It’s second hand – do I have any rights?
There is a section devoted specifically to buying from online auction sites such as ebay, but for now there are some points to bear in mind when buying second-hand.
Firstly, remember that the statutory entitlement of quality and fitness for purpose only applies when buying from someone who is ‘acting in the course of a business’ i.e a second-hand car dealer. You do not have any legal recourse as regards quality where you are buying through an individual who is selling an item as a one-off private sale (although they must have legal title and it must be as described in the advert).
Secondly, when buying second hand, there is a general recognition in law that the reduced price you pay reflects the risk in taking ownership of something with a greater likelihood of developing faults or breaking down completely. You pay less because it is recognised you will have to pay the repair costs yourself rather than relying on the manufacturer’s warranty.
But what if you buy something which breaks down shortly afterwards leaving you with a massive repair bill. Could you argue that the seller was aware of this fault but said nothing? This may be difficult to prove.
Or is it the case that it is something a pre-sale examination by you should have revealed? Not if the fault only because apparent after some weeks of use.
Depending on the problems encountered (safety implications for example, if it is a car), the length of time you’ve had it, the price you paid and your expectations of the future usage, you may have a good chance of rejecting the item and claiming a full refund.
More Common Complaints
- They say I’ve taken ownership so it’s my responsibility
- Do shops have to give me my money back?
- The shop doesn’t want to know, they say it is the manufacturer’s responsibility.
Your Statutory Rights
Related posts:
Hello – I recently bought a car from a second-hand car dealer. I test drove it in the local streets and it was fine.
However, as I drove it home on the motorway, the gearbox squeaked (in 5th gear). I have been to a garage (a clutch and gearbox specialist who specializes in the make of my car) who has told me that the gearbox is faulty.
I know that the car was driven in 5th gear by the dealer, because he has two sites – one in Bolton, and one in Bryn, and the car went to Bolton and back to Bryn for it’s MOT test. So they should have noticed the fault and told me. They didn’t.
When I reported the fault to the dealer, he told me that I had bought the car “without warranty.”
I’m unsure as to what my rights are in this instance. Am I entitled to charge him for the repairs?
Many thanks in advance.
Rachel, traders frequently make reference to a warranty to get round their obligations under Sale of Goods. Although the law makes provision for the risk you take when buying second hand, the item should still function as described and be of good quality (of course the age and price of the car will be taken into account). The dealer is liable for repair of the car if it is unroadworthy, but you must give him the opportunity to do it himself before taking it to a third party and billing him. If you end up doing this and he refuses you can recoup your costs through teh small claims court, but you must show that you gave him ample opportunity.
Hi.
Recently i purchased an item from a Amazon marketplace seller. The item was a gift and it arrived late and damaged. The item was a secondhand used tape cassette. and the tape box had a crack in it. When buying item. I read the description of item and there was no mention of damaged to tape box. When asked about damage. The seller states item was sent out undamaged and blames RM. What are my statutory rights returning damaged second hand goods.
Greg, Because you are buying from a private seller, and this is a second-hand item, you will not be have the statutory right to quality, and you will not be covered by the distance selling regs. Therefore there is no automatic remedy here and little chance of success if you cannot prove that the item was in that state before it was sent.
Hi
I recently bought a second hand Nintendo DS privately, which was described as:
FULL WORKING ORDER, GREAT CONDITION, NEVER USED (I have saved a copy of the advert).
When I went to pick the item up during a lunchtime, so we met in a public place. I thought that the unit looked a bit odd and it did not swich on but the seller said she had lost the charger and assured me it worked fine. I bought a charger and have found that the unit does not work at all! I have tried to contact the seller, but she is not returning my calls or emails.
I am guessing that there is not very much I can do apart from reporting this to the Police and letting the relevant website know.
Do you have any other suggestions (apart from not being so stupid next time!)?
Laura, You have my sympathies, I was in the same position, also with a Nintendo DS, although I paid with Paypal, so I’m now persuing them for a full refund. The problem with private sales is that you have no right to good quality – although you do have the right to expect the item as described. If you have the sellers full contact details, you might want to think about making a small claim. Otherwise in future, always insist on paying via Paypal because you will be protected if things do not go acccording to plan.
i found a car i liked put down deposit of £100 prior to test driving it i was too busy that day so had to test drive it another day. i then signed the contract but after 24hours changed my mine about the model chose another model but whilst test driving it found out certain features advertised were not available. i have not completed a new contract can i get out of the first contract
Shirley, You are legally bound to buy the make and model of car as specified on your contract. YOu have no automatic legal right to get out of the first contract unless that car is significantly not as described or of significantly poor quality that you were led to believe (i.e breach of your statutory rights). You may have to rely on the goodwill of the dealer, but they do not have to return your deposit.
