What rights have I got ??

[JunkiMunki]

:xHi everyone !

winning bidder on escort van on ebay in feb 2012, messaged the seller thru Ebay for a contact No: to arrange collection of the vehicle and a postcode for sat nav purposes, telephoned the seller next day to arrange collection which was arranged for Sat 18th feb 2012, due to sellers work commitments.

 

Van was advertised as having a full mot, but was not taxed, the van was in Milton Keynes, upon collection of the van which looked ok cosmetically, and had only 76,000 upon the odometer and which coincided with the mileage on the MOT document which had been done on 21st Jan 2012, and did not state ANY advisories on the mot document.

 

Cash paid to the seller, and OH drove it back, daughter who had followed him home asked why he had been driving with his foot on the brakes, as this had caused her to brake suddenly on a few occasions, OH stated he had hardly touched the brakes as the van was very sluggish, which he thought was due to the van having stood since the MOT in January.

 

Upon checking the van the next day we found that the brake light switch was faulty, then having had to put 3 litres of oil in the engine and having changed the diesel filter found that the van was still very sluggish, the van had clocked up 110 miles on the return journey, which OH said should have relleased the brakes if they were seized thru having been stood awhile.

 

OH took it to the top of a fairly steep hill where we live and knocked it into neutral let the handbrake off and it just sat on the hill without moving, so he put it back into gear and started to drive it home when he noticed it was smoking pretty bad and was smelling of burning oil, on arriving home he found the majority of brake pipes excessively corroded, a different sized tyre to the other 3 tyres in situ, and could not regulate the idling speed , as it was erratic causing the van to dance upon starting.

 

Telephoned the seller re the faults and stated that the Van could not have passed a valid MOT with the faults that we had found whether it had stood for a month or not, the seller sated that he did not MOT vans and as far as he was concerned it had undergone an MOT and had passed, therefore the problem was not his.

 

Contacted VOSA who have since undertaken an MOT with themselves conducting the test at a garage near to us, the results of the MOT where as follows ;

Measurements:

Brakes Failures: RBT Front Brake Imbalance : 40%

 

Reasons for refusal of a Test Certificate :

 

01 Rear fog lamp not working

02 Nearside Track Rod End ball joint has excessive play.

03 Rear Tyres incorrect because tyres wih different aspect ratio are fitted upon the same axle

04 Centre Rear Brake Pipe inadequately supported

05 (No Cam Belt History and engine smoking) herefore refused to conduct an emissions test on the vehicle

06 Front Brakes imbalanced.

 

Under Advisories the following were also stated:

07 Near side front Brake pipe slightly corroded

08 Offside fron brake pipe slighly corroded

09 Offside rear brake pipe slightly corroded

010 Nearside front Anti - roll bar ball joint dust cover damaged preventing the ingress of dirt

011 Offside fron anti - roll bar ball joint dus cover damaged preventing the ingress of dirt

012 Battery Insecure

013This is the result of a Quality check carried ou by a VOSA Examiner.on the 20/03/2012.

 

Mileage upon the above was 76536 miles, and the miles recorded upon the MOT document in January was 76390, a difference of 146 miles, the mileage at the time of contacing VOSA was a difference of 110 milles which was due to collection of the vehicle from milton keynes.

 

Was told by the VOSA Examiners that it had failed the MOT, but the original MOT was still VALID (how come I woud like to know), and that the garage that conducted the Original MOT were not obliged to correct the work needed.

I was also told that I was not allowed to know what action if any would be taken against the garage by Vosa themselves, and upon asking where that left me I was told that was nothing to do with them.

 

After making some enquiries I found that the seller and the garage were both in Milton Keynes and that the seller was known at the garage,seller refuses to refund the cash paid and garage has not been in contact since VOSA test on 20/03/2012 , what should be my next move any ideas would be greatly appreciated as I am out of pocket by £600+ and have a vehiclle that is taxed and insured but with a dodgy Mot that is Valid/Invalid confused .com being the word here !!!!!!!!!

[scousepie]

Was the Van advertised as Sold as seen ?

 

Did you not check it before you parted with your hard earned....?

