My brother bought a car and discovered later that it had been
burnt out & a write off. It was converted to LPG and head gasket has gone! (been fried?)Trading standards are on to it but I want to know what other action should he take? He has no computer so
I would like to help him sort things out.
Thanks
Jamesed
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James you need to give more detail. Was it a private sale or dealer? What detail was given when it was offered for sale both in the advertisement and verbally at the time of sale?
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Not sure what the law is with private sales, but with trade selling a written-off car without telling the buyer goes against the Trade Descriptions Act. With a private sale you might get the seller for obtaining money by deception.
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The scary part here is that IT HAD BEEN BURNT OUT. Am I the only one thinking that this car is both a ringer and a tired, clocked high miler? Nice!
Regulars will know this, but always do an HPI check (or similar) folks, unless the car is REALLY cheap in absolute terms, i.e., not just for what it is.
"Obtaining money by deception" is a hard one to prove and even if you could, I doubt the police would be very interested if it was a genuine private seller. Of course, a trader claiming to be a privateer is still a trader. On the other hand, if the car is this bad, it may be worth pursuing in the courts through a civil action, particularly if the claim is less than £5000 and can be done in the small claims court. I'm deeply unsure that you could make the car's title history an implied term from a private seller though.
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I'm inclined to agree with DavidHM here. If the car had really been burnt out there is no way it could have been rebuilt, the damage to the shell would have been too great. It could have had a minor fire , of course.
One way to check if it's a ringer (though not foolproof on its own) is to check the age of various plastic bits compared to the age of the car. All plastic parts will have a date code on them showing when they were moulded. It's usually in the form of a circle with an arrow pointing to a week number or month with a year stamp. Look at the ash tray, interior mirror and any other easy to get off bit of plastic. If the date codes are consistantly more than a year older than the car then it's possible it's a ringer. If several of the plastic bits are newer than the car then be even more suspicious.
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Thanks for your comments.
He put in a part exchange to a garage, was given an excellent
price! Took his local garage man along to inspect the car & he was happy with it. Tow bar attach was missing & reg document not available. On receipt of Reg document I contacted previous owner re tow bar attach & he told us the full history, produced full engineers report re fire & write off. Local trading standards were contacted & they are on to it.
Before knowing about this my brother got it converted to LPG and it was afterwards that the head gasket went. The garage he bought it from said that it was because of the LPG conversion that the head G had gone!
What a fiasco - I think he needs good advice, are there any specialist lawyers out there or should he bite the bullet & get it fixed?
The car is now sitting in his garage!
James Ed
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Since April this year the law has changed and the onus is now on the seller to prove that faults discovered in the first 6 months were not there at time of sale.Trading stds are enforcing trade sales with this amendment.
Easy remedy.
As far as private sales go, Caveat Emptor ie buyer beware. If car was sold at giveaway price didn't buyer suspect he was buying something in need of work?
As far as write off. NO, there is no legal duty for seller to declare, but if asked, he must respond honestly.
Many write-offs are perfectly roadworthy, but needed parts from Japan that came later than 6 weeks, cosmetic damage that would cost ££££s etc.
Not a fault just to say it was written off.
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