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Hello LegalBeagles,
I've just bought a car from a private seller. Upon further examination I believe that the vehicle may have been misrepresented by the seller in two respects :-
1- The advert I responded to claimed the vehicle had a full service history, but the latest evidence of a service that I have is a service stamp from 2012. I believe this to be fraudulent misrepresentation as, when the FSH was queried, the seller later stated that the advert automatically included the term full service history and they that couldn't delete it. This statement proved to be untrue, but it shows that the seller was aware at the time the advert was place that the vehicle did not in fact have a full service history, and that this was not corrected during the viewing.
2- It was verbally claimed during the viewing that the vehicle had air conditioning, but later testing indicates that this is actually not functioning. I understand that if a feature is included in either a written or verbal description that the feature must actually work. I believe this to be innocent misrepresentation as the person showing me the car was a relation of the seller and may have not have known that the air conditioning was not functioning.
I have been in touch with the seller who is either unable or unwilling to provide any documentary evidence of subsequent services (apart from a comment that it was last serviced in 2016), so I requested they fund an inspection of the vehicle and the remedy of any faults that may be have been caused by the misrepresentation.
They have declined to agree this, and have instead offered a full refund, or a willingness to return £25 as an apology.
I have refused both of these options :-
- the first primarily because I have already sold my previous vehicle and have no other viable means of transport, and secondly, I have already made further expenditures on Fuel, Tax and Insurance which I would not be able to fully recover
- the second because I don't believe this is adequate compensation for the loss in value of the vehicle that the misrepresentation caused, or potentially the work that might be required to correct any defects caused by the misrepresentation.
The vehicle is booked into a local service centre for an inspection, service, and air conditioning diagnosis/rectification - all currently at my expense.
It is my current intention to use the report from the service centre to identify an amount of compensation that might accurately reflect my losses resulting from the misrepresentation, and then claim this amount from the seller - escalating to some form of legal claim should they refuse.
Although I have done some research on my legal rights in such a purchase (hence this post repeatedly referring to misrepresentation), I have absolutely no experience in pursuing such matters and would be most grateful if someone was willing to offer some more advice as to whether my current approach is proper and how I might proceed further.
Thanks in advance
sllewji
EDIT: Admin - Apologies I realise that I've probably posted to much detail in the welcome area, please feel free to reassign the thread to the appropriate area.
I've just bought a car from a private seller. Upon further examination I believe that the vehicle may have been misrepresented by the seller in two respects :-
1- The advert I responded to claimed the vehicle had a full service history, but the latest evidence of a service that I have is a service stamp from 2012. I believe this to be fraudulent misrepresentation as, when the FSH was queried, the seller later stated that the advert automatically included the term full service history and they that couldn't delete it. This statement proved to be untrue, but it shows that the seller was aware at the time the advert was place that the vehicle did not in fact have a full service history, and that this was not corrected during the viewing.
2- It was verbally claimed during the viewing that the vehicle had air conditioning, but later testing indicates that this is actually not functioning. I understand that if a feature is included in either a written or verbal description that the feature must actually work. I believe this to be innocent misrepresentation as the person showing me the car was a relation of the seller and may have not have known that the air conditioning was not functioning.
I have been in touch with the seller who is either unable or unwilling to provide any documentary evidence of subsequent services (apart from a comment that it was last serviced in 2016), so I requested they fund an inspection of the vehicle and the remedy of any faults that may be have been caused by the misrepresentation.
They have declined to agree this, and have instead offered a full refund, or a willingness to return £25 as an apology.
I have refused both of these options :-
- the first primarily because I have already sold my previous vehicle and have no other viable means of transport, and secondly, I have already made further expenditures on Fuel, Tax and Insurance which I would not be able to fully recover
- the second because I don't believe this is adequate compensation for the loss in value of the vehicle that the misrepresentation caused, or potentially the work that might be required to correct any defects caused by the misrepresentation.
The vehicle is booked into a local service centre for an inspection, service, and air conditioning diagnosis/rectification - all currently at my expense.
It is my current intention to use the report from the service centre to identify an amount of compensation that might accurately reflect my losses resulting from the misrepresentation, and then claim this amount from the seller - escalating to some form of legal claim should they refuse.
Although I have done some research on my legal rights in such a purchase (hence this post repeatedly referring to misrepresentation), I have absolutely no experience in pursuing such matters and would be most grateful if someone was willing to offer some more advice as to whether my current approach is proper and how I might proceed further.
Thanks in advance
sllewji
EDIT: Admin - Apologies I realise that I've probably posted to much detail in the welcome area, please feel free to reassign the thread to the appropriate area.
