Browns car company - Essex : faulty used car -court claim issued

[toystorydog]

Thankyou very much for the draft.

 

May I ask if I should keep using "claimant" and "defendant" in my particulars of claim or to use "I" and "seller"? or would either be more appropriate as a litigate in person?

 

Thank you in advance.

[toystorydog]

Dear Bankfodder, Thankyou for the responds.

 

I have calculated the costs as below. While I am using the new (beta) MoneyClaim online platform, is it correct that since there is a separate section to input each individual claim amount, I don't have to restate it in the "Particulars of Claims"?

 

Vehicle purchase price                                 £8899
Transportation fee                                         £200
Johns Garage Diagnostic fee                      £30
BVS Brackley Ltd Diagnostic fee                 £40
Road Tax (Sept 2022 ~ Jul 2023)               £201.67
Motor Insurance (23 Aug ~ 18 Oct 22)      £130.59
Jump starter with air compressor              £99
Sub Total:                                                        £9600.26
Daily Interest calculated                               £2.10 per day

 

Also, regarding the claim amount, may I inquire as to the appropriate date for claiming interest? Is it from the date after my initial request for a refund, 14 days after my initial request date, 14 days after the vehicle collection, or the court claim date. The new (beta) MoneyClaim platform defaults to starting from the court claim submission date.

 

Thankyou for your time.

[toystorydog]

Happy new year all, wish everyone here had a relaxing holiday.

 

I have finally received a response from the official responds from seller thru the "Online Civil Money Claims". It was very long but seems responded only to one of the many reported faults which is the engine noise / timing belt issue. They did not responds to any other faults diagnosed and reported.

 

Seller has quoted old cases as their defense.

" 9. Further, the Defendant will rely on Bartlett v Sidney Marcus [1965] 1 WLR 1013, per Lord Denning:
“On the sale of a second-hand car, it is merchantable if it is in a usable condition, even if not perfect...A buyer should realise that when he buys a
second-hand car, defects may appear sooner or later and, in the absence of an express warranty otherwise, he has no redress.”
10. Moreover, the Defendant will rely upon the persuasive authority of Thain v Anniesland Trade Centre [1997] SLT (Sh Ct) 102, in which a second-
hand car was held to have been sold in a state of satisfactory quality, despite developing a catastrophic gearbox fault after two weeks use.

 

I wonder if it is appropriate to update the whole pdf document here for advise?

[toystorydog]

Thankyou BankFodder, please find in the attachment

354MC672-claim-response.pdf

[toystorydog]

Thankyou for the responds - dx100uk and BankFodder

 

The filed particulars of claim is as follow:

 

Reason for claim:
3.1. I purchased a vehicle registration number ....... from the seller (Browns Car Company Ltd) for £ 8899.
3.2. The car was not of satisfactory quality. The defects were reported to the seller within 4 days of purchase. The seller collected the vehicle and promised to reimburse the me, but has since reneged on that promise and refused any reimbursement.
3.3. I have rejected the vehicle and claims full reimbursement under the short term right to reject in the Consumer Rights Act of 2015.

 

And the email correspondent that I received from seller previously was as follow:

 

"We do not operate to distance sale regulations as it falls outside of our day-to-day business. We are not a predominate distance seller.

You can opt out of distance sale providing it isn't your main source of business.

 

Browns car company Ltd"

 

and

 

"CRA2015 AND distance sale are two different things they are not the same thing.

Yes you can opt out of distance sale regulations if it is not part of your day-to-day business.

I think we are just going round in circles.

We will sell the car on your behalf as we do not feel there is an issue or you can issue court proceedings.

There isn't much else to discuss.

 

Browns car company Ltd"

 

Please feel free to comment & advise.

[toystorydog]

Dear,

 

I have some progress updates about the case and a couple of questions.

