Trying to make online claim - advice about court costs needed

[Badger9898]

I part exchanged a car 11 June, it was sold to me with a clean MOT with no advisories, within a couple of days I booked it into a local garage to have it checked out (I know nothing about cars!). The car was finally checked 01 July and I was advised it should never have passed an MOT. Both front tyres were perished on inside edges and split. N/S/R tyre inner wall perished and rear handbrake cable damaged.

I contacted the dealer 05 July, detailing the faults found and requested a refund as the car was mis-sold. The dealer refused to refund the car and offered a repair of the tyres, the dealership is 60 miles away and I was expected to take the car to them to get the brake cable fixed once the tyres were repaired.

I refused this offer as I felt I had been mis-sold the car originally. I had also sought advice from trading standards who advised me not to let the dealer repair the faults until the car had been independently checked by DVSA. In the meantime I had the car checked by another garage that found the same faults.

DVSA checked the car 21 July and issued a Roadworthy prohibition notice. They found 4 major defects and 7 advisories. I sent a copy of the notice along with a letter before action to the dealer 21 July.

I further emailed to the dealer 30/07/22 to let them know I had to SORN the car.

I received no reply with the 14 days, so I emailed the dealer again 12 August advising that I would be pursuing this through the small claims court. The dealer replied 3 days later saying I was being disingenuous, he claimed I was trying to make a claim as I was trying struggling to sell the car that I had part exchanged, I hadn't even advertised my car for sale at this point, there was nothing wrong with my old car, other than it was a bit big for me. He recently advertised my old car for nearly twice the price I part exchanged it for! He said that as he offered to repair the faults I have no grounds to request a refund and the court would go in his favour.

I am now in the process of trying to complete the online claim form. I've read lots of good advice on this forum but some of it is conflicting which is confusing me further.

I'm not sure how much detail is needed in the 'Briefly explain your claim' box. Would this be sufficient?


"On 11 June 2022 I purchased a Vauxhall Zafira - registration XXXXX XXX from XXXXXXX. This was in part exchange for a Ford Galaxy – registration XXXXXXXX. The value of the Ford Galaxy was estimated at £3295.00 and I paid the remainder of the balance £1700.00 by debit card.

The Vauxhall Zafira was sold to me as having a new MOT and the dealer confirmed there were no advisories.

I took the car to be independently checked by 2 garages and both found the same faults

An independent MOT was carried out by DVSA 21/07/2022. They found 4 major faults and 7 advisories. They issued the car with a Roadworthy Prohibition Notice.

I sent the dealer Letter before action 21/07/2022, they did not respond until 15/08/2022 advising they would not issue a refund only a repair

The vehicle has proved to be unsatisfactory, unfit for purpose and not as described as required by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Due to the breach of contract I request a a refund of £1700.00 plus the return of the Ford Galaxy plus court costs, or a full refund of £4995.00 plus court costs."


As I am claiming the cost of the car (£4995) If I claim the court costs it takes the claim over £5000. Do I ask for costs in the 'Briefly explain your claim' box or do I add it to the value of the claim and end up paying more to make the claim?

Thanks in anticipation - I am very confused!

[atticus]

You do not include court costs. That part is added to the claim form later.

[ostell]

The limit for small claims is now £10,000

[Badger9898]

You pay a higher fee if the claim is over £5000 (which the court costs would take it to) which is why I needed to check - it would be £455 rather than £205

[Badger9898]

So is my

[Badger9898]

I'm confused with how much detail should go into the 'Briefly explain your claim' box. Would this be sufficient?
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"On 11 June 2022 I purchased a Vauxhall xxxxxx - registration XXXXX XXX from XXXXXXX. This was in part exchange for a Ford Galaxy – registration XXXXXXXX. The value of the Ford xxxxxxx was estimated at £3295.00 and I paid the remainder of the balance £1700.00 by debit card.

The Vauxhall xxxx was sold to me as having a new MOT and the dealer confirmed there were no advisories.

