Issuing court procedings...

[sacko]

Right, cutting a long story short here..

A family member buys a car with an MOT put on it a the week before.

A couple of days later the head gasket goes. No major problem, takes it to his friends garage and they both repair it £50 later.

Whilst on the ramps they notice brake bias valves being bi-passed, inner sills corroded, lower arms nackered and a list of other defects with the vehicle.

Vosa have been called out to inspect the vehicle and after a couple of pages of advisorys have said that the vehicle shouldnt have passed the MOT etc, and advise on taking the private seller of the vehicle to court.

Personally I think that taking the garage to court is the best way? Surely the private seller could just plead neglagance and say he gave it to the garage and trusted their opinion?

Any advice/personal experience would be great. After getting thrown pillar to post via CAB/Trading Standards/Consumer Direct we are getting bit hacked off..

:cheers2:

[tourerjim]

Theirs not alot you can do without legal costings, however best way is get ya money back or court him for cost to put it right.

[Si Goodchild]

Write to Honest John in the Telegraph Motoring section or for a quick answer visit their website. You're more likely to get informed fact than opinion there.

[Gate88]

I've had this many times, last time I had a dodgy MOT on a car and I was able to prove it, I went back to the seller and told him I'd been nicked for bald tyres, horn not working, blah blah blah, (I hadn't) he didnt want any trouble especialy for his mates at the MOT station so I demanded a couple of hundred quid back. Then I went to the MOT station and told them that as it obviously had a "loose" ticket on it I had been in touch with the ministry.

Of course the MOT station wanted to make sure that the car dissapeared so that it could never be properly checked so they made me an offer of well over what I paid for it so that they could dispose of it.

So all in all my advice is threaten everybody, the bloke that sold it wont want trading standards all over him, the garage arent going to want a VOSA inquiry because they risk having their licence taken away, and you now hold all the aces cause you've got the car (evidence), demand money & lots of it.

But a word of caution, once you've opened the can of worms dont park the car outside your house or it will probably go missing.

[trvo]

Sounds a bit suspect to me, head gasket is just one of those unlucky things which you can't really predict (I think).

The rest however should have been picked up by a Vosa trained mechanic / engineer. Sounds to me like it was a mate doing a mate a favour in the hope it wouldn't be picked up.

I'd contact the owner first and see what they say, maybe the mechanic told and charged the individual to repair the items and didn't actually do it or just bodged it to get it out the door?

Trev

[Mabery]

Hi paul,
I have my own car sales garage and I will try to help you out, first you have no come back with the private person on the street, you pays your money and takes the chance, you will have to take MOT station to court, give a solicitor a call, but your home insurance might have legal cover on.
Have you asked the MOT center to repair the work? They might instead of legal procedings and or bad press
Hope this helps Martin

[sacko]

Cheers for the advice all.

Headgasket is one of those things unfortuantely. We have a prinout from VOSA engineers of what the defects are. Out of the lists, I would guess the only thing that I could prove is;

[LIST][*]Nearside rear (sill) Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded [2.4.A.2][/LIST]

[LIST][*]Offside rear (sill) Suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded [2.4.A.2][/LIST]

..as this must have happened previous to the MOT.

I am currently writing a letter to the MOT station with demands, failure to meet those demands and I will issue court proceedings etc.

Tried the 'asking nicely' ;) to the seller with no joy, just pleaded ignorance.

[simoncalver]

paul you have no chance will the seller,
but the garage that put the ticket on it will be in serious trouble if the defects could not have happened since the ticket ie rust done apear in two weeks.
if the garage owner put the ticket on he will loose his licence and garage
if its one of his workers he will get in trouble but not as much as the boss can plead ignorance.
a mate on my industrial estate has a mot station i will go and ask him now,
pretty sure you can get dvla/vosa involved in the dispute which the garage owner will not want
cash settlemant the way forwards me thinks

[simoncalver]

Right just spoke to my mate,
you need to speak with vosa in gillingham which should be your nearest and speak to lynn apparently.
what you need to do is get an apeal form filled out which needs to be done within 3 months of the mot for majour faults ie the rot.
and as i thought the garage owner will lose his ticket to do mots if he done that ticket himself.my mate said he would pay whatever you demanded within reason to keep vosa of his back and keep his garage open. if you get stuck let me know and i will sort some phone numbers out for you etc :cheers2:

[themagician]

dodgy mot

[quote=sacko;322221]Right, cutting a long story short here..

A family member buys a car with an MOT put on it a the week before.

A couple of days later the head gasket goes. No major problem, takes it to his friends garage and they both repair it £50 later.

Whilst on the ramps they notice brake bias valves being bi-passed, inner sills corroded, lower arms nackered and a list of other defects with the vehicle.

Vosa have been called out to inspect the vehicle and after a couple of pages of advisorys have said that the vehicle shouldnt have passed the MOT etc, and advise on taking the private seller of the vehicle to court.

Personally I think that taking the garage to court is the best way? Surely the private seller could just plead neglagance and say he gave it to the garage and trusted their opinion?

Any advice/personal experience would be great. After getting thrown pillar to post via CAB/Trading Standards/Consumer Direct we are getting bit hacked off..

:cheers2:[/quote] please try c.a.g. site( consumer advice group )fantastic for legal advice on all matters.best advice in the world for bad debt recovery from dca,s.:cheers2:

[Hangar-7]

A few great guys helping you here Paul. I had a word with my local garage who have been looking after my car for over 10 years. They also repeated similar to what has been said here. MOT licence = livelyhood for a garage.

It is likely that the boss of the grarge probably does not know that a dodgey MOT cert has been issued.

It seems you're going to get the car sorted or cash back from the garage but you could have done without these hassles.:(:(

Good luck.

Edit :
Same advice from my garage as well - park your car somewhere else or take out the ignition coil/ leads.

[jboweruk]

[quote=Hangar-7;322280]A few great guys helping you here Paul. I had a word with my local garage who have been looking after my car for over 10 years. They also repeated similar to what has been said here. MOT licence = livelyhood for a garage.

It is likely that the boss of the grarge probably does not know that a dodgey MOT cert has been issued.

It seems you're going to get the car sorted or cash back from the garage but you could have done without these hassles.:(:(

Good luck.

Edit :
Same advice from my garage as well - park your car somewhere else or take out the ignition coil/ leads.[/quote]

I'd say the former, as the latter is not much defence, they have quiet means of car removal if they wish.....

[Hangar-7]

[quote=jboweruk;322336]I'd say the former, as the latter is not much defence, they have quiet means of car removal if they wish.....[/quote]

:iagree::iagree::iagree: -moving HT leads is something than leaving it on the drive - you may buy a min or two before the car gets towed away.

[jiberjaber]

Rot in teh suspension areas is a bugger to fix - I would go for getting rid of the car if possible.

[3d_willz]

hi all i am an mot tester and it sounds to me like the tester knew the seller or maybe the corrosion on the rear of the suspension mounting is covered by a sideskirt on the doorsill or something.
the brakes well if there is no corrosion on the pipes or the hoses are not deteriated and the braking efficiency is good on the rolling road then that is enough to pass.
the mot on a vehicle is the minimum safety requirment on the day of the test only.
we test vehicles and can still miss something that another tester wont miss this is rare with serious defects but can happen.

if you purchase an unroadworthy vehicle and it is less than 28 days since you purchased it then you have a right to either demand the car be fixed or your money back.
this is also true if you purchsed the vehicle privately but will be hard to prove if the seller did'nt give you a receipt.
go to any citizens advice centre and they will confirm this.

mark