Hello, a week ago bought a Volkswagen 1989 lt35 van from ebay which had been converted to a camper van. The owner claimed that he had bought it last year but hadn’t really used it although a ‘friend’ had and said everything was fine except the side door which was awkward to close sometimes.
3 days ago my girlfriend and I used it for the first time to go camping. On arrival at the campsite the side door actually came completely off it’s runners and fell on me. That wasn’t the worst however… Whilst driving home, the brakes gave completely whilst approaching stationary traffic at 30-40 mph resulting in us hitting a van, mounting the pavement, bouncing off a wall, hitting a lorry before crashing into a lamp post. A worker in a high vis jacket had to vault a wall other wise he would have been run over. We were so lucky that no one was injured or worse.
The AA man that came out to see us showed us that our brake tubing was completely corroded through and all the fluid had leaked out. We have kept the tubing in case we need it as evidence.
We had only travelled approximately 250 miles in it - including the 170 miles home from the seller.
What would be our rights in this situation?
I have since found out that the previous owner did not buy the van ‘last year’ as he claimed – his ebay history states he bought it in April 2011. The MOT was valid from march however.
Kind Regards,
Jason
3 days ago my girlfriend and I used it for the first time to go camping. On arrival at the campsite the side door actually came completely off it’s runners and fell on me. That wasn’t the worst however… Whilst driving home, the brakes gave completely whilst approaching stationary traffic at 30-40 mph resulting in us hitting a van, mounting the pavement, bouncing off a wall, hitting a lorry before crashing into a lamp post. A worker in a high vis jacket had to vault a wall other wise he would have been run over. We were so lucky that no one was injured or worse.
The AA man that came out to see us showed us that our brake tubing was completely corroded through and all the fluid had leaked out. We have kept the tubing in case we need it as evidence.
We had only travelled approximately 250 miles in it - including the 170 miles home from the seller.
What would be our rights in this situation?
I have since found out that the previous owner did not buy the van ‘last year’ as he claimed – his ebay history states he bought it in April 2011. The MOT was valid from march however.
Kind Regards,
Jason