Auction car faulty within 1 month of purchase

Hi,

Whether the Sale of Goods Act and in particular fitness for purpose applies to your father's purchase of the car at the auction will depend on a number of things. The Sale of Goods Act will only apply to a seller selling in the course of a business, this means that the seller of the car (not the auction house) must be a business. If the seller was a private individual then it is likely that the Sale of Goods Act will not apply. Even if the seller is selling in the course of a business the Sale of Goods Act still may not apply if your father attended the auction in person and the terms of sale excluded the Sale of Goods Act.

Generally in these circumstances it is very much a case of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware).

Below is a link to a citizen's advice leaflet which gives general advice about buying from an auction:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/c_buying_at_auction.pdf

Do remember that your father may have some form of recourse if the seller was selling in the course of a business and the Sale of Goods Act was not excluded or if he did not attend the auction.

I hope that this helps.

I'm not sure my last reply posted.  I can't see it when I click the forum.  So I'll go through what I thought I had posted 2 days ago- I think I may have just previewed the comment and not pressed save.

Firstly thank you Gerard for the response and the CAB link.

In response to the problem areas you suggested;

1- The seller is a business and the auction was open to the public.

2- My father attended the auction but was not allowed to get into the car prior to bidding, nor could he start the engine, so the fault was undiscoverable at the time of the auction.  So would caveat emptor not apply? (or the standard be lowered).

3- The fault had not been declared by the aution house, nor does any of the documentation following the sale state that there are any faults.

4- In regard to the CAB information;

There is a paragraph that suggests that if the seller stated that SOGA doesn't apply then the buyer would have no recourse.  The documents he signed do not exclude SOGA.  At no point was he alerted to any exclusions. However if he were to escalate this claim under SOGA I am sure that the seller will argue that they had a sign on a noticeboard or somewhere else on the premises which probably did not exist, but will be hard to argue against should they claim it was there.  In this instance would the UCTA apply?  I would have thought there would be an obligation imposed upon the seller to make these contract terms explicit.

Hi,

I know that the layout for posting a question has changed recently so it may be that your last post didn't appear on the forum for some reason but it probably was because you pressed preview instead of "save".

Anyway back to your queries. If the seller was a business then this obviously puts your father in a better position. However I do not believe that it is relevant that your father was not allowed to get into the car at the auction. He did of course know that he had not been allowed to sit in the car or turn the engine on before he purchased it.

From what you said in your original post it sounds like your father was driving the car for a period of time before the fault occurred, it is likely that if you brought a claim against the seller they would argue that the car was fit for purpose when it was sold.

It would be usual for the SOGA to be excluded from the terms and conditions of the auction. Have you inspected all of the documents that your father received and signed. Are you sure that the auction premises does not display any notices which state that the SOGA are excluded. Whether any notice excluding the SOGA complies with UTCA would depend on exactly what the notice said and where it was positioned in the auction house.