Southwestmicrocampers - Carl Britton - Faulty Peugeot Partner Tepee HDi

[BankFodder]

Sorry but I think that this was a little bit precipitative.

You haven't had your health check yet and you don't know what his diagnostics gets going to say so you don't really know if there is any divergence of view and so you don't really know what you are suing for – or the value that you are going to be suing for.


Please can you post up the particulars of claim here in PDF format

[Milomoo]

So he will only take it to vospers which we have declined and asked him to take it peugeot which he has declined. So we don't have anything from his side apart from arguments about the law and refusing to take it to garage we both agree on. 

 

Health check is Thursday.  He has told us to go away and fix it ourselves after we asked for it to go Peugeot. 

 

We have a statement from a specialist that says the ad blue pump has failed. He verbally says it will £1500 to fix as the part alone is just under £1000. We had it checked by another garage who say the same thing. 

[BankFodder]

I think I would have allowed it to go to Vospers. I can't see that it would have created any disadvantage for you. You would still have your health check comparator and I would have even thought about taking it to Peugeot for some corroboration.

Anyway let's see what the diagnostic on Thursday says.

Have you found out any more about where he is and what assets he might have? I think you will find that eventually this could be the stumbling block that gets in the way of producing an eventual solution

[Milomoo]

No haven't found out who he is and where he lives. I have looked but to no avail. 

 

I said no to vospers as it made me feel uneasy. I wasn't allowed to approach the garage because he said they might be in a position to contribute and I could jeopardise that. This garage has no connection to this. 

 

The car came from Wales before I bought it. I think he knew the garage. I only asked it went Peugeot and he shut down and said no. That he would not help anymore and to fix it myself.

[Milomoo]

Previously you said he couldn't dictate where the car went. So I went back to him and asked for another garage. Peugeot .

[BankFodder]

You are right, he certainly can't dictate that kind of thing but on the other hand it might have been useful to allow him to take the car somewhere of his choosing to see what he came up with in terms of faults and potential remedies.

I think that you would be in a stronger position if he was unable to say that you had deprived him of an opportunity of having the car inspected at the garage of his choice. On the other hand, it's not unreasonable for you to want it to be inspected by Peugeot – and maybe you should go ahead and do that after your Halfords diagnostic. Certainly the fact that he has instructed you not to talk to particular dealers is significant – and I hope that you do have that in writing.
It's also helpful that he refused to allow it to go to Peugeot – and I hope you have then writing as well.

All through this dispute it will always stand in your favour if you can show that you have bent over backwards to accommodate him and to accede to his wishes because it cuts his legs away from under him

[Milomoo]

Ok Thank-you. 

 

I will wait to hear the outcome of health check. Shall I get written quote from a garage re the cost to repair the car? 

 

What shall I do next? Wait for then 14 days to end then apply to the court? He has stopped correspondence with me. 

 

I have all of what he has said by email and transcripts through WhatsApp. He has now deleted my number so its not showing on WhatsApp. However I recorded this with his picture before he did this and the number is showing. 

 

I'm just trying to preempt what's next as I am working and don't have much time. 

 

 

[BankFodder]

Please post up your letter of claim.

Yes, written quotes et cetera are all going to be useful and quite necessary.

I think that before you could issue a legal action you will have to provide him with a copy of the inspection and of the quote. He has to be given an opportunity to comment on that before you can issue any legal action.
That really is one of the big reasons why the letter of claim should not yet have been sent.

It's important to keep Carl Britton in the loop all the time so that he is unable to say to a court that you acted on your own without referring to him and he has never had an opportunity to comment or to challenge.
You will gain the upper hand and keep it there if you make sure that he is always made aware of everything that is happening in advance and given the opportunity to give his side.
There is also the way that he is permitted to make mistakes which you can then leverage in any court action.

So I would suggest that you get your diagnostic. You will need then to get somebody to see the diagnostic and to describe the way that they will deal with the issues which have been discovered and also give you a quotation.
It will be helpful if you can get a second diagnostic and a further quotation. Hopefully the two diagnostics will coincide as will the suggested remedy. The quotes may well be different – but that's not a problem.

I would then send Carl Britton copies of the two diagnostic statements plus quotations and invite him to comment and also invite him to undertake to pay the cheaper of the two quotes. Explain to him that if he will not do that within 14 days then you will begin the court action.
That's how the letter of claim should have been expressed.

You'd have then put yourself in an extremely powerful position – particularly if you able to demonstrate that despite your attempt to reach out to him in your transparency he had declined to cooperate.

I think you're going to have to put your letter of claim on hold – but I would like to see anyway please.

I suggest that you don't fire off any more letters without checking here first
 

[Milomoo]

Ok, first letter sent should be at the beginning if this thread. 

