Bought Car Privately - Unsafe

I was an idiot and bought a car privately without getting it checked out properly. I checked it out myself obviously (I wouldn't know much), I checked the service history and I got an AA report on it. However a mechanic didn't check it over. I hold my hands up to the above. Never again.

I had the car 6 days before noticing oil drops on the driveway.

Long story short, took it to get checked out and there's thousands of euro worth or work (pretty much a write-off) to sort a whole list of stuff out. Now I'm well aware of Caveat Emptor, my query is slightly different.

There are several items on the list that should result in instant NCT failure and hence the car is unsafe. The NCT passed about 2 months ago. The faults would have been present at the time of the NCT I'm told. I bought the car thinking that because the NCT was done so recently, these things wouldn't arise. I contacted the garage that had serviced the car for the past couple of years and he tells me he is very surprised it passed the NCT.

Do I have any comeback? Or can I take any action against the NCT crowd?

If the car is dangerous you are entitled to your money back, it does not matter that the seller was a private person.

put like this, if you bought it from a garage you would go right back it would be a trade sale, a person selling a car is also a trader so same terms apply ie it is a still a trade and you can't sell a pig in a poke and get away with it, but can you find the seller??

get your money back.

noah

Yeah I have his address. It's on the NCT cert!

RedDevil said:

If the car is dangerous you are entitled to your money back, it does not matter that the seller was a private person.

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+1

[broken link removed] - "Vehicles are often advertised by private individuals ... Your only right to redress is if the car is sold with a defect that would endanger people driving it. ... "

Have a look at http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1980/en/act/pub/0016/sec0013.html, and pay particular attention to paragraph (2). If the vehicle is unsafe, you have rights you can assert. If it is seriously unsafe, you should have a right to repudiate the contract. You will need to be careful about getting good technical evidence that would stand up in court if the matter goes that far.

Bear in mind that faults that do not make the car unsafe are different, and you might have no comeback there. But I am puzzled at the idea that there is a full service history yet the person who serviced the car was surprised that it had passed the NCT. Was the service history authentic? If it wasn't, you might have a case for misrepresentation, but it would probably be difficult to proceed on that alone.

Don't focus your attention on the NCT (at least, not yet). If you have a good claim, it is in the first instance against the person who sold the car to you.

camel said:

There are several items on the list that should result in instant NCT failure and hence the car is unsafe.

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What were the items ?

What make of car was it ?

Has it been reregistered in your name since purchase ?

Billo,

BMW,.
I was so bamboozled by the list that was being called out to me that I didn't pay attention to the exact ones he said should have failed the NCT, but I'll get clarification from the garage and post back. For now some of the items include (there are about 20 in all): 1) both rear springs broken, 2) rear metal brake lines corroded, 3) rear trailing arm bushes split, 4) propshaft coupling split, 5) exhaust flex joint split, 6) front flexi brake hoses cracked, 7) wishbones need replacing, 8) rear mounts gone, .....etc

I don't know what half of that stuff means myself.

Padraigb,

Agree about the service history, we're not sure what to make of it. The type of service that was apparently done on it should have resulted in prevention of some of the issues found (such as brake lines corroded), and the fuel and air filters look like they were not changed.

By the way, I'm getting a second opinion from a completely seperate BMW specialist tomorrow as regards 'the list'.