Hi all, We made a silly mistake (with hindsight) in bringing an online claim for a rip-off car in the company's trading name rather than an individual's name (sole trader not limited company) We exchanged letters with their solicitor at first, rejecting the car under the SGA. No reasonable offer to settle was forthcoming so we issued the claim. We eventually received judgment in default as no defence was served... only to find the company had disappeared from its premises, removed its online presence and (as I've discovered through lots of research) set up under a different name at a different address. My question is, if we can confirm the name of the individual and ideally a residential address, can we reissue the claim? This will be easier said than done as currently the only direct evidence linking he individual with the company is a 'Whois' web form showing the company's website as being registered as "Company XYZ trading as Mr X UK Sole Trader" and the original address of the garage. The amount of the claim is just over £4k plus interest from last November, so we don't want to let it drop. How can it be so easy for sole traders to disappear and avoid any liability? We know this company have stitched up many others, it wasn't a one-off, yet the police say its a civil matter and Trading Standards couldn't care less. Thanks in advance.

Hi, Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong forum, I wasn't sure if this was the right place or not. My husband bought a secondhand car from a trader which turned out to have serious faults. We exchanged letters with the trader's solicitor, making it clear each time that we rejected the car under SOGA and wanted a refund. This was refused so we issued proceedings via Money Claim Online. The claim value was just over £3000. The trader failed to submit a defence and we obtained judgment by default. That all sounded great at first until we looked at the enforcement options. We suspect that sending in bailiffs will prove to be a waste of time as the stock vehicles are probably not registered in the company's name (we have still not received the V5 despite originally purchasing the vehicle in August last year). The trader is not a limited company and the judgment is in the name of the company rather than the owner, as we don't know the owner's name. I believe we should be able to go after the owner's personal property to satisfy the judgment but unless they give us a name (unlikely) then I don't know what else we can do. Any ideas where we can go from here?

By formally rejecting the car, do you mean informing the garage that we do so? Ifso we have already said this in previous letters to the garage and their solicitor, although they have never acknowledged SOGA in their return letters. The last letter we wrote was last week in which we included a copy of the engineer's report. We said that unless we received a cheque for the full amount owing within 7 days' time (which expired last Friday) we would commence court action. Does this satisfy the Letter Before Action requirement or do we need to do that again? It seems we have written endless letters stating our position and by now they have obviously just decided to call our bluff, as we have threatened a court case so many times but not yet started the action as we were giving them a chance to put it right and refund our money. Thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

Ok thanks for the advice. I was hoping for a quicker solution but looks like the small claims court is the only way to go. Can anyone advise on claiming additional costs and expenses that we have incurred as a result? We have mitigated these as much as possible, ie managing without the car, but sometimes we have been forced to hire another car to make appointments or take taxis etc. Would these be classed as reasonable and forseeable by the court? It was made clear to the dealer when we bought the car that my husband commutes 30 miles a day for work and that he has a pregnant wife so it was essential the car was fit for that purpose. We would also want to claim the cost of the engineer's report if possible. I guess its worth including them and see what the court says. Are we likely to have to go to a hearing?

Hi there, My husband and I bought a used car from a garage which turned out to have serious problems with the gearbox and other issues. We advised the garage we intended to reject the car under the SOGA but they were uncooperative. Everything has been documented in letters to their solicitor in case we need to pursue a court claim. They have offered some money towards repairs but the amounts are insufficient to cover repairs at a reputable garage and we don't trust them to do the work. We recently had the car checked by DEKRA who gave us an independent report saying the car is potentially dangerous and unroadworthy. We sent this to the garage and solicitors giving one last chance for a full refund before we go to court. We have heard nothing. Since then we found out about the s75 option. We paid for the car with Visa Debit plus £700 worth of trade-in vehicle. I have the following questions which hopefully someone can help with: Are Visa Debit purchases covered by the s75 rules? Or would it be Visa Chargeback scheme? Would the claim be for the full purchase price of the car or only the amount paid (ie what happens to the £700 of trade-in vehicle, which the garage has since disposed of?) If the claim is successful and Visa gives us our money back, what happens to the car we bought? Does it become the property of Visa or do we have to deliver it back to the garage? We are still within the 120 days as we bought the car in August but running out of time as we need a car for the arrival of our first baby in a months' time! If we have to go the court case route I'm worried this could take ages. However am I right in thinking the court would also consider foreseeable losses/expenses such as replacement car hire, taxis, the cost of the engineer's report etc? Thanks in advance! Angela

Oh no, there's no update on this post! What was the outcome please regarding claiming interest from HMRC on overpaid tax? Thanks, A

Thanks for your advice trilby. I'm thinking of writing to them with a cheque for £33 (the original amount which they say was outstanding) in full and final settlement. If they accept it, am I right in thinking the rest of the debt (£50) would be written off? Perhaps if I send the cheque with a letter setting out the facts and how I would have paid them had they made any effort to check my address, plus how abusive their telephone representative was, then they might figure its less hassle to just accept the cheque and let it go? Or am I being too optimistic!!

Hi all, First time posting here although this site has been very useful for browsing in the past. Unfortunately I now find myself with a situation which I need help with... 2 years ago I took out a car insurance policy with Greenlight Insurance. As I paid by instalments, I signed a credit agreement with Amber Credit.. not fully understanding the setup to be honest, but I didn't question it and merrily paid my instalments each month. In August 2007 I moved house and informed Greenlight, but not Amber as I never even thought about them - my arrangement was with Greenlight or so I thought. In September 2007 I cancelled my insurance policy early as I was selling the car. I agreed the cancellation figure with Greenlight, I think I ended up giving them an extra £60 or something. They sent me my proof of no claims, I paid up and that was the end of it as far as I knew. Today I tried to sign up for broadband and was told my credit check was refused. I checked my credit file and saw unpaid status being logged by Amber Credit since October 2007, for an amount of £33. I eventually find out this is because Amber still had my old address (pre August 2007) and had apparently sent numerous letters there, as well as sending someone round to knock at the door and even checked local establishments such as the pub??!! I asked them if it occurred to them that I had moved house, and did they take the obvious course of action which would be to call Greenlight and validate my address? Well here is where the conversation started to break down, as of course they didn't do this, but have instead had the debt sitting on their books for over a year without trying to find my new address. I do accept that it was my responsibility to contact Amber when I moved, although that wasn't made clear to me by Greenlight when I cancelled, and the whole arrangement structure was a bit of a mystery to me really. However I do take issue with the fact I had told Greenlight of my address, and that Amber could easily have avoided this situation by calling Greenlight to check it. The guy I spoke to at Amber was extremely rude and kept calling my questions about the attempts they had made to find me "irrelevant". He started to accuse me of fraud and deception for refusing to reveal my current address.. but he hadn't even asked me for it! It boils down to this: I have to give them £83 otherwise my credit file remains affected and I can't set up my phone/broadband contract which I need urgently. Should I swallow my pride and pay up? Can I ask Equifax to adjust my credit file if I'm disputing this situation? Thanks in advance, Angela