 

I can post again if easier.

[BankFodder]

Yes please

[Milomoo]

Dear Mr C Britton (South West Micro Campers),

 

On the 11/6/2021 I purchased a Peugeot Partner Tepee HDi, Reg xxxx xxx from your dealership for £10995.

 

On the 8^th of September the Emissions warning on the radio display came on with a count down of 700 miles, also the UREA sign came on the dash board display with the engine light.  The car was taken to xxxx MOT centre and a diagnostics test showed an emissions fault.  At this point my dad arranged for the car to be fixed at the earliest opportunity which was the 24/9/2021.

After my dad advised me of the timescales I made arrangements with Halfords on the 21/9/2021 and left the car with them.  They called me to advise it was the adblue liquid and they had sorted it out and cleared the diagnostics.  I then picked my car up and everything was fine, by the time I got home all the warning lights had returned. 

At this point I then called Halfords who advised me to take it to CR Engineers who are specialists in Peugeot vehicles.  The result of which was pump failure with an estimated repair bill of £1500.

At this point I then contacted you and told you what CR Engineers had said. Your response was the car was out of warranty and there was nothing you could do to help. 

You then offered us the cost of the labour at £480 as a final settlement figure which left an outstanding amount of £1020.  This offer I rejected.

 

I would like to settle this out of court if possible if we can mediate an agreement.  If this isn’t forth coming I will have no alternative but to take legal action.   

As you know I am protected under the consumer rights act 2015 because the car is not fit for purpose. 

 

I am offering you the opportunity to put this right and repair the car at your cost. 

 

Please respond within 14 days of receiving this letter/email. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Katie Thorne

[BankFodder]

Okay thanks. What date did you send this letter?

This is not a letter of claim. It doesn't basically say what you want and impose a deadline if that thing that you want is not done.

It's better that this is not a letter of claim because if you send a letter of claim and then didn't follow through you would lose credibility.

Let's get all the information together so that you are properly informed and properly empowered – and then we will agree a letter of claim for you to send.

If you issue proceedings, what address are you going to use for those proceedings?

[Milomoo]

The only address I have which is his business. 

 

I sent on the 29th September. 

[BankFodder]

Okay – it's the best we can do.

Keep your eyes open though in case you find that he is a member of any clubs or any associations in their area. It's a pretty unusual name.

Whatever happens the most important thing is to be extremely prepared and that means gathering the information in the way that I suggested and only beginning your challenge when you are fully prepared and from a position of strength.

[Milomoo]

Ok. I'm just aware that time is ticking. I will ask halfords to quote me for repair after they have done health check (diagnostics) and written report.

 

I will also ask the garage that gave be original diagnostics to quote as they have only verbally done this. Thats 2 garages with quotes.

 

I will call Peugeot tomorrow and see how much and when they can do a diagnostic.

 

I will have to drive the car to Exeter though which is 15 miles away. The clock still says I have 400 miles to go before top up is required. I am on edge driving it though as I dont want to get stuck anywhere adding more cost to an already costly stressful situation. 

[Milomoo]

Can you just confirm what I actually need as a health check is £15 pounds but a full diagnostics check is £80. I am getting confused to what I need. I am assuming its a diagnostics check.

[BankFodder]

Yes I'm afraid it is the maximum diagnostics check. You need to find out the whole story. I'm sorry that this will incur fees but that is the name of the game.

If it turns out that there are other problems which have not been identified then I'm confident that you will get the money back. If it only identifies the problems which he already knows about then if he balks at carrying out the repairs then I am reasonably certain that you will get your money back – but of course I'm afraid it is a risk.
Once again, if you have to sue him, you will almost definitely get a judgement – but I am worried about enforcement.

On the other hand, if you don't get all of the information and if you don't bring an action then you will certainly be empty-handed.

I'm afraid that's the way these things go with these kinds of dealers. The trouble they cause for everybody is really quite disproportionately high.

[Milomoo]

Halfords have agreed to put it on diagnostics machine at the same time they do a health check. 

[Milomoo]

Just an update.

I took the car to the Peugeot specialist in Exeter and they did a full diagnostic and confirmed what we already knew.

 

Long story short, Truscotts in Exeter agreed to do the repairs as a goodwill gesture saving me £1200. What a relief! 

 

I have not gone back to Southwest Microcampers as I don't need to. I also dont want to have to deal with that man ever again! 

 

Thanks for all your help and advice through a pretty dark and stressful time!

[BankFodder]

Thanks for the update. I am glad that you have got a satisfactory solution. Of course the problem will be if you have further difficulties – a further defects manifest themselves and you will then have to go back to the dealer again.

I would certainly make certain that you post a review of this dealer everywhere on the Internet.

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