BARGAIN CARS/Langley Cars plays the name change game and prevents serving a warrant of control

[Wizadoros]

I was recently looking to purchase a car when I noticed a car in AUTO-TRADER that I liked being sold by BARGAIN CARS. I visited the dealership, met with the Managing Director, and agreed on a price of £1850, with an £850 deposit paid via bank transfer. The remaining £1000 was to be paid upon completion of works and passing the MOT by a certain date.

Two days later after leaving a deposit, I conducted a pre-purchase inspection and discovered severe faults rendering the car unsafe. Despite attempts to communicate their rejection of the car due to these faults, the seller did not respond. On the scheduled collection day, the seller admitted the car was still in the garage being repaired.

I demanded a full refund, citing breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which mandates goods of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and as described. I asserted that the faults discovered were beyond those declared at the time of deposit, making the car severely faulty and not as described. I also claimed consequential losses including travel expenses and inspection fees, totaling £181.10.

The dealer never paid up and it went to the small claims court where I won the case. 

In the aftermath of winning the case in the small claims court and obtaining an order for payment, the defendant failed to comply with the court's ruling. Consequently, I pursued a warrant of control to enforce the payment. However, complications arose when it was discovered that the dealership in fact was not registered as Bargain Cars, nor Langley Cars which the money was paid out to.

It was reported as fraud yet the banks decided it was a civil matter and therefore didn't chargeback the money into my account. I argued that the bank authorised the release of money to the account when in fact the account holder name was different. Its worth noting that the defendants bank also refused to disclose the defendants account name.

The bailiff has requested a variation of the warrant of control to reflect the business that's on the site otherwise executing the warrant of control and recovering the owed amount from the defendant will not be possible.

How can this happen and the banks refuse to accept responsibility and leave me with the loss?

[jk2054]

Well banks don't recover bank transfers. 

You paid a bank sort code and account number. You authorised that payment and had full intention of doing so.

Thats why people always say pay by card. You have no recourse for a bank transfer that you intentionally made, even though things have gone bad.

You entered the sort code and account number, your bank paid that sort code and account number.

The baliffs should get a warrant variation very very quickly indeed and I see no reason they would struggle to enforce a second time.

Edited April 11 by jk2054

[BankFodder]

Follow the link and read our advice about buying a used car. 

Make a list of how many mistakes you have made in buying your used car

[Wizadoros]

Can I ask why is it when I go to set up payment that the bank refuses to credit that person unless the name matches the account but in this case they didn’t take that into account?

How is it that the traders bank will not disclose the name even to my bank when there is a court order against him?

And finally,

I can’t locate a form that is for requesting a variation.

Besides I thought the name change would mean it couldn’t be served?

In company’s house there’s never been one where the car dealership name matched the address.

[jk2054]

so did you sue the wrong company?

[Wizadoros]

After the dealer failed to refund the money I checked the sort code and account number to reveal which bank received the money. It turned out to be HSBC BUSINESS DIRECT ONLINE.

I called them and they confirmed the account name wasn’t Langley Cars though obviously didn’t tell me the correct account name. My bank contacted HSBC after I reported this to be fraud and they did in fact do a charge back but reversed the decision when the dealer sent a copy of the receipt he gave me for the deposit where it said it was non-refundable. I said that doesn’t mean anything when the car should never have been put on the forecourt when it was a death trap, and not fit for purpose.
 

The MOT revealed only a few of the faults which he agreed to correct in a week as I needed the car to travel out of London for work. He didn’t meet that deadline either because there were other more serious problems as identified by my independent car check. The same mechanic informed the dealer of these faults. The car wasn’t fixed by the agreed date due to the extensive repairs needed. So he was in breach of our contract on many levels. 
 

I requested the bank find out the correct name of the account and they said the only information they had was like you said was the account number and sort code. I challenged the bank stating that whenever I create a new payee if the name doesn’t match the registered account name, it declines the creation of the proposed payee. So what happened in this instance? 
 

I checked company’s house using the address from where the dealership is located and there was neither the two names, one was aa advertised in AUTOTRADER and the other on the courtyards entrance. I thought as I had made payment to the dealers ‘Trading as’ name that it would more than likely be enforceable than any other.

Indeed the Bailiff was the one to call me and say that a variation of the warrant of control needed to be done before he could go and enforce the order. I cross-checked the address on Companies House website and got 3 different business names. Only one appears to be car related. 

I am unsure as to what I can do within the variation of the warrant which the bailiff felt was appropriate. I will speak to him again Monday. 

[Wizadoros]

Dear CAG Team

Given the above, and not knowing what the actual account name is, I will haver to stick with that same name but the Bailiff said that once the variation is done there wont be an issue getting the money off him.

What i cannot get my head around is when i set up a new payee, if the name doesn't match the account name my bank wont allow the transfer.

So how is it that it authorised and allowed the transfer?

Also, given the dealer brake trading standard rules and tried to sell me a death trap,

then keep my deposit,

why is his bank and mine protecting him by not disclosing his account name or at least making a charge back as i first attempted?

 

Many thanks

[jk2054]

you paid by bank transfer

bank transfers cant be charged back