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taking car trader to small claims court


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Hi, 

I was wondering if someone could help me please. I am taking a trader to court for my late father's car, as it was sold with undisclosed, pre-existing issues.

 

The car was paid by cash (£500 deposit by debit card, £5000 paid by bank transfer) and part exchange of my father’s previous car in Sept 2019, and the car was collected mid Oct 2019. There was a 12 month warranty given with the car, although this was not in writing however  my brother in law was present at the time of sale when this was mentioned.

 

I only have the deposit receipt but have managed to contact my father’s bank which shows the bank transfer transaction. Two weeks after my father had the car, he reported some electrical issues with the car (around late October 2019) so it was returned to the trader to rectify. These issues included the rear view camera, TV screen and blind spot assist on side mirrors not working.

 

I'm not sure exactly when the car was returned but I know it was with the trader for a very long time. I have text messages and call logs from my father’s phone which shows the contact attempts and conversations from my father chasing the time it was taking to repair the car. I believe the trader had the car "for repairs" from Oct 2019 - Feb 2020, and then again from March 2020 - Aug 2020, apart from a weekend in late Nov when my dad required use of the car over the weekend, and a few weeks in Feb whereby my father was again arranging for the car to be taken in for repairs due to the fault not being rectified.

 

Once the electrical issues were finally resolved and the car was returned (in Aug 2020), my father immediately noticed a new fault which had appeared while the car had been in the trader's possession (a loud ticking noise from the engine). He once again contacted the trader and was advised to take the car for a long drive. This did not rectify the issue, and my father reported this to the trader and the car was taken for repair (in August 2020) after a week of the car being returned. The trader has had the car ever since.

 

My father passed in January of this year, and the car has been in the trader's possession since about Aug 2020, in addition to the trader having the car for the majority of time prior to this.

 

I am named as the Executor of the Will and have been trying to sort this out to no success. We (the family) initially wanted the car back for the funeral day in Feb, but the trader was unable to return the car as was “still awaiting parts to be fitted”.  I have been in contact with the trader from Feb – April 2020, contacting him by phone / texts most days for updates, and looking back now, I believe I have been fobbed off, as had my father. I have made notes in my phone summarising the conversations we had for my own records.

 

I have had no evidence whatsoever as to what attempts at repairs (if any) have been done, I don't know where the car is located, as apparently it had to go to another specialist garage, nor has the trader sent me photos of the condition of the car, despite numerous requests. The car is now apparently in an undriveable state, and I have no knowledge what the trader has done with the car. I have visions of the engine all dismantled, and in bits… its really upsetting to be honest. It’s not as if I can even take it to another garage for a second opinion now. Its in a worse condition now, than when he took it from us.

 

So, to date, I have followed the Citizen’s advice process, writing letters to the trader, requesting a refund of the car under the Consumer Good Act 2015 for the supply of faulty goods. In addition, the time it has taken to repair the faults has been unreasonable which also falls under the Act, so I have included this in the letters too, although we have been more than understanding with the Pandemic situation. I have also mentioned ADR to the trader and have not had any responses back from the trader. I believe he took advantage of my father’s good nature and abused his trust.

 

Now that my father is no longer here, the trader is in effect holding us to ransom, and using this to his advantage and making untrue statements, such as my father agreed to pay for the repairs, which was definitely not the case, as my sisters and I had various conversations with him about the car, and not once did he mention that he had to pay / contribute towards the repairs. Nor is there any written confirmation (email / texts) that this was the case. My father only had the car for a total of about 4/5 weeks since he purchased it due to the ongoing issues and the length of time it has taken for the trader to repair the issues, and which is still ongoing and outstanding.

 

I have never filed a claim before, and just wanted some advice on this situation really. What is the likelihood that this will go in our favour if we did file a court claim? All we want is the money back now, or as closest to what my father paid for it. I guess the way I see it is that I have nothing to lose, apart from about £500 for the online fee.

 

Also, I wanted some advice on the “Particulars of claim” section of the online form. I’m not sure how much detail is required, i.e. do I need to include all the evidence / dates with when my father and I have contacted him, and detailed chronological sequence of events? Or can I put this together later? I know there was a previous thread (in 2017) with a similar issue and just wondered if I could view the document to help with me writing my statement.

