My husband is so stupid grrrrr

[rippedoffandpissedoff]

My husband bought a used car on Friday. he bought it for Autotrader online. We noticed some problems straight away it has a new door and cracked trim etc. Usually we would do a car history search but on this occasion dh knew better(grrr). It turns out it is a cat d write off. The seller hasn't deleted his ad either and has altered it to include this information. He says he is covered by this. We don't want it of course dh has been round and has been told that the registration document has been posted, dh has to ring the dvla to get it returned unaltered to the seller and then he will refund us and take the car back. I am very doubtful this is going to happen. What can we do to ensure it does?

I don't know but poor you. I hope you can get it sorted and get your money back.

Thanks, I am worried sick, we can't afford to lose the money.

Is there a registration document if it a write-off? DH bought an unregistered car (in full knowledge of the facts - a whole other thread...) and had to apply for a Vehicle Identity Check to get a V5.

But I don't know anything about the differetn categories...

It's not on the Vehicle Registration Certificate, he actually read that, just didn't have a good look at the car. I have looked into it and a cat d is where a car is damaged and the insurers write it off as it is uneconomical to repair. I have no idea if this car is roadworthy, to be honest it looks like a botch job. I don't want to risk something happening to my children in it.

I do think that is terrible. I have no knowledge of these things. How on earth did he get to sell it?? if it was a write off.

Cat D can be put back on the road, it is not illegal to sell. Cat D is worth fixing just not to the cost of the insurer(cheaper for them to write off)

As I said, dh bought a written-off car. Repaired it, MOT'd it, got it VIC checked to prove it wasn't a ringer or cut and shut, and then got his registration document. We drive around in it quite happily. If it has a V5 then presumably it has been through that process and is all fully legal now?

It may be okay. It's not illegal. We had to write a car off recently which annoyed me environmentally etc but wasn't worth the cost but it could have been made roadworthy and safe easily.

Has the seller breached the contract in any way?

My friend had a small prang in an old car. The ins co wrote it off as it would have cost more than 50% of the cars value to repair, but the repairs were all cosmetic, so she legally) kept it and is driving it unrepaired. Written off def doesn't mean illegal or unroadworthy.

Well how do I find out if it is roadworthy then. Cosmetically there are bits missing so I need to know it is not a botch job altogether. I don't want to pay out on it if possible to then find out it isn't safe. I have been involved in 3 RTA's before and one was in a Cut & Shut so I can't help but be wary.

Sadly ours was no longer legal even though I thought it was fairly cosmetic prang and we got stopped by police I think 2 or 3 times and decided too risky to keep it going. A sad day. My sister's has been hurt this week and apparently is a right off as would cost £1600 to repair and I bet that one would be quite safe if just repaired.

MOT?

There is lots of stuff on the net about this. The biggest problem with a Cat D write-off (economical write-off) is that you may have trouble finding someone to insure it. The only was to check it is roadworthy is to get someone qualified to check it (AA/RAC will do this for a fee?). Does it have a cuurent MOT? I think under the new system you can check this with the DVLA now.