Rejecting a faulty vehicle

[Pezza54]

The burden of proof falls on the dealer to prove you are not a consumer. A letter from your employer stating your office based duties at work will certainly help your case. Add this to your discussion about vehicle use, insurance certificate, bought paying from a personal bank account, and the dealer's underhand practice of failing to discuss the form he was completing on your behalf
If the dealer does not contact you on Monday or fails to offer an acceptable solution, you should write a LBA rejecting the van under CRA final right to reject.
You should keep your claim under £10k so it should be allocated to the small claims track and you avoid the risk of paying the defendant's legal costs

[SEAClouds]

Thank you so much. I will see how next week goes.

[SEAClouds]

One other thing that may help: it states in small print at the bottom of the contract ‘Nothing in this invoice is intended to affect, nor will it affect a consumer’s statutory rights’.

I am puzzled as to why this is included when they are using this contract as a means to diminish my consumer rights.

[Pezza54]

The dealer is doing the minimum required to make the consumer aware that they have legal rights

I suspect the dealer is hoping that a lot of consumers will miss the term or not be bothered to research their legal rights

[SEAClouds]

The dealer emailed late last night stating that his engineer will be compiling a report over the coming days. He promised to reimburse me within 14 days if I shipped the vehicle back. It is now 39 days. I suspect he has had another go at fixing it and is going to argue that his repairs were successful. I have plenty of evidence that his repairs failed and he knows this. What would be the purpose of all these delaying tactics? This has now been dragging on for six months. Looks like this one is going to court.

[Pezza54]

39 days is far too long to arrange for a vehicle report knowing that the customer has nor been provide with a courtesy vehicle and is being caused inconvenience and expense
You should sent the LBA
On an earlier post you stated you returned the van on the 4 April. How do you get 39 days? Before the 4th you were undecided whether or not to return the vehicle

[Pezza54]

You can post your LBA on this forum for advice and comments before sending. Remember to redact all names, addresses, van reg
There are LBA templates to download available on the internet

[SEAClouds]

Dear X,

I reiterate that I am exercising my right to final rejection of the vehicle, as I am entitled to under the CRA 2015. I am a consumer, not a trader. Evidence that I can provide in court:

- Insurance documents stating that the vehicle was bought for personal reasons only, not commercial.
- A letter from the Managing Director of the company I work for stating that my full time role is office based.
- My employment contract which prohibits me from taking work elsewhere.
- The payment method from a personal bank account.
- The logbook which states my home address, not a business address.
- I do not own a business and never have.

We had already discussed that I wanted the van for personal use before you completed the contract for me to sign and the checkbox you ticked was not brought to my attention.

The contract also states ‘Nothing in this invoice will affect, nor is intended to affect a consumer’s rights’, and yet you are using the contract to deny my consumer rights.


With regard to your assertion that the repairs were successful, you are implying that the van has fixed itself in the weeks you have had it back in your possession.

Evidence that the repairs were not successful include:

- Independent mechanic’s report which listed several recurring faults with the gearbox.
- A further mechanic’s letter which states the faults reported would result in the vehicle repeatedly slipping in neutral gear and that it is standard practice to clear faults after repairs.
- 2 x video footage of the vehicle slipping into neutral numerous time whilst being driven making it unroadworthy
- 2 x witness statements, one from a passenger and one from an observer.

I stopped using the vehicle and put it in safe storage immediately after noticing the faults and bought another vehicle.

In addition to this you have unnecessarily taken an unreasonable amount of time to resolve this issue. The ongoing delays, ignored messages and missed deadlines have been hugely inconvenient and stressful and caused significant additional costs.

I will be taking this to court and seeking to claim £9,960.60 reimbursement. This is the price I paid for the vehicle, £10,995, minus £250 re-clean fee, £250 re-advertisement fee, £250 stocking fee and £284.40 mileage ‘wear and tear’ for the few miles I was able to drive the vehicle, calculated at the HMRC standard rate of 45p per mile.

If this is not forthcoming within 7 days I will begin a small court claim.

Yours faithfully

[SEAClouds]

The vehicle was shipped back on 15th March

[Pezza54]

This is my advice on the LBA:

First sentence mention final right to reject

Then go onto say the vehicle was returned to his garage one month after purchasing it when the gearbox developed a serious fault. When you got the vehicle back nearly 2 months later, the gearbox fault reappeared within 3 days. No need to list the evidence that the repairs were unsuccessful. The vehicle was returned again on 15 March for a motor engineer's inspection report which to date has not been undertaken

Then mention you fail to understand why the salesman ticked the box "vehicle bought for commercial use" (whatever the wording is) after you told him you were only going to use the van to carry camping equipment for personal use

State you have other evidence that proves you are a Consumer under the Act. No need to list the evidence in the letter.

No need to mention you bought another vehicle, just write you considered the van unsafe to drive so stopped using it (for your weekends away camping)

Not sure you should write "caused significant additional costs". You are not claiming them and have to keep the claim under £10k

Regarding the amount you are claiming just say the purchase price £10995 less a fair amount for usage

Your last paragraph should state something like "If I do not receive a reply to this letter within 14 days or the solution you offer is unacceptable I intend to start a court claim

Note (not for the letter)
The court allocates the claim to a track. Claims under £10k should be allocated to the small claims track

[SEAClouds]

Thank you. Much appreciated.

[SEAClouds]

Should I wait for his report or send it now? In my last email I gave him the deadline of Friday.

[Pezza54]

You previously posted you didn't want the van back, so send it now. If you wait you might get an email from the dealer saying the report didn't find any fault with the gearbox or the fault has now been repaired as agreed

[SEAClouds]

LBA letter sent. Thank you for your help.

[SEAClouds]

I’ve discovered that though the dealership is based in England it is a trading name for a company registered in Scotland. Does that make a difference?