 

Any help would be appreciated. 😊

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Hello, welcome to CAG.

 

I've moved your thread to the Vehicle Manufacturers and Retailers subforum for further advice plese.

 

You mention a thread from 2017, can you post a link to that please? Normally, even if it's locked you should be able to read documents on it.

 

Best, HB

Illegitimi non carborundum

 

 

 

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you need to create your own topic

hit create in the top red banner.

 

dx

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Firstly I hope you can see that my site team colleague has taken time to restructure your post. We need to have posts properly spaced and punctuated please. Otherwise they are extremely difficult to read especially when people are using the small screen.

Secondly, are you saying that the dealer who is holding your car is in fact the same company Kevin Adey Car Sales, or are you simply saying it is a similar story?

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Noted about the structure of post - thank you. I will ensure this is followed for future posts

 

No, it is not the same company, just a similar kind of story when I had skim read it, and also just wanted to see the PDF attachment for the claim form

 

@dx100uksorry I don't understand - am new to this site, so just trying to figure out how it works etc. 

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In that case what is the name of the car dealers?

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Still waiting to know the name of the dealer – and by the way, I don't think you are at all in a position to begin a legal action yet.

I can imagine that you are not even sure of your cause of action yet or how much you are going to be suing for.

There are a lot of questions to ask you and you need to engage with this thread

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I would rather not mention the name of the garage at the moment as wouldn’t want it to affect my case in future. It is an independent garage and not a franchise. 
 

And the advice given by my employee assistance service through my employers have advised that I can persue this as I am the executor of the will and the car forms part of the estate. 
 

 

 

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There is no downside to mentioning the name of the dealer.

 

There is no reason to protect him and it will help us to to ascertain the best course of action and also so the best means of enforcement if you let us know.

also it may help others who may be victims as well.

 

There is no way this can possibly hurt your case will put you at any disadvantage whatsoever.

 

On the contrary, your protection of the dealer will bring comfort to him

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Still waiting to learn the name of the trader.

Also, your initial post is pretty involved retaining lots of narrative which is not necessary.

It would help if you give us a bullet pointed chronology of events. Also we don't know the price which was paid for this car.

 

I also realise that we don't know anything about the car either. – Make, model, mileage – et cetera.

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like I’ve explained, I do not wish to name the trader at this time. 
 

I will add bullet point chronology of events shortly 


make & model - Jaguar XF

mileage when bought in Oct 2019 approx 80,646

my dad was on furlough for most of 2020 and due to the car being in the garage he barely drove the car so couldn’t have done more than a couple of hundred miles if that 

 

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04.09.2019 – car paid for £10,500 (debit card transaction £500, bank transfer £5000, part-ex of previous vehicle value of £5000)

 

12.10.2019 – Car is picked up. Vehicle under 12 month warranty

 

24.10.2019 – father contacts trader to report (electrical) fault, and books car in to be looked at

 

04.11.2019 – 28.11.2019 -  car is returned to trader to be repaired. 

 

29.11.2019 – 01.12.2019 – car returned back to my dad for use for the weekend, repair is still outstanding

 

w/c 02.12.2019 – dad returns car back to trader to complete repair

 

w/c 27.01.2020 – dad collects car from trader for use, fault still outstanding and car still unrepaired

 

10.02.2020 – 12.03.2020 – dad tries to contact defendant via phone / texts to repair ongoing / outstanding issue with car. Car is collected by trader sometime in March 2020

 

LOCKDOWN 1.0 starts  23.03.2020 - May/June 2020????.   Car garages closed. 

 

March 2020 – August 2020 – car in trader's possession, dad not fully aware of what repairs were being carried out, no adequate updates provided

 

August 2020 – car returned, however upon return of the car, new fault identified which appeared whilst in trader's possession and reported to trader (loud ticking noise from engine). Trader advises that had to top engine up with oil and to take the car for a long drive to resolve, which does not rectify the problem. Dad takes car back to defendant for the fault to be looked at.