The seller has employed a company named "Lawgistics Ltd." (A Legal experts from the motor trade) and made another "gesture of goodwill" offered the refund of the car's purchase price only. But requested that I withdraw the current court claim immediately. The email came three days before the district judge's order mentioned cancellation deadline.

Regarding the court procedure status: The small claims court had arranged a mediation session back in January; the seller had accepted it, but their representative failed to show up on the accepted time slot. Hence, the mediation had failed.

The court has made a judgement to hold a 30-minute hearing session via MS Teams for both parties. The case has now been transferred to my local court and is waiting to be scheduled for the hearing session.

 

I do not intend to accept this "goodwill gesture" because I do not know the legitimacy of the company "Lawgistics Ltd." and thus believe it is not legally binding.

 

I wonder if any experts here know about this company, "Lawgistics Ltd." What are the tricks they are playing here? Are these common strategies for these types of businesses? And lastly, what are your thoughts about their moves?

 

I wish you a wonderful weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

[toystorydog]

Thankyou both for your feedback.

 

I may be overthinking their logic and strategies, but the fact that the seller suddenly agreed to refund the vehicle purchase price at this point must mean they understood the chances of winning were not high; agreeing to settle via small court tribunal would be logical and most certain to minimise further loss due to incurring interest and vehicle depreciation.

 

Well, I shall get ready for the hearing session and find out what will happen.

[toystorydog]

Dear

 

I'd like to ask for further help to prepare my upcoming first hearing session and the evidence bundle to be submitted before the session?

 

I've read the "Preparing your court bundle," but the session is going to be conducted via MS Teams. I would like to ask if anyone can help by sharing the best way to prepare the documents package and send them to the court.

 

The main evidence and time line of what happened and the exchange of conversation were already submitted and summarized in the claim form. But the actual email conversation records have never been submitted, I believe I need to send all the mentioned conversation exchanges with the seller, as both parties will likely refer to them. Also, I will submit the latest "goodwill gesture" that the seller offered to a full refund offer via Lawgistics.

 

Should I prepare a single file (pdf) with all of the mentioned emails in a table of contents so the judge can search for the corespondent emails and documents in a single file? Or is it preferable to keep each email and document separately?

 

Thankyou in advance, any advice will be appreciated.

 

[toystorydog]

Thank you DX for your reply,

 

Sorry, I'd like to confirm. Is it that I should review other witness statement regarding the format layout to create the exhibits, or should I prepare the entire witness statement together with the email records and documents as exhibits?

The order that the judge issued was "for a directions hearing to consider the need for expert evidence and any other directions". And in the notice of hearing, there was no request to submit the witness statement. The letter also provided an email address to submit any documents or evidence for my hearing; that is why I wanted to submit the conservation records with the defendant prior to the hearing in case they were referenced.

The reason that I ask is because the witness statement example that I found below seems very difficult to prepare. I am afraid that if mistakes were made in the witness statement, it would put me in an unfavorable position. Thankyou for your time

 

[toystorydog]

Thank you Bankfodder, I'll try to prepare one file with similar structure as described in the court bundle.

 

I'll come back for further advice when needed. Thankyou

[toystorydog]

Here is the court order and notice of hearing for ref.

 

Thankyou

Notice of hearing.pdf Court order.pdf

[toystorydog]

Thankyou dx,

Dear All,

The hearing was conducted about 2 weeks ago, defendant did not show up. Judge decided he needed to see a joint expert report before making decision.

Attached is the court order. Looks like I'll need a lot of help as like there are lots to preparation listed in point 4.

I have reach out the Automotive Consulting Engineers as well as IAEA to search engineers available but only a few have responded. And some responded only will work with a solicitor. It seems like not very easy to find suitable inspection service. I'd like to ask where else I can find suitable service to conduct a joint expert inspection service?

I'd like to ask advise on how to prepare a letter of instruction to expert?

Any helps and advice will be appreciated. Thankyou in advance.

 

24 May 23 - N157.pdf

[toystorydog]

Thx dx,

I'm going to ask them more clearly again tomorrow, I remember I've asked them previously but they said they didn't offer.

