Vehicle Purchase

Ben

It is not entirely clear whether you bought the Camper van privately or from a trader. Under the sale of goods Act you have a comeback against a trader if the goods are not as described, of merchantable quality  or fit for purpose. You would have a very limited window in which to reject the goods , return them and be entitled to a full refund.

If you had accepted the goods you would still be entitled to the cost of repairing the goods such that the three criteria above applied.

A purchaser from a private seller has much more restricted rights and the law essentially says "Buyer beware". You would have some comeback if the Van was  not as described, the advert will help you here but the description applies more to what you are buying i.e a camper van rather than its condition.

Often in cases like this the best answer is to be as forceful as you can ( whilst remaining reasonable and never threatening) with the seller and demand your money back. You might not be fully entitled to that but i should try that first and then if the seller refuses let him know the repair and other costs and bring a small claim if he refuses to pay.

Thank you for the response Richard.

It is from a private seller. He ignores all contact.

As stated above, in person he appeared personable and genuine and so I trusted that the texts regarding promises of payment for the towing and repairs would be forthcoming, esp as he had thousands of pounds of my money..

So it appears from your reply my only option is to bring a small case against. I assume in County Court?

Yes

I should first get a list of the repairs needed to return it to the state in which it was described and give him the opportunity to pay . if this is below £5,000 then it will be a small claims matter. The most difficult part is going to be proving that he knew about the problems and they were not easily and reasonably discoverable by you on inspection.

OK, thanks. If he can be shown to have agreed on the day of purchase to pay for the costs of towing the vehicle (£275) and contribute to the repairs (via two text messages), will this hold any weight?

Hi Ben,

I would agree with what Richard has said. If you issue a small claim against the seller and you include evidence in that claim that he agreed to pay for certain things then a judge may order him to pay the amount specified.

If you are going start a small claim you need to be very specific about what order you are asking the court to make.

The difficulty in your case will be proving that the seller knew of the problems before he sold the car to you and proving that this was the case.

Gentlemen, thank you once again for your replies. Much appreciated.

Can you please direct to - if possible - to how I might be able to determine what sorts of order I might ask the judge to make, how the court works and what I need to be aware of and if at all possible what is realistic and what is unrealistic in this context.

i.e. is there a trustworthy FAQ for this sort of process?

Best regards

Ben

BenD

a quick and easy guide to use with some FAQs can be found on the Citizens Advice Bureau Website  www.adviceguide.org.uk

Hi Ben,

There is a lot of information available online about making a small claim in the County Court which is what I suspect you need to do.

The starting point would be to consider how you can start the proceedings. You should consider issuing the proceedings through:

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

You then need to consider all of the rules governing how to file the claim and the correct procedure that you should follow. A useful guide setting out the Civil Procedure Rules (the rules you must follow when bringing or defending a claim) can be found at the following site together with general information about making a claim:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/onlineservices2/mcol/index.htm

I hope that this information assists you but if you require further assistance please feel free to post on the Forum again.

Hello,

I have now exhausted my pre-court options. The gentleman does not respond to email, telephone or letter.

In your kind responses above you have not been overly optimistic about success. I have also been advised, by non-legally trained people that the chances of a satisfactory legal resolution where a vehicle is concerned are low.

I am about to try a claim in the county court as the vehicle needs about 3k being spent according to two garages.

My question if you would be so gracious to answer is:

If I have a third party who witnessed a verbal agreement on the day of purchase from the seller for coverage of any incidental repair costs, if this agreement was thereafter repeated on the day in a text message and later confirmed via an email through eBay's in-house mail do I have a stronger chance of a claim being successful? Does this agreement reiterated in different forms add any extra weight?

Thanks

Hi BenD,

Any evidence you have will help you and will be useful. You may find this story, which was reported in the Coventry Evening Telegraph, to be of interest:

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2010/10/05/walsgrave-driver-threatens-car-dealer-with-bailiffs-92746-27401097/

I think that in the circumstances you have no other option but to issue a small claim against the seller. Ensure that your claim form gives all of the details relating to the claim and includes as much information as possible.