so the solicitor has a duff argument there.

If you were to make a claim it would be based around The Consumer Rights Act, misrepresentation, and/or Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. The car is not of satisfactory quality, and it is not as described as the owner should have told you that the car had been in an accident (failing to do so is considered misleading and 'not as described') which also means it is not fit for purpose.

If your son wants to pursue this then the small claims route will be the best course of action to take, your son can use you as a witness to confirm that certain conversations did not take place such as not being told about it being in an accident. To begin any proceedings you must first send a letter before action which outlines the issues and why you are seeking to take them to court. They should usually have around 14 days to respond and put their case forward before proceedings are commenced.

Regarding the associate, he may have been given authority to sign the documents on the owner's behalf, but that is an issue between the associate and the owner really.

Thanks R0b...that's helpful. I have in fact written a letter and have stated we will take them to Court and gave him 14 days to pay up or respond. His solicitor responded within 2 days, with lies and an answer to everything. But I wasn't exactly sure what they had done illegally nor which claim I should make, so I'm fighting a solicitor who either knows his rights way better than me, or is trying to see if his harsh words and lies will make me go away.

That's really great advice. now I know:

'The Consumer Rights Act, misrepresentation, and/or Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. The car is not of satisfactory quality, and it is not as described as the owner should have told you that the car had been in an accident (failing to do so is considered misleading and 'not as described') which also means it is not fit for purpose.'

I'm going to send another letter and quote that!!

I'm not rich, work really hard for my money and am devastated that my lovely gift to my son has ended in this.

Thank you so much

[wales01man]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

Ignore the solicitor he can defend his client in court he is trying it on in a effort to stop your action

[juju020]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

This is his solicitors closing paragraph

“Other than my saying the car was being driven when it caught fire when actually it was stationary, my comments remain the same as those I emailed to you yesterday. The issue as to whether it was formerly a Cat C car is irrelevant because the repairs were done satisfactorily and to an approved and MOT standard pre-sale. It is a dubious attempt by the insurance company to reduce the value of the car but has no bearing on the likely cause of the fire – the fact that the car was continued to be driven for over a week after the problems were identified and ignored by the owner/driver. Had they returned the car for repair as offered none of this would have happened.”

This is what was diagnosed as wrong with the car, the day AFTER he bought it.

the car was taken to another garage on 25.8.16 who diagnosed worn out air flow circuit and oxygen sensors. That is all.

[R0b]

Re: We just bought a car and it blew up within 3 weeks! Won't give me my money back!!

It might be helpful perhaps before you send a letter to the solicitor, if you could post up your original letter and the solicitors response so we know how to help you further. Redact any personal information on there before you do.

And if you post up your response then we can point you in the right direction or give any further suggestions as to what to include.

I'll tag @des8 in this as he also has some knowledge in this area, but if you email the letters to Kati@Legalbeagles.info she can post them up for you, @Kati


Just to add, if you commence proceedings based on the amount of the car, it will cost £70 to issue the claim and then a further £115 if the claim goes to trial. If successful the fees will be paid back to you in addition to the amount for the car.