 

Did the add on ebay list the fault ?

 

Have you logged a dipute with ebay?

 

so many questions...

[JunkiMunki]

1] No the van was not advertised as sold as seen, have downloaded the original advertisement from Ebays listings,

 

2] As stated in the above, seller arranged with us to collect the van the weekend after due to his work commitments, and had arranged anytime after 2.30 sat afternoon, daylight hours diminishing by the time of arrival, but what he could see Cosmetically above average condition for its age, ply lined interior, these coupled with a 12 month Mot was considered by my OH as a cheap but clean workhorse for light duties, n travelling to n from his workplace so was just the job u might say.

 

3] No faults listed within the advertisement, but does state the van as having just gone thru an mot Jan 2012

 

4] have been told by a few people that because payment was not made thru paypal, as it was arranged for cash on collection, who pays before actually seeing the vehicle most of the motors sold on ebay ask for a deposit thru paypal within so many days of the auction ending n balance upon collection, but wanted to collect the day after but could not due to sellers work committments therefore arranged to collect following weekend cash on collection was agreed as being ok.

 

5] am gonna check his profile out as if he has sold more than 1 vehicle hen there might be a sligh chance that he would be classed as a trader, this would then mean I could possibly get my money back under the SOGA Legislations, but have no looked into that as yet.

 

Am also going to try and contact the last owner on the registration document to see why and what date he sold or transferred the van to the seller, who had failed to enter his information on the registration document for some reason, which points towards trader.

 

I am telephoning the Garage that did the bent MOT, in the morning and am going to speak to the owner, to see if he has managed to shed any light on the seller and his employee, also find out why there was no emission tes done and if there was why had there not been a copy of the analysis issued wih the mot document.

 

Will also ask him what he propose to do in order to rectify / compensate me for his businesses fraudulent activities.

 

Which luckily had not caused any accidents, just loss upon our pockets, failure to at least compensate me for the monetary loss due to their fraudulent activities then they would leave me no option than to inform the police of their activities and the Trading Standards office with documented evidence supplied to all.

[lfc_daddy]

Hi Junki munki I am having a similar problem to yours(ebay car decribed as great but paid in cash car not so great etc) have you got anywhere? Thanks

[raydetinu]

Any seller private or otherwise is not allowed to sell an unsafe/dangerous vehicle, unless buyer is made fully aware of what he is buying, even with a valid MOT. Not sure if this falls into this category.

As you had an opportunity to inspect the vehicle prior to paying for it then maybe 'caveat emptor' would be the rule.

No point in chasing up previuos mot, as said it is only valid on day of test.

If you can prove he is a dealer/trader then he has an obligation to put faults right.

Check with trading standards to see they a record of other complaints aginst him.

[JunkiMunki]

Hi Junki munki I am having a similar problem to yours(ebay car decribed as great but paid in cash car not so great etc) have you got anywhere? Thanks

still on pursuit having had a disappointing result regarding the outcome from VOSA themselves, as to the punishment given to the garage, after having definately found that the van WOULD NOT HAVE PASSED A PROPER MOT ,, therefore having broken its contract, fraudulently issued an invalid MOT to the dangerous vehicle, and NOT requested to correct the faults or remedy the faults, Which I questioned the VOSA engineers as TO WHY REPORT THE INCIDENTS TO THEM WHEN NOTHING IS REQUESTED OF THEM TO RECTIFY the situation, why bother with VOSA at all, and after disclosing all the info to the police re the Fraudulent activities at the garage by validating MOT docs when the vehicles are known to be failures and even dangerous, but was told there was nothing that could be done to the garage or the fraudulent seller of the vehicle who happens to be a friend of the MOT Tester @ the garage who happened to have been a Director of the Garage previously, but the police did say that although VOSA stated that the vehicle would still be seen to having a valid MOT as from the date stated upon the "BENT MOT" for the ANPR cameras, to knowingly drive it now upon the public highway if caught would I myself would be prosecuted for knowingly driving a MOT failure on the road, "Where has JUSTICE gone "

[rebel11]

Hi junki

 

You could contact your local MP or the Minister in charge of Transport.