I bought a car for £5,000 from a used car dealer. After six months a serious, longstanding fault was noticed by a mechanic which cost £900 to fix. After spending the money the headgasket blew, yet the car is low mileage and is only 4 years old. As soon as the first fault was noticed I contacted the dealer and the warranty company. It turned out the warranty was never validated so was void. The dealer is unwilling to deal with me, yet the car is clearly not fit for purpose. If it was a truly older car then I would accept the risk but a £5,000 newish vehicle should surely perform better. To date I have spent £1,500 on repairs with another £1,500 to come. Surely I am entitled to some compensation?
Adam, I agree – taking into account the price paid the length of time you have had it. Warranties are now legally binding, so you could claim misrepresentation having bought something you thought had the protection of a warranty but did not. If you can get reports from the mechanic saying what was wrong and how much it cost to fix your best course of action is probably the small claims court, where you may be able to get some or all of this money back. Have you seen this?
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/buying-a-car/ and this:
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/making-a-small-claim/
I recently bought a car from a second had dealer over EBAY. I got a good price and the car seemed fine, but after a week and a half the head gasket blew and will require a repair of at least £1000. I called the dealer and they claimed that they are not obligated to repair is it was marked as a “Trade Sale”/Auction sale. They offered to help me sell the car as/is to get some of my money back, but refused to repair the car or take it back. What are my rights in this instance? Is the dealer obligated to repair?
Alan, you have a statutory right to quality if you bought the car from a seller acting as a commercial trader (i.e. not a private sale). Nothing can take away these statutory rights and your right to remedy under Sale of Goods, this is the case regardless of how the sale was ‘marked’. Therefore if the vehicle is not of satisfactory quality you have the right to a repair at no additional cost and within reasonable time.
I am considering starting up a business selling second hand baby goods like pushchairs, clothing, cots and so on. These will obvoiusly be sold at a cheaper price than if they were brand new. If a customer buys a pushchair which is in perfect working order brings it back with a fault or something has broken on it, would i have to give a refund?
Kate, there is a general recognition that second hand prices will reflect the variable standard of quality. Therefore customers won’t really have a basis on which to bring something back which is of poor quality – unless it really isn’t fit for purpose, or unsafe. My advice would be to put up notices to this effect, and make people aware of any faults before they buy. Make a note of any major faults which the customer has accepted on the receipt.
I recently bought a second hand vehicle from a dealer, I have only had it for 36 hours and already faults are occurring, I have been back to the dealer to request the vehicle that I swapped it for to be returned…. am i within my rights to expect return of my previous vehicle?
My daughter bought a 4 year old MGZR from a local well established dealer, for £5000 of which £4000 was on finance arranged by the dealer. 5 weeks afterwards it needed a new clutch and the cylinder head gasket had blown.
The garage repaired the car, but wanted £70 from us towards the cost of the repair, for “diagnosis” which they say was not covered by the warranty.
Only a week later the car ran out of water/coolant and is needing filling up every couple of days. It is booked in back at the garage for repair again, but what are our rights if we demand a full refund? And if they arwe reluctant to stand the cost of repair?
Ellena, Sale of Goods doesn’t distinguish between brand new and second hand as far as quality is concerned. However, if you put it to the test, account will be taken of price paid, age and expected lifetime of the product. Your daughter paid a considerable amount of money and the problems have happened shortly afterwards, therefore it would have been reasonable to expect a repair at the dealer’s expense, who should not have charged you £70. Those are your rights under Sale of Goods – nothing to do with the warranty. I’m not sure you would have a reasonable basis on which to reject the car completely, but this time I would not part with any cash for the repair and would expect a substitute car to be provided while it is being fixed. See: http://whatconsumer.co.uk/buying-a-car/ for more on this.