[toystorydog]

Dear all,

Here is an update of case progress and questions on witness statement.

After sending many emails and made phone calls to find potential experts. I have successfully provided three options along with their quotes and references. A joint instruction was drafted by defendant's representative (lawgistics) and I've added all of the faults identified as focuses, along with evidence photos, car advertisement as reference ; it shall be finalize then send to the SJE by coming Monday.

 

Next, I need to create a witness statement for the court. After examining the defendant's response, I believe their main defense, aside from stating that the car was inspected and delivered without any issues, is that the diagnostic report I provided was a quotation rather than an inspection report. However, I had actually asked the defendant about their instructions for refund, return, and the requirements for an inspection garage before obtaining the requested second opinion. I sent an email confirming their selection criteria, but I didn't receive any response from the defendant. Even after submitting the second report, the defendant hasn't raised any objections or issues. I intend to stress on this point that the defendant is non-transparent, uncooperative on top of my consumer rights.

 

Draft witness statement attached. Please comment what you think?

Please advise if I have missed any significant argument which would add on to strengthen my claim?

Or if any points I made are not relevant to the court that I should remove for simplicity and different focus for judge to consider?

Thankyou in advance

 

Witness Statement draft.pdf

 

[toystorydog]

Thank you very much, your points are brilliant and exactly what I am looking for. I'll go back and rework on my statement.

About the MOT, the last one was done at a MOT center close to the defendant's location. Likely to be corroborative to the defendant.

The expert we agreed upon will avoid using the same garage and instead use his trusted one nearby. The garage where I obtained the second diagnostic is also an authorized MOT center. He mentioned that a disconnected and bypassed brake sensor should fail the MOT test. I hope this information will be included in the upcoming expert's report.

While I have photos showing the disconnected brake and other faults taken during the inspection at the garage, I am concerned that the defendant may have made changes to the vehicle after it was collected. I hope the court will take this possibility into account if it is indeed true.

[toystorydog]

Excellent, just added to the instruction about his opinion about MOT likelihood to pass at present condition as well as based on photos provided on top of already asked whether there are signs of recent repairs.

 

About the copy to the court, I wonder is that copy together in the witness statement and court bundle package? or CC together when submit to the SJE?

[toystorydog]

I mean when you saids to produced the expert joint instruction the court. Is it put together in the court bundle?

 

[toystorydog]

The name of the MOT was

ARROW AUTO SERVICES
17 STATION ROAD, MALDON, CM9 4LQ

The defendant is aware that I have the photos of the faults since I submitted them along with the vehicle rejection. I doubt they would be daring enough to tamper with such an obvious issue. However, one can never be completely certain.

I am certain that the defendant will try to shift the blame to user abuse or something that occurred while the vehicle was in my possession.

[toystorydog]

Thankyou so much, I wonder any particular insight I should be aiming to retrieve here ? Or just any information they can provide potentially may show that there are some influence from defendant to the original MOT test result?

Anything else I should add to the following draft:

Dear,

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to inform you about a pressing matter regarding a vehicle inspection that relates to a court case. The vehicle in question is associated with Browns Car Company in Essex.

As part of the legal proceedings, an expert report is being prepared for the court, and the inspection of the car at your MOT centre plays a crucial role in this process. I would like to emphasize that if the appointed inspector concludes that the vehicle should not have passed its MOT, your centre will be mentioned in the expert report.

Given the urgency of the matter, I kindly request that if you have any information or concerns related to the car's inspection, please reach out to me as soon as possible. Your prompt response would be greatly appreciated, as it will allow us to accurately present the facts in the court case.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Kind regards,

 

 

[toystorydog]

Thankyou for posting the template, I'll use this one.

Based on your above comments on the witness statement, I've made changes as draft 2 attached. Can you please take a look if this version are better now?

Witness Statement copy_draft2.pdf