Court action against garage following probate

[awood1]

Hoping someone can help... court action need to be started against a garage because they have failed to resolve a problem under warranty. 

 

An independent garage has verified the fault still exists despite the original garage claiming there's nothing wrong. They are happy to provide a report. 

 

The problem is the car was bought by a family member who has since passed away, leaving the car to their child who is now the registered keeper. 

 

The garage has also been bought by a larger garage group since the vehicle was purchased (they were going into administration). 

 

Would court action need to be taken by the registered keeper or (preferably) could I do this as the person who has actually dealt with the issue from the beginning? 

 

Would the defendant be the new owner of the garage or would be now defunct limited company be named as an additional defendant since that was the entity the vehicle was purchased from? I also think the national manufacturer that provides the warranty should be named as a defendant, does that make sense?

 

Any pointers would be gratefully received, thank you.

Edited May 9, 2021 by awood1

[BankFodder]

So we understand that the original purchaser and the original dealer are no longer in existence.

 you have to check the warranty and see whether it is a transferable warranty. Also who has provided the warranty?

If the warranty is a manufacturer's warranty then you may be in a position to enforce it. On the other hand if it is the original dealers warranty then it may not have much value anymore.

 

 

 

 

[awood1]

Thank you. The warranty terms (from the vehicle manufacturer) say it is transferable to a new owner. 

 

 

[Ethel Street]

As far as who can take the action is concerned, the Executors who have Probate have all the powers that the deceased would have had to take action against someone who owed money to the deceased. That money is now owed to the Estate and Executors have the power (and the duty) to recover money, or to take other action, for the benefit of the Estate. So you would have the legal power in this case to take action against the garage that sold the car to the deceased.

 

It's irrelevant in this case who is (or was) the Registered Keeper. What matters is who is shown as the purchaser on the purchase documentation, who I am assuming is the deceased.

 

I believe the plaintiff in a court action would be "The Estate of the late Mr XYZ" but do check that out as I've no personal experience of bringing a claim as Executor. When filing the claim I imagine you need to include the Grant of Probate to show you have legal authority to act on behalf of the Estate.

[awood1]

Thank you. To clarify, the fault has not yet been resolved. Should I instruct the independent garage to proceed with the work before issuing court proceedings? The independent garage has warned they aren't 100% sure that the work quoted will resolve the issue and a further component may need replacement if symptoms persist.

 

I also see from the purchase documents that a credit card was used so S75 may apply and might be preferable to court. However, I see no information on whether a claim can be issued by executors, seems there is a strict debtor-creditor-supplier link needed.

[slick132]

Hi Awood,

 

It might help if we knew some basics in Bullet Point form such as :-

 

Car make and model

Car age and approx mileage

Nature of the fault

Amount paid by the deceased

Likely cost to resolve the fault (if that solution works)

 

What troubles me is the garage making the original sale to the deceased person went into administration and I doubt the new owner would be responsible for the old owners warrantties or responsibilities.

[Ethel Street]

If the problem was covered by the manufacturers warranty was the original garage a manufacturer's dealership who would have have repaired it free of charge?

 

Is the manufacturer's warranty still in force?

 

If it is can you take the car to another manufacturer's dealership garage and get them to fix it free of charge?

[awood1]

The info below should cover all but the make and model.

 

- Bought at 10 months old with 8000 miles in July 2015

- £9900 paid

- Brakes are binding causing increase fuel consumption and excessive wear to brake pads and discs.

- Warranty expired in Oct 2019 but the problem has been under investigation by the dealership since 2017, the dealership continued to attempt to fix this free of charge as recently as last month. They have been going in circles looking at the same components instead of considering the bigger picture as the independent garage has done.

- The original seller was a franchised dealer and they were bought by a larger dealer group with the franchise continued

Edited May 10, 2021 by awood1

[BankFodder]

As my site team colleague @Ethel Street is suggesting, we need to find out where the liabilities lay if you have a valid transferable warranty in your position.

Who issue the warranty? Maybe you could link us to some website page which refers to that warranty – and maybe you could put a copy of the warranty up here in PDF format please. Single file multipage

[awood1]

Warranty was issued by Hyundai UK, the PDF is attached. Excerpt:

 

Quote

Transfer of warranty
This warranty can be transferred to a new owner, however it cannot be transferred to another vehicle.

 

https://www.hyundai.co.uk/owning/5_year_warranty

warranty_terms_and_conditions.pdf

[Manxman in exile]

So you are trying to enforce a 5 year manufacturer's warranty (that expired two years ago) in respect of a brake fault, and a Hyundai dealer (in one guise or another) has had several attempts to fix it over the last four years?

