Ebay car, MOT failure

[stevieevil]

Good evening everyone.

 

I shall try and keep this as brief as possible.

 

On 21 Nov I bought a car through ebay. I had previously been to see the vehicle and the seller had told me it had a 12 month MOT. I drove the car briefly and it appeared to be fine.

 

Subsequently, I bought the car. On the MOT certificate, it had advisery notes about play in the front suspension arms ball joints. I decided that it would be prudent to get this looked at, took it to my mechanic, only to be told that there was no way that the car should have been given an MOT. There were various other things wrong with the brakes and bearings in the rear wheels. Also, a bolt holding two parts of the off side front suspension sheared completely in two from corrosion when the mechanic attempted to tighten it up.

 

Having never been in this situation before, I decided to get the work carried out as I use the vehicle every day for self employed work. I got in touch with guy I bought the car from as I wasn't particularly pleased. Not surprisingly, he said he didn't feel responsible for any problems that arose 'after the point of sale'. Ordinarily I could accept this, however, the mechanic who did the work for me was adamant, from the condition of the parts, that the faults had definitely been there from before the MOT.

 

I started a dispute through ebay to get some money back towards the cost of the repairs, but the seller is still not forthcoming. I have also contacted the consumer advice line, but they have said that VOSA cannot help now as the car has been fixed; even though I have all the parts that were taken off the car, a receipt for the work done, ad the testimony of the mechanic who worked on the car for me.

 

I didn't know what avenues to explore, so decided to check the sellers history. Lo and behold he had sold another car in September. I contacted the buyer of said car, and he had the same issues that I did. I found this especially interesting as when I initially confronted the seller about the issues, he said that he hadn't used this garage before. There is definitely something untoward going on.

 

The problem is, I know I've been ripped off, I would like some money back to help towards the cost, but every way I turn it doesn't seem that I have any rights.

 

Can anyone help???

 

Cheers

[Conniff]

First visit the Vosa website and check on the past MoTs that have been carried out, the dates and mileages.

[stevieevil]

I have checked this now and everything looks in order. Relatively equal number of passes and fails with work carried out to fix. If I hadn't bothered to get advisory information looked at I would never have found out that the car was still unsafe ten days after its MOT.

 

Any further things I could do?

[Conniff]

I'm a bit lost by what you mean there about 'if you hadn't got advisories you would not know that the car was unsafe'.

 

Advisory is just that, it means there is a fault but it is not serious enough to fail, but it will probably require attention at the next inspection if not before so keep an eye on it.

[stevieevil]

I took the car to a garage to get the advisory issues fixed. These were 'nearside front suspension arm has slight play in a pin/bush' and 'offside front suspension arm has slight play in a pin/bush'. I started to hear knocking in the driver's side front wheel arch so just assumed it was to do with this and wanted to get it sorted. The mechanic couldn't find the knocking by inspecting so took the car out round the block. When he got back he pointed out several problems that were in themselves MOT failures; semi-seized brake caliper on nearside rear wheel, bearings failed in offside rear wheel, all pads worn down near enough to the metal, and the knocking was a bolt holding the offside front suspension corroded away and come loose. When he tried to tighten it up, it sheared in two. None of this was on the MOT, even as advisory notes

 

When I had picked the car up, the seller has said he hadn't had to have anything done on the car since he had it. When I then rang him up about al these other problems, especially the brakes, he said that he had had someone look at the ABS system. Lots of contradiction every time I speak to him. Added to that, I have now found out he has done this to someone else previously

[scaniaman]

Hi Steve. It may help further along the line if you could get the MOT station to furnish you with the brake readout recorded during the test. Whilst worn pads in themselves are not an MOT failure unless the braking performance is low enough to warrant a failure.

I think you should contact VOSA with your story (given that there is another buyer involved), as we once started repairs on a dangerous car that had just got a new mot certificate, and vosa came out and had a look. They said there was nothing much they could do since repairs were underway, but seeing the state the car was in, decided to pay the mot station a visit. They gave him a severe "Wrap on the knuckles!" and the mot station owner came himself to see the car, and agreed it should never have passed the test. He gave the owner some cash to help settle our bill.

Maybe, just maybe, the local polis would pay the guy a visit, considering you are the second person to buy unroadworthy car from him.

If it is a private seller, there is not much you can do unless he mis-described the car in the advert. eg. 1yrs Mot would suggest that the car was up to MOT standard at time of test---but your mechanic could testify that faults found were present at time of test----might be worth a try!!!

[sailor sam]

As far as I know, VOSA will only be interested if the MOT was done within the last 48 hours however, I am happy to be proven wrong.

 

In my opinion you need to establish if the seller is actually a trader. One of the best clues is whose name is on the V5 as the keeper. If it is not the seller, than that should set the alarm bells ringing. I'm not sure that him selling a car last September would be sufficient proof that he is a trader. Take a look to see if he has any other cars for sale currently on ebay or get a friend to ring him and enquire about the car he has for sale. If he answers "which one?" you know he is a trade and as such the SOGA will apply.

[Yukiko]

I thought it was 30 days for anything else apart from Corrosion, which you have three months to complain to Vosa about.

 

Vosa do say to not get the vehicle repaired though, so it may now be pointless.

[Conniff]

There is no definate pass or fail, all decisions of pass or fail are those of the examiner on the day. Another examiner may well fail some items that have passed, but then again, he could just as easily pass some that have failed. It is not, nor can be, an exact science.

So one station failing and another passing does not mean that the station that passed it has made any wrong decisions and vice versa.

[Spirittamer]

Good evening everyone.

 

I shall try and keep this as brief as possible.

 

On 21 Nov I bought a car through ebay. I had previously been to see the vehicle and the seller had told me it had a 12 month MOT. I drove the car briefly and it appeared to be fine.

 

Subsequently, I bought the car. On the MOT certificate, it had advisery notes about play in the front suspension arms ball joints. I decided that it would be prudent to get this looked at, took it to my mechanic, only to be told that there was no way that the car should have been given an MOT. There were various other things wrong with the brakes and bearings in the rear wheels. Also, a bolt holding two parts of the off side front suspension sheared completely in two from corrosion when the mechanic attempted to tighten it up.

 

Having never been in this situation before, I decided to get the work carried out as I use the vehicle every day for self employed work. I got in touch with guy I bought the car from as I wasn't particularly pleased. Not surprisingly, he said he didn't feel responsible for any problems that arose 'after the point of sale'. Ordinarily I could accept this, however, the mechanic who did the work for me was adamant, from the condition of the parts, that the faults had definitely been there from before the MOT.

 

I started a dispute through ebay to get some money back towards the cost of the repairs, but the seller is still not forthcoming. I have also contacted the consumer advice line, but they have said that VOSA cannot help now as the car has been fixed; even though I have all the parts that were taken off the car, a receipt for the work done, ad the testimony of the mechanic who worked on the car for me.

 

I didn't know what avenues to explore, so decided to check the sellers history. Lo and behold he had sold another car in September. I contacted the buyer of said car, and he had the same issues that I did. I found this especially interesting as when I initially confronted the seller about the issues, he said that he hadn't used this garage before. There is definitely something untoward going on.

 

The problem is, I know I've been ripped off, I would like some money back to help towards the cost, but every way I turn it doesn't seem that I have any rights.

 

Can anyone help???

 

Cheers

 

Continue with eBay. Give them all the information. Opening a case should put a hold on the sellers money if paid by Paypal. If paid cash it will probably just lead to you leaving negative feedback and warning future potential buyers.