Dispute over Used Car Repairs

[Bravo_Mike]

Last summer my son purchased a 2nd hand car from a dealer in Slough. The car was delivered with a fault light on and we immediately requested the vehicle be returned for refund. Dealer flatly refused stating the warranty will cover it. We tried to return the vehicle (£540 cost) which they refused to accept eventually having to bring car back and leaving it at a local workshop. Vehicle was off the road for several weeks. Warranty company stated we were not covered. We also issued them a formal rejection letter under the CRA which was not accepted and they preferred to work things out with us.

Long story cut short, eventually dealer agreed to have local workshop repair and send the invoice to them for payment. We made sure the invoice was in the name of the dealer.

7 months on, my son has now received a "Letter of Claim" for full payment from the workshop, despite them sending the invoice to the dealer.

Is the contract between my son and workshop, as it is his car? Or between the dealer and the workshop. We have evidence that the dealer authorised the work to be completed at their expense.

Any advice or guidance on where we stand would be gratefully received please?

Thank you in advance,

B_M

[R0b]

Hi,

As I read it, the contractual relationship is between your son and the local garage unless your son can show the dealer specifically arranged themselves for your son to attend that local garage. The dealer 'authorising' the work carried out by the garage is not the same as the garage being the party that entered into the contract with the garage. It sounds like the garage is saying, get the work done, pay for it and send me the invoice so I will pay your son back.

Your son should have stuck to his guns and rejected the vehicle then took the dealer to court, now your son potentially is losing out on more money if that dealer suddenly decides to go bust, but it is what it is.

Your son will either have to pay the money and then sue the dealer or allow the garage to issue a claim against your son and then your son join the dealer as a defendant who he will counterclaim against for that amount of money.

Was any part of the price paid for by credit card?

[Bravo_Mike]

Hi Rob,

Many thanks for this feedback. You have stated what I thought might be the case. Nothing was paid by credit card unfortunately. The dealer was particularly difficult to deal with after the fault was discovered and the long story was due to us upholding our rights and threatening legal action before he finally agreed to pay the costs.

Rejecting the car is not simple when they simply refused to accept it back at the dealership.

Thanks again, I will speak to local garage and see what they say.

B_M

[R0b]

Appreciate dealers can be difficult and may refuse to allow your son to exercise his rights but the recourse is to go down the legal route. By not doing that, your son has effectively exercised a different right which potentially has overridden the original one and is now stuck with a potential claim from the garage for work that has been carried out, and the dealer nowhere to be seen.

I've seen this story before and quite often, it doesn't go very well for the consumer. Some other fault might exist or occur and the dealer refuses to accept responsibility or just disappears and shuts up shop only for the consumer to be left with an unusable vehicle without having to pay for further costs of repair out of their own pocket, all because the consumer didn't bother to enforce their original right of rejection.

Not suggesting your son will experience the same issues but it happens more often that you think so it is something your son needs to be mindful of, whatever way this ends up going.

[Pezza54]

Under CRA 2015 the dealer should definitely be paying to fix the fault.
You stated the dealer agreed to have the car repaired at a local workshop and they would pay the invoice.
If the garage persists in claiming against your son I would follow Rob's second procedure, adding the dealer as a defendant and counterclaiming against the dealer. You should win your claim and the judge should order the dealer to pay the garage bill. You could claim other costs at the same time. The garage would have to chase the dealer for payment, which he has probably already done.
If your son pays the garage bill he may face problems claiming the money from the dealer in court.

[Bravo_Mike]

Thank you Pezza54, I presume I need to engage with a legal firm to take me through the process?

[Pezza54]

How much is the garage bill?
If it is under £10k the claim is likely to be allocated to the small claims track and your son's legal costs will not be recoverable
Judging by your previous thread about vt and advice available on this website, you should be capable of drafting your son's defence
The garage might be attempting to scare your son into paying their invoice and do not intend to start a court claim

[Bravo_Mike]

Garage bill is £584 and has come direct from a collection agency, which suggests they have already attempted to gain payment from the dealer without success? Would I be able to recover the cost of the car transporter, when we attempted to return the vehicle to the dealer, do you think?

[Pezza54]

Yes, the dealer refused your legal right to reject the car and as he wouldn't take responsibility for the car you had to have it transported back home. A red eml was a serious fault.and you were right not to drive the car
Certainly not worth employing a solicitor. Their non recoverable costs would probably be more than your claim against the dealer