 

August 2020 – present day – trader in possession of the car, repairs are still outstanding, car left in an undriveable state. Numerous requests have been made to the trader to advise of location and photos of car, but not sent to date

 

October 2020 – MOT / Car tax ran out. Trader aware as dad spoke to him about this to carry out MOT

 

Mid Jan 2021 - April 2021 - myself and other family members in contact with trader to return the vehicle. Told the car requires a new engine after various attempts at repairing / refurbishing engine parts (although no evidence of this from trader). 

 

06.04.2021 – 1st letter requesting refund (as faulty goods under Consumer Rights Act 2015) sent to trader, no response

 

22.04.2021 – 2nd letter sent to trader (ADR), no response

 

01.05.2021 – 3rd letter sent to trader (ADR and warning of court action), no response

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You haven't given us any details about the car or is that a secret as well

Please will you post up the three letters that you sent in a single file multi page PDF format

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I was using a phone before and I didn't notice that you had put up the car details.

Thank you

Although I don't think we have the mileage or the year

 

As I previously posted, we would like to see the letters that you sent in multipage single file PDF format.

Do you know that your secret trader is still trading? How far is the trader away from where you are in the country?

From the chronology you posted above, it would appear that the trader has never communicated with you at all – not even a single instance. Is this correct?

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And as a matter of curiosity – I'd be very interested to know exactly what you stand to lose or what disadvantage there might be to you by telling us the name of the trader.

This is something we often have in this forum that people are reluctant because either they think it will prejudice them all because they think they will get into trouble.

One thing you need to understand is that this forum is not a piece of social media. You not here for a chat. You are here to get the job done and once we understand exactly everything, we will help you move forward at a pace which will astonish you.

One thing I should caution you about immediately is that when you bring a legal action – as you surely will have to, it looks as if the value of the action will be more than £10,000. The small claims limit is £10,000 on anything over that goes unto the fast track.
If you sue on the small claims track for a figure less than £10,000 then even if you lose, you will not have to pay any costs of the other side. If you see on the fast track then if you lose then you may end up paying a substantial proportion of the winners costs.
This is something to be borne in mind. It is a very important consideration

 

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letters .pdf

 

The trader is about 6 miles from where I am, so not far. And yes he is still trading. 

 

And regarding the value, if I put in the value of the claim as £10,000, it adds on the fee of £455, so value of claim is £10,445. Therefore does this still qualify for small claims (i.e. does it include the fee in the total), or would I need to reduce the claim amount so that it is under £10,000 including the fee.  Ultimately, I would be happy with the market value of the car if it was in full working order which is about £9-10k. 

 

Looking at my dad's phone history, there is a long list of phone records (missed calls, where my dad has tried to call him and got through / not got through, the trader calling my dad) from Oct 2019 - Dec 2020. 

There is also a text conversation where I have pieced together the gaps as such

 

When I started speaking to him, I made notes of our conversations with what was discussed, and I also have text message conversations with him. 

 

 

 

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And when you say that your secret trader is still trading, you know that it's actually the same business and they haven't Phoenixed themselves? Have you checked?

Do you know if there are any outstanding judgements against them which haven't yet been satisfied?

Earlier on you said that this was not a franchise it was an independent business. I don't know if you find that reassuring but I can tell you that it could add complications

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There is probably lots more information that can be had about these people – and it is much more complicated if thou an independent business because they are probably much more nimble if it comes to a point where they want to avoid responsibility or avoid a judgement.

For a judgement of about £10,000 or so, they may consider that it is worthwhile avoiding any enforcement judgement.

You won't let us know the name and so we would be unable to help you on this point. As I've already said, there are no downsides to revealing the name of this company. There certainly are downsides to not revealing the name.

Don't imagine that I'm simply asking this question as a matter of curiosity. We have much better things to do

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The company is still active - was incorporated in June 2012. 

 

The company was previously trading under a different but similar name from Sept 2009 - Aug 2013, but the company was dissolved. The dissolved company had 3 directors, one of which is the director of the current company, that I have been dealing with. 

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