Taking dealer to court for selling dangerous car

[JUICYBUBS1]

Hi i am new to the Forum, and looking for help and advise.* My husband and i bought a second hand car from a dealer in Liverpool on Dec 2nd.* We paid £100 deposit and £5,695 in cash. It was first registered in Feb 2015.* The dealer is an RAC Approved Garage, and all cars they say comes with RAC 82 point check. Proof of this is supposed to be given to the consumer when car is bought.* *My husband went and paid for the car, and the salesman said the vehicle is noisier than average car because it is diesel and a 4 x 4. He had a look round it, and drove it home. The same evening i drove the car, and noticed a noise like a kettle boiling. Yes there is the noise of a diesel but this noise was different.* My husband told me what the salesman had said and so what could i say.* The next day, i went to open the boot of the car, and i really struggled, as you literally had to force the boot door open, and to close it it went with an almighty clunk. I tried again, and showed my husband, and when we looked closer, you can see that all whole of the rear end doesnt look right.* Wings, bumper dont line up correctly.* I touched the rear reflector at bottom of bumper and it just hanging there, Not attached securely.* This made us suspicious and wondered if it had actually gone thru the 82 point check.* We had to call the RAC out next day as we discovered a nail in tyre, and he took a look around rear of car. He stated that clips on rear wings were broken, so the rear wings were not attached securely, and this also caused rest of rear of car to be out of line,* hence also why boot door was hard to open and close, also rear light is letting in water. On December 19th we took our 3yr old son to go a xmas train, and it was raining, and the windscreen wiper just flew off. It took us ages to get it back on, and it does not fit correctly. Then on December 20th, on way to see Santa, we were overtaking a lorry, and car decided to go in what i call get you home mode. Hubby had foot to floor and we were only going 28mph, and we nearly got hit by the lorry. i videoed this with my husband mobile phone.* We managed to get into a layby and turn engine off and lock car, then unlock it and start car again. This seemed to reset it.* We contacted the dealer, and the salesman said he would pass the information on to his manager and get him to call us back on next step.* As you can guess it never came. This constant phone calling went on for a couple of weeks,* about other faults we found too, actually only stopping this week.* We took the car to another RAC Approved Garage and they did the 82 point check.* The report that came back was horrendous.* The report said and i quote " Advise customer to not drive the car due to Diff could lock up at any time, and to us the RAC Check hasnt been carried out correctly or honestly"* *This terrified us and to this day, apart from driving it back from garage, and then to another garage to have a pre mot we have not driven the car.* The pre mot showed the car as passing basic mot, but they ticked fail for the windscreen wipers as not correct ones fitted.* The garage said that the sound i described as a boiling kettle is from the Diff, and it has been doing it for some time.* We contacted the RAC too as we bought extended warranty, and we cannot use the warranty as the RAC said it was a "PRE EXISTING CONDITION".* * *So that also tells us that it has been bad for some time and definitely before we bought the car.* *The dealer will not return any phone calls, and the last call my husband spoke to the own and he said we have no legal right not even under Consumer Rghts Act 2015, and they not prepared to do any repairs.* We spoke to CAB and they said we do have rights under CRA 2015 and if we have lost all faith in dealer we can push for a full refund. Also to get their complaints process and if they are members of RDA.* Well.....they dont have a complaints process and they had no idea what an RDA was. We have this recorded on our mobile phone.* *We also have them recorded stating they want no more contact with us at all either by telephone or email. So we have no choice but to take them to court to get this resolved, and we going for full refund, plus compensation.* *We have tried and tried with them, but they dont want to know. We did some research on the business, and they have done this to quite a few people. One woman i am in contact with, was forced to scrap her car, as the garage wouldnt do anything and they even threatened her, saying they knew where she lived. Her car broke down when she was taking her severely disabled son home from major surgey.* * We have completed form N1 and got all our evidence together, and quoted Consumer Right Act 2015 and got statements and reports from other garages and issue them with the form of our intention to go to court. Are there any other acts we can get this trader on?* We have only had the car since December 2019* and it only January 12th.....bearing in mind the Christmas and New Year period, will the court take this period into consideration.* * *Oh and regarding the warranty, we paid £399 for RAC gold warrant, and looking at the sheet it states car has to be less than 10yr old and done no more than 100,000 miles. Our car had done 106,000 when they sold it, so no idea if warranty actually legal.* Thank you so much for reading, and sorry so long winded.....other faults include, parking assist stopped working, ( probably due to the bumper),* hill assist has stopped working, rear 3 point socket doesnt work.*