I took the car to be independently checked by 2 garages and both found the same faults

An independent MOT was carried out by DVSA 21/07/2022. They found 4 major faults and 7 advisories. They issued the car with a Roadworthy Prohibition Notice.

I sent the dealer Letter before action 21/07/2022, they did not respond until 15/08/2022 advising they would not issue a refund only a repair

The vehicle has proved to be unsatisfactory, unfit for purpose and not as described as required by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Due to the breach of contract I request a a refund of £1700.00 plus the return of the Ford Galaxy plus court costs, or a full refund of £4995.00 plus court costs."

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they dont make this easy do they - especially for someone that has retired and is pretty PC illiterate

[Badger9898]

Hi all

Latest update

The garage has agreed in writing (without prejudice) to have all the major and advisories fixed on the car and new MOT.

My problem is he has taken so long to respond to the original claim so that the deadline to proceed with the case is tomorrow

We haven’t agreed on a garage where the repairs will be made and MOT completed so it will still take some time to get the car sorted out.

I am happy to agree to mediation (as I just want the car fixed) but if I settle the claim and he doesn’t honour his side of the agreement won’t I have to go through the money claims process again?

It’s not like the dealer can be trusted!

Am I better off carrying on with proceeding, obviously accepting the option of mediation?

Many thanks in anticipation

[R0b]

Have you formally accepted their offer by communicating to them? If so, then you should really notify the court you have settled because whatever their offer is, the terms of settlement will be between you both. Should you then proceed to the hearing, you will need to pay the hearing fee which you may not claim back if you accepted the terms already.

As a general practice and minimum, any settlement should include the costs and fees payable when you issued the claim, for example the issue fee and then the hearing fee if applicable together with any other additional costs incurred such as independent reports on the car. This then puts you back in the position prior to proceedings and means you are not out of pocket.

It seems to me that there are still terms to be agreed which as you have pointed out, is the place of where the repairs and MOT is to be taken. As the claimant and the injured party, I would argue that the location of where the vehicle should be repaired and the MOT carried is at your choosing provided it is carried out by a reputable garage, not a backstreet dirty looking one - of course at their cost, which should also be determined too, for example by them being invoiced directly from the garage rather than you paying and claiming back from them.

If the offer is not accepted then you should consider what I've said above but always remember that you don't have to accept the offer if you don't like it, make a counter-offer with additional terms you want agreed. You can do this by saying their offer is rejected and you are proposing a counter-offer but make sure to put a time on it like 14 days and if not accepted the offer automatically expires otherwise you are in danger of leaving an open ended offer that can be accepted at any time including at the steps of the court.

[Badger9898]

Now I’m really confused, we’ve accepted the repair but he hasn’t even given us a list of garages to look at

I really thought I shouldn’t settle as we haven’t agreed on the garage?

So are you advising me to settle (I’m guessing there is space on the online form to ensure I don’t get scammed again?) by him picking a dodgy garage?

Thanks for your help

[Badger9898]

H Rob

im even more confused by the link to the voluntary termination process. I didn’t pay by finance, I’m so confuddled

[Badger9898]

Hi Rob

I have nothing like this writing from the dealer?

As a general practice and minimum, any settlement should include the costs and fees payable when you issued the claim, for example the issue fee and then the hearing fee if applicable together with any other additional costs incurred such as independent reports on the car. This then puts you back in the position prior to proceedings and means you are not out of pocket.

Should I proceed to mediation, would my costs be paid by the defendant automatically or is this something that would have to be agreed at mediation

I really appreciate your help, I cant afford to lose this money.

[R0b]

I think you're confusing yourself.

You are suggesting that you've received an offer to settle the matter and whatever is said in the correspondence will be the terms of settlement. If you have accepted the offer then that is what you agreed to settle on. You don't get anything above and beyond that even if you are out of pocket.

So, have you communicated to the other side that the offer is accepted? It would be helpful to see the letter/email from the garage word for word to understand what they have actually offered. Make sure to remove personal info if you.

The voluntary termination process has nothing to do with this. It is my signature section related to consumer credit matters and appears on every post, so don't read anything after the small dotted (not dashed) line.