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Rescinding HP Agreement - Supply of Goods Act
Hi. First time poster, so naturally I have a problem!:tinysmile_twink_t2:
My fiancee bought a brand new car on a regulated HP agreement. Car arrived day before Christmas Eve so just on 3 months ago.
Just under 3,000 miles later and we're suffering a number of problems including a factory fitted bluetooth phone that picks up so much ambient/road noise that callers can't hear what the driver's saying over 20mph, an automatic gearbox that's become progressively jerkier at pull off and in crawling traffic and has on occasion slammed violently down the gears when coming to a standstill, headlights that leak in wet or rainy conditions causing condensation to form inside the lenses, a fault light that has twice appeared and disappeared 5 or 10 minutes after the car has almost stalled, and geometry that is hugely incorrect in settings that the manufacturer can't adjust.
As a new car it has a 3 year manufacturer warranty so naturally we took it to the dealer but they have either failed to diagnose and fix any of the faults they found, or with some of the items they admit there are issues with this particular model that set it apart from other cars, including other cars in the model range, they are choosing to call them "characteristics of the car".
The headlights for example they admit leak, and the phone they admit doesn't work properly, but they've said if they replaced the items, or even the whole car with another identical car, the problems would still be there.
As you can imagine, in light of all of these faults, my fiancee has become somewhat disillusioned with the car, and thinking the Sale of Goods Act applied, we formerly rejected the car to the main dealer.
The main dealer has said they will push the manufacturer into accepting our rejection of the car, and into exchanging it for a new one, but with a financial contribution from us to compensate them for the mileage covered - Frankly given the aggro time-wasting this has caused we're looking to them for compensation not the other way round.
They'd also require our car now and won't provide a free replacement whilst we await delivery of the new car and won't reimburse the cost of a hire car.
It's win, win for them as essentially this is a part exchange for the dealer which they will retail for a margin and a new car registration to add to their volume-bonus sheet.
We're not falling for it.
We have kept the finance company informed - They have received copies of all emails to and from the main dealer detailing our rejection of the car under the Sale of Goods act, and the finance company have consistently told us that they can't do anything other than "liaise with the parties involved exerting pressure on our behalf", telling us it's all a "grey area" and they are "limited" in what they can do and that if they don't get anywhere we'd just have to call the Financial Ombudsman Service and see if they might be able to help.
So I called the Ombudsman's office today. Apparently:
1. The Sale of Goods Act does not apply. Because the car is on a regulated HP Agreement it's only the Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973 that is applicable.
2. That therefore the finance company are wholly liable for resolving this issue directly with us, and should not be acting as some sort of pseudo reconciliation service between us and other non-liable parties.
3. That we shouldn't have rejected the car to the main dealer.
4. That because the finance company is wholly responsible for resolving this matter directly with us, as thanks to the emails we forwarded to them that we sent to the main dealer they had explicit knowledge that we were incorrectly trying to apply the Sale of Goods Act and wasting time attempting to reject the car to the main dealer, that the finance company has behaved inappropriately by not informing us that this was the case, and that their actions are cause for complaint to the Financial Ombudsman's Service.
5. That we should now address our issues directly to the finance company.
I am in the throws of adapting a template Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act letter to this case to send to the finance company informing them of the faults and indicating their responsibility to resolve this with us. I've also indicated the nature of the conversation I had with the Financial Ombudsman's office today.
One big question (with the longest lead-up to a question ever!) - Up until now we have been rejecting the car to the wrong party (the car dealer) using the wrong piece of legislation (Sale of Goods Act).
This new letter will address the correct party quoting the correct legislation. I wasn't in this letter intending to reject the car asking for a rescinding of the contract yet. I had intended to list the faults and give them 14 days to resolve them asking them to either fix, replace the car like for like or rescind the contract.
As we haven't yet rejected the car to the correct party using the correct law, can we continue to use the car until we have received response from the finance company telling us not to?
Or could I say something like that "Should you wish us to stop using the car please inform us immediately providing either a replacement car or written confirmation that you will reimburse us fully for the cost of a hire car"?
