It’s a car one, are the garage CFs?

[TheOnlyWayisGerard]

Hi all.
Looking for a bit of advice on behalf of my DP please.

Car written off by third party several weeks ago. Had been given a hire car. Case is going to court, but in the meantime the hire car needed to go back. Found a car for the interim until the case was heard. Applied and accepted for finance on the car. Travelled over 100 miles each way to collect it.

Had a phone call about a week later. The finance company will no longer finance the car after further checks had found it had previously been scrapped and the current number plate was only issued to that vehicle a couple of years ago (10 yr old car). This apparently came as a surprise to the garage.

DP had to return the car, the garage refused to collect. Had to return home on the train, which took over 4 hours and wasn’t cheap. The garage now wants DP to pay mileage of over £300 for using a car which was a write off and not declared as such. Until this is paid, the garage won’t release the money back to the finance company.

Any advice? I feel that the garage have acted unscrupulously. But I’m not an expert.

The garage has already resisted the car on their website, and haven’t declared it as a write off.

TIA

Maybe mention trading standards as they didn’t, and are still not, declaring it. Do you have any sort of free legal cover? The RAC for example have a legal helpline if you’re a member, some house insurance do legal cover & you may be able to get advice from your car insurance if you have legal cover included. Failing that I would be spamming their reviews/Twitter/X with full details of their deception. Are they an independent or do they have a head office you could contact and complain to.

An insurance write-off must always be declared at point of sale and included in any advertisement. It will also be noted in a history check on the vehicle from CAP-HPI or other providers. It’s not good enough for the seller to only provide this information when asked about it.

https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/does-seller-declare-damage/#:~:text=Insurance%20write%2Doffs,-It's%20perfectly%20legal&text=An%20insurance%20write%2Doff%20must,information%20when%20asked%20about%20it.

https://www.choicequote.co.uk/news/selling-cars-responsibility-as-trader

Remind the garage that, by selling the car to you without informing you that it had been an insurance write off, they were in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, specifically regulation 6, and that, if you report this, they could face a fine or even a prison sentence. Tell them that you will not be paying mileage and, unless they immediately release the money to the finance company and refund your husband's train fare and any other costs you have incurred (e.g. finance costs that you won't be able to recover from the finance company), you will report the matter to Trading Standards, including the fact that they appear to again be attempting to sell it without informing any purchaser of the car's history.

If that doesn't produce results, your next step should be to send them a letter before action, which will allow you to take them to court if they continue to refuse.

Thank you both. DP has left a review, to which they have replied asking him to remove it due to ‘bullying’ (it was entirely factual). They are a small independent, so no head office.

DP has emailed them again, stating the legislation and has reported to trading standards. He has kept a copy of receipts and correspondence, and has screenshots of the new advert now they’re reselling the car.

We will see what they come back with. Such a nuisance, I’m currently stuck without a car as DP works over an hour away so needs to use mine to get to work (I’m currently on mat leave).