 

How confident is your independent garage that the "fault" was covered by the Hyundai warranty before it expired two years ago?  (And how much faith have you in that independent garage's opinion?).

 

Who is saying the warranty doesn't cover it?  The Hyundai dealer or Hyundai UK?

[awood1]

The Hyundai dealership has been trying to fix it since 2017, they continued to work on the vehicle after the 5 year period ended, at no cost to the customer. Which suggests they accept the original warranty claim is still ongoing. 

 

I am taking the vehicle to a different independent garage for an examination and they are prepared to provide a report for a fixed fee that may be relied upon in court. This is a well-regarded and long-established local business. I have the utmost faith in whatever they conclude.

 

At this stage the dealership is being very quiet, since I asked them to provide me with their discussions with Hyundai's technical department, to understand how they tried to resolve this. During the warranty period, they became fixated on a single component of the braking system and did not seem to see the bigger picture.

 

Hyundai UK initially claimed the warranty had expired and helpfully pointed out the expiry date of the 5-year warranty, but when I pointed out the claim was still ongoing and the dealership had continued to work on the vehicle until as recently as last month, they then directed me to contact the dealership, which is giving me silent treatment.

 

 

[dx100uk]

is this an i10? what year new?

 

there are numerous reports of manu known issues from birth depending upon the type of Hyundai.

 

[Manxman in exile]

13 hours ago, awood1 said:

The Hyundai dealership has been trying to fix it since 2017, they continued to work on the vehicle after the 5 year period ended, at no cost to the customer. Which suggests they accept the original warranty claim is still ongoing. 

 

 

Hmmm.  They might dispute that and say they simply continued the work as goodwill as they hadn't fixed it.  I wouldn't necessarily be confident that they still consider the original warranty claim to be open.

 

13 hours ago, awood1 said:

 

I am taking the vehicle to a different independent garage for an examination and they are prepared to provide a report for a fixed fee that may be relied upon in court. This is a well-regarded and long-established local business. I have the utmost faith in whatever they conclude.

 

 

Have they told you that they can diagnose the cause of a fault that first manifested itself four years ago?

 

13 hours ago, awood1 said:

 

Hyundai UK initially claimed the warranty had expired and helpfully pointed out the expiry date of the 5-year warranty, but when I pointed out the claim was still ongoing and the dealership had continued to work on the vehicle until as recently as last month, they then directed me to contact the dealership, which is giving me silent treatment.

 

 

If Hyundai UK (whose warranty it is) has referred you back to the dealer, that suggests to me that Hyundai UK do not consider it to be a warranty claim.  Whether they are correct to do so I don't know, but it seems a bit odd that you are asking them to honour a warranty in respect of a fault that started four years ago when the warranty expired two years ago.

 

If you want this put right under warranty, I think you need to pursue and persuade Hyundai UK further, and not the dealer.  It's not clear to me the dealer has any liability - on the contrary they seem to have done more than they needed.

[awood1]

It's an i30, new in Sept 2014. 

 

The symptoms being reported by the customer have remained the same throughout. The warranty work and subsequent troubleshooting by the dealership until last month has not eased those symptoms. So if the independent garage investigates those same symptoms, but arrives at a different conclusion and proposes how to resolve the issue, I would contend that would be close enough to diagnosing the original issue 4 years ago. Do you agree? Or should I consider a different approach?

 

Where would be a good place to read up about the small claims court process and how to present documents, burden of proof for evidence, etc.? I'm looking at past cases on here which are helpful.

[awood1]

 

2 hours ago, awood1 said:

Where would be a good place to read up about the small claims court process and how to present documents, burden of proof for evidence, etc.? I'm looking at past cases on here which are helpful.

 

Well that was handy, the auto link to the small claims thread has answered that question! 

[awood1]

Caught the dealership admitting they covered up the reoccurring fault. Both rear calipers admitted as being faulty. 

 

Do I have to incur the costs first by getting the calipers replaced and then issue a claim, or can I apply to court for those costs in advance of instructing the third party garage to carry out the repair? 

[Manxman in exile]

Are you saying that the fault that the dealer spent four years failing to identify - let alone fix - was something that they were "covering up" all along?  And was something as simple as a fault in the rear brake calipers?   

 

How (and why) have they admitted this?  Why were they covering it up?  Have they offered anything in compensation - like fixing it for free and a payment in recognition of the unacceptable delay etc? 

 

Have you actually taken any steps to sue them yet?  If they have now admitted their error I'd have thought they would prefer to reach a settlement that was acceptable to you rather than have you take them to court and win!  It'll be cheaper for them so you might get a better deal out of them...

[Ethel Street]

The evidence you have of them admitting it will be what matters if/when you go to court. What is the evidence you would use in court?