Really appreciate any advice in this matter.
Thank you so much in advance.
My fiancee bought a brand new car on a regulated HP agreement. Car arrived day before Christmas Eve so just on 3 months ago.
Just under 3,000 miles later and we're suffering a number of problems including a factory fitted bluetooth phone that picks up so much ambient/road noise that callers can't hear what the driver's saying over 20mph, an automatic gearbox that's become progressively jerkier at pull off and in crawling traffic and has on occasion slammed violently down the gears when coming to a standstill, headlights that leak in wet or rainy conditions causing condensation to form inside the lenses, a fault light that has twice appeared and disappeared 5 or 10 minutes after the car has almost stalled, and geometry that is hugely incorrect in settings that the manufacturer can't adjust.
As a new car it has a 3 year manufacturer warranty so naturally we took it to the dealer but they have either failed to diagnose and fix any of the faults they found, or with some of the items they admit there are issues with this particular model that set it apart from other cars, including other cars in the model range, they are choosing to call them "characteristics of the car".
The headlights for example they admit leak, and the phone they admit doesn't work properly, but they've said if they replaced the items, or even the whole car with another identical car, the problems would still be there.
As you can imagine, in light of all of these faults, my fiancee has become somewhat disillusioned with the car, and thinking the Sale of Goods Act applied, we formerly rejected the car to the main dealer.
The main dealer has said they will push the manufacturer into accepting our rejection of the car, and into exchanging it for a new one, but with a financial contribution from us to compensate them for the mileage covered - Frankly given the aggro time-wasting this has caused we're looking to them for compensation not the other way round.
They'd also require our car now and won't provide a free replacement whilst we await delivery of the new car and won't reimburse the cost of a hire car.
It's win, win for them as essentially this is a part exchange for the dealer which they will retail for a margin and a new car registration to add to their volume-bonus sheet.
We're not falling for it.
We have kept the finance company informed - They have received copies of all emails to and from the main dealer detailing our rejection of the car under the Sale of Goods act, and the finance company have consistently told us that they can't do anything other than "liaise with the parties involved exerting pressure on our behalf", telling us it's all a "grey area" and they are "limited" in what they can do and that if they don't get anywhere we'd just have to call the Financial Ombudsman Service and see if they might be able to help.
So I called the Ombudsman's office today. Apparently:
1. The Sale of Goods Act does not apply. Because the car is on a regulated HP Agreement it's only the Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973 that is applicable.
2. That therefore the finance company are wholly liable for resolving this issue directly with us, and should not be acting as some sort of pseudo reconciliation service between us and other non-liable parties.
3. That we shouldn't have rejected the car to the main dealer.
4. That because the finance company is wholly responsible for resolving this matter directly with us, as thanks to the emails we forwarded to them that we sent to the main dealer they had explicit knowledge that we were incorrectly trying to apply the Sale of Goods Act and wasting time attempting to reject the car to the main dealer, that the finance company has behaved inappropriately by not informing us that this was the case, and that their actions are cause for complaint to the Financial Ombudsman's Service.
5. That we should now address our issues directly to the finance company.
I am in the throws of adapting a template Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act letter to this case to send to the finance company informing them of the faults and indicating their responsibility to resolve this with us. I've also indicated the nature of the conversation I had with the Financial Ombudsman's office today.
One big question (with the longest lead-up to a question ever!) - Up until now we have been rejecting the car to the wrong party (the car dealer) using the wrong piece of legislation (Sale of Goods Act).
This new letter will address the correct party quoting the correct legislation. I wasn't in this letter intending to reject the car asking for a rescinding of the contract yet. I had intended to list the faults and give them 14 days to resolve them asking them to either fix, replace the car like for like or rescind the contract.
As we haven't yet rejected the car to the correct party using the correct law, can we continue to use the car until we have received response from the finance company telling us not to?
Or could I say something like that "Should you wish us to stop using the car please inform us immediately providing either a replacement car or written confirmation that you will reimburse us fully for the cost of a hire car"?
Really appreciate any advice in this matter.
Thank you so much in advance.