[JUICYBUBS1]

i would like to add too, we are having to represent ourselves as we cannot afford a lawyer. The car was paid for when my husband received a payment from government for his injuries whilst serving in the army. He has complex PTSD and not being able to get out, and be housebound is having a severe impact on his mental health, i have been placed on medication too, as i had major breakdown as i feel i have put my children in danger by having them in the car,
*

[des8]

What exactly did your Letter before Action state, and when was it sent?
When exactly did you first tell the dealer you were rejecting the vehicle?

[JUICYBUBS1]

Hi, husband used a template that the CAB gave him, and it was sent tracked email 3 days ago, CAB stated was ok to use this method, as email is tracked, and we have proof the email was sent, received and opened their end. We told the dealer on December 10th we wanted to return the vehicle and get a refund, all we got as reply was will let manager know....no one would actually let us speak to the manager or owner, until another customer who had been thru this gave us his mobile number. We also emailed the dealer stating we reject the vehicle. We became suspicious about the 82 point check within a few days, and when things kept occurring we stated we were rejecting the vehicle. Dealer not having any of it. Never returns calls, or emails, total ignorance on their part

[des8]

So you rejected the car within the thirty day period.
can you please post a copy of the email you sent as supplied by CAB (first removing identifying details)?
If you intend court action you need to follow preaction protocols and not all CAB templates fit

Also the wording you propose on your N1 (any reason why you are not using MCOL and claiming on line?)

[JUICYBUBS1]

hi what is MCOL? and i will see if i can find email on laptop...told dealer over phone that we wanted to return it, and get refund in december, but all we got was i will pass it on and get owner to call you, never have the garage actually called us, we have done all the calling and nothing has happened at all....

[des8]

MCOL:https://www.moneyclaims.service.gov....ol-eligibility

Telling the dealer (or his employee) over the phone is sufficient if rejecting the vehicle.

[JUICYBUBS1]

found the email, letter before action was sent on 9th jan 2020....i cant copy and paste and place it here it wont let me, plus if i added as attachment you would see all personal details...arghhhhh....never heard of MCOL.....but we are going for full refund of car and also compensation for severe stress and putting our lives at stake.....the car too dangerous to drive. we told them in december after a week we wanted to return the car.* *dealer just buried heads......we are in process of getting quotes to repair the car, but been told it will be substantial.....when the independent garage did the 82 point check, he said before his even went to exam it properly he could see it has had some kind of shunt at the rear..

[des8]

You will be lucky if you obtain compensation for severe stress and putting your lives at risk.
Stress is considered part and parcel of every day life, and as for putting your lives at risk....

[JUICYBUBS1]

be happy with just a full refund of car, people have said why dont you just take the car back to the garage. If we could we would, it been deemed too dangerous to drive and garage is about 100 mile away from where we live. So with the dealer not even returning calls, or offering anything we have no choice but to take court action. That or we are stuck with a car that we cannot drive and out of pocket massively too

[des8]

under your rights as per Consumer Rights act 2015 (CRA2015) you can recover losses (damages) and it is for the dealer to recover vehicle/pay for its recovery as well as a full refund of purchase price.

[JUICYBUBS1]

thank you so much for your help.* We have masses of paperwork, just need to get all the wording right for the court. Not an easy task

[des8]

Don't worry too much
post up here and someone will help you get the wording right

[JUICYBUBS1]

Hi again, we have today submitted the paperwork, it has gone to Salford.... we received an email from their online lawyers asking us to remove our review from online,* we have said No.* Others have posted bad reviews and so they just singleing us out.* Also they have requested the car back so they can inspect it, again we have said No, as we do not trust them and lost all faith bearing in mind they failed to do the 82 point check before they sold the vehicle, we have asked for the 82 point check report and still to this day, we havent received it.* The garage are claiming my husband carried out a 2hr check on the vehicle before buying it. This is false, and so we are asking for proof of this via cctv as the garage is covered.* * Update with more as it comes, wish us luck as we are representing ourselves.* *If there are any lawyers on here, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you

[des8]

who are their "lawyers"?
Can you give us a link to your review please?

Trust you worded your claim properly and it is not struck out.