My girlfriend and I have a off the road vehicle on our drive which someone has recently asked if he can buy. We never advertised the fact it was for sale but it has been sat there for some months now. The car has no tax, mot and multiple problems (brakes faulty, brakes seized, underside rusty etc). I have explained this to the chap in question and his response was his dad owns a garage and is looking to fix it up and sell it on. The guy is adament that he wants this car and keeps calling round to see if he can still have it.
Can this come back and bite us on the ass if we sell it, even after we have explained all the faults with it?
Any advice would be great.
Danny, if you choose to reject the car on the basis that it is of unsatisfactory quality, you must be returned to the position you were in before. This implies the return of your part-ex, or the equivilent value thereof. However, in order to reject the car you must show that the quality issue is significant and it is practically unroadworthy, or significantly not as described. If you can’t, you may have to accept a repair in the first instance.
Chris, it shouldn’t as long as the car isn’t misdescribed. You need to cover yourself by creating a written agreement detailing all the faults and indicating the buyers agreement to the terms of the sale – i.e that the car is unroadworthy.
hi i bought a second hand car 6 weeks ago and have had problems with it i got it diagnosed as the head gasket and have discovered that it is the water pump and have been told that i get a 90 day guarantee under soga when i mentioned this to the garage they said the warranty only applies to cars bought for over £1000 is this true?
any help would be good thanks
No that is not true, they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes Christopher. However, age, mileage, price paid etc. are important factors. So if the car you bought has 200,000 on the clock and you paid £100 for it could be expected. There is no automatic £1000 threshold.
i recently purchased a vintage 2nd hand game of ebay it arrived damaged,as ebay rules i sent it back and recieved a full refund however it cost me £7.00 to return it can i claim my postage costs back?
thanks vinnie
i asked a second hand shop to sell a mobile phone for me
which he has done,i have been in and asked for the money but have been told that the law states that i have to wait 14 days before i can have the money
Hello, I have today bought a second hand car for 975 and it is an s reg. On the journey home from the dealer the cars gears stopped working and now i cannot even put the car in reverse! He told me there that i would not be covered by a warranty, but surely theres something not quite right about this! I simply am requesting to know my entitlements about a repair?
Thankyou
Lee
I bought a second-hand car just over a month ago and now the battery has died. The car is less than five years old – is it right that this is “standard wear and tear”, given how long car batteries are supposed to last? I’ve known them last a decade and more in the past. I can’t see how it can be. Am I being fobbed off, and is this something the seller should have mentioned when I was buying it?
hi there
my brother who is disabled and has special needs went and bought a laptop from a store called CEX who buy and sell a varity of goods. the store had sold him a laptop which to me seems over priced and the laptop had frozen twice. within 24 hours i took the laptop back and demanded a refund, instead i was given a store voucher for the same ammount and told due to company policy they cannot give me a cash refund as the laptop seems to in a fully working condition. i asked the “acting manager” for a copy of the store policy which he supplied and asked him what are my statutory rights as it says on your policy that my statutory rights are not affected? he froze,”errr”…. He then typed into google and was saying to me “well it basically means” i replied to him “i dont want to know what it basically means, can i have a copy” he gave me a copy of the front page of the website and replied to me “the stastutory rights dont apply to us the same as every other store as we are not selling and new goods and the management reserves.
i spent an hour in the store and got fed up so i took their names and the poxy store voucher the gave me and walked out. the laptop froze twice and is over priced, do i have the right to a cash refund even though they have taken the laptop back and give me the voucher? i need as much advise as possible. THANK YOU EVERYONE!
Hi
I recently bought a car from a local dealer. It is a vauxhall corsa 1.4 sri, 9 years old 76000 miles, and i paid 2500 for it. The dealer gave me 28 days’ warranty. I have had the car for six weeks and I believe the cylinder head gasket has blown (oil contaminated with water, loss of water). I have only noticed this today when i went to check the oil level. Do you think I have any case against the dealer? I do not wish to reject the vehicle, I would be happy with a satisfactory repair.
I recently purchased a 200 Chevy Impala for 4900 CASH. The dealer was very kindhearted and not like a normal down your throat dealer would be expected to act. The radiator needed replaced before I took it home so he had that done and I came to pick the car up the next day. When I got home, a few days later the blinker would make a weird noise and than not work at all, sometimes it would and than shut off in the middle of this…I have a NB baby and this is dangerous! I recently took my car to a part store and found out its the multifunction switch which cost 510.00 to replace without labor costs! I bought this as is warranty..so do I have any rights?