Used Car Void/No Warranty

[bigead]

Hello Everyone,

Not sure if anyone can help or give me advice, i purchased a used car back in October last year. A month ago the gear box failed/clutch bearing went.

I Bought this car with what was meant to be a 2 year warranty. I phoned the warranty company who said it was not registered with them and told me to contact the dealer. so i did and both the main guys where on holiday, 4 days later i managed to speak to one of them, he got me to send all my details through and pics of the warranty booklet/leaflets i had and my invoice, so i did.

After several days of him "looking into it" he said he is waiting for his accountant to send details as he claimed it was payed and on the car but warranty company never received this ? i phoned pretty much every day for the week and was just getting the same answer's, at the end of the week i phoned and spoke to citizens advice and told them, they said even though its been over 6 months, they don't think this should of failed and for me to take the car back and ask for the dealership to get it sorted. So i did, put the car on a trailer and took it back,

Phoned them up when i got there (they have motor gates so they need to buzz you through) the guy said he was by himself and couldn't deal with it and said take it and drop it off and there mechanics, so we did. 1 and half weeks later still nothing, so i phoned them and finally the boss was back and i spoke to him directly, he claims my warranty would of only been for 6 months and not much he can do, he asked me to send him the invoice where it says it was 2 years.. my invoice only says £180 for "extras and i told him the leaflets his garage gave me and he said they stopped using that company a month before ? ( i knew they change to a new company as i saw on their website, so i already phoned them up and they said no this car was not registered to them either.

I have also done some more digging and what i can make out, is car warranties need the car to be serviced correctly and under the guileless, my car is 10,000 miles or every year and if this has not been done then the car has to be serviced on the point of sale ? my car has nothing in the service book for 4 years! i asked the owner and he said no it doesn't, and said i only had 6 month and i asked why have i got all documents to an old none used company ? all he kept going back to is does it say it was 2 years on the invoice ? thats all he kept saying to me.

I also said both companies said this car was not registered with them, the owner claims that this 6 month warranty does not have to be put on the car, its a premium one and its always upheld.. does not sound correct to me, he said he was going to the garage Friday night 12/08/2016 and will speak to them to see exactly whats wrong with it and see about making a contribution to the payment of the gearbox etc. which will probably mean they will claim its going to cost 1000 and he will say they will put 400 towards where infact it will only cost them 600... also stated he knows his rights and my rights and if i decide to take it further then he will have to stop the conversation and let me take it further.

I know the fact i have nothing on my invoice that actually states it was sold as a 2 year warranty, its my word against theirs, also the booklets i was given i could of just found or got from another source. But at least i have the fact the car should of been serviced on sale and stamped up, thus rendering the warranty/if any useless making the matter they sold me a void warranty and they are liable to pay for the costs ? or a full refund of the car which was in fairness miss sold ?

Many thanks and sorry for the long post if you need more details then ask.

[Kati]

Re: Used Car Void/No Warranty

to LB [MENTION=89715]bigead[/MENTION] ... I'll tag [MENTION=39710]des8[/MENTION] and [MENTION=71570]R0b[/MENTION] to see if they can help xx

[Openlaw15]

Re: Used Car Void/No Warranty

to LB @bigead ... I'll tag @des8 and @R0b to see if they can help xx

I probably know the law in general for 'warranties/ guarantees, academically speaking; but Rob and Des8 equally can deal adequately with this on practical level, for different but obvious reasons. I'll leave it to them.

[des8]

Re: Used Car Void/No Warranty

i and welcome

On a first quick reading it seems the dealer have charged you for a warranty which for some reason , they failed to register.
Even it it was only a six month warranty, the warranty company should have a record of it.
That they haven't leads to the conclusion that it wasn't registered, and it would in all probability have been for 2 years as you were led to believe
IMO this is the angle which you should pursue, but await input from other Beagles.

Regarding the vehicle itself, if you wanted to have the garage repair it under your consumer rights you will have to show the fault was there when purchased.
This is because the failure occurred more than six months after purchase.
To do this you will need to obtain an independent engineer's report which would need to bear this out.

[R0b]

Re: Used Car Void/No Warranty

I agree with des, as you purchased the car in October last year then your rights will fall under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which came into force 1 October 2015. The dealer may or may not be aware of this legislation change and could still be thinking of his rights under the Sale of Goods Act.

Is the dealership a limited company or partnership or something else?

How old is the car, is it new or nearly new?

As you say its your word against his and ultimately its up to the court to decide who is telling the truth. The fact that you have been given some warranty booklet and information would indicate that you were indeed given some kind of warranty but the question is how long. The fact that they claimed that the warranty was paid and it turns out it wasn't will help your case against their credibitliy and it would seem that they will argue 6 months warranty and rely on the warranty being expired. As your warranty seems to be ambiguous in the sense the "extras" included warranty but did not say how much, could be argued in your favour as being contra proferentum e.g. any clause or information should be construed against the person who drafted it.

In addition to the above the consumer rights act has included a new provision which says that any pre-contractual information given by the trader shall form part of the contract. So if you truly believe it was 2 years warranty then that will be classed as a contractual term and will be a breach of contract.

You may also have a claim for misrepresentation in that if you relied on the 2 years warranty which induced you to enter into the sale of the car then it could be deemed as a misrepresentation. If misrepresentation is true then you are put back in the positon before the contract whihc means all your money back.

How much did you pay for the car and di you pay any of the money by credit card?

[bigead]

Re: Used Car Void/No Warranty

The Dealer does Know of the act as he stated it only covers the first 6 months, unless i can prove the fault was already there. Which lets face is pretty much impossible. The car is on 06 plate and was nearly £4,000 at the moment worth the scrap cost pretty much.. the car had done 69,000 miles i cranked it up to about 74,000. I was given 2 booklets, one with what the warranty covers, and the other dealer had crossed out everything it would not cover (as the car was more then 6 years old) the other one just some more random information. Like i said this is for a company they stopped using a month before i even brought the car..

Also i questioned the owner why when i spoke to both companies my car wasn't/hadn't been registered with either of them, he said the 6 month warranty is like top grade and we do not always have to register it but the warranty company will always uphold these.. i mean i do not know much about warranties but this has to be the biggest load of bull... and then he just went back to saying does the invoice actually say 2 years ?

well yes it was a 2 year warranty my step dad was also with me at the time i purchased it, the salesman i spoke to the first 2 weeks said it was also 2 years and he was waiting for the accountant to send the invoice to the warranty company to state this had been pain for. But as soon as i spoke to the owner after over 3 weeks, he told me to ignore the other guy, he has no access to accounts and is "going to be gone soon"

I know its all not right and feel like i'm getting robbed, i just dont know if i have enough legal grounds. I'm moving into my new house this week coming, which is costly, first child on the way around xmas, i just dont have the extra money to be spending and losing it in the courts, or the funds to even pay for the repairs.

I paid for the full amount on my debit visa so cant try and claim it back that way.

i'm not sure about the company they have a company and vat number, not sure if i can link there site. We've actually bought 3 cars from them altogether as well, mine being the first.

[R0b]

Re: Used Car Void/No Warranty

Well, the dealer isn't aware of the changes to the Act then as previously. You've said that your step dad was with you too at the time of the sale so if he agrees to be a witness then that would help to strengthen your claim, assuming you want to go down the legal proceedings route.

You have two claims, breach of contract or misrepresentation and it may also be possible that its an unfair practice under the consumer protection from unfair trading regulations which the governing body under that is Trading Standards. I can also see you have a few things going on so I appreciate that funds are on the low side at the moment. The free option would be to report the dealer to Trading Standards and see what they do, they may look into your case or they may not take action but keep an on the dealer for any future problems. The only other option would be to go through the courts, the longer you leave it the more likely he has a defence that you've accepted the warranty status.

If you were to go to court over breach of contract and your claiming up to £1000 for the repairs it would cost you £140 for fees however if you were looking at misrepresentation you would need to be seeking to claim back the full £4,000 which will set you back at £515.