bought a car privatley not knowing it was insurance write off

[confused79]

I bought a car last year in very good condition privately off a man, i like to add im a female. I test drove it etc, and was happy with it. Just before christmas i had a accident whereby i was lucky i am stil here as i lost control of the car on a roundabout only going slow hit the outside barrier and it threw me and car across to other side of road onto on coming traffic. My insurance company wrote the car off. Only until the claim was going through did my insurance company tell me my car was a previous insurance write off, thus making my pay out excessivly lower than i had expected. I understand it should be my responsiblity to check this out before i bought it, but is the person i bought car from at fault for not telling me the car was previous write off, as i certainly woudlnt have bought it and i wouldnt of put my 3 children in the car.
I am considering taking this man to a small claims court, but i want to know will it be worth while.
I now have reason to beleive the car may have been faulty.

Category C and Category D Registered Cars

[jake-the-peg]

I'm not clear from your post whether you believe tha car was faulty because it had been the subject of an insurance write-off or whether you have additional cause to believe this.

Just because the car had been the subject of an insurance write-off does not mean that it was faulty in itself.

It's highly likely that it was just that the cost to repair may have been more than 60% of the value of the car.

Buying the car privately you really have the responsibility of checking these things for yourself.

For example you could have sold the car privately yourself before the accident and then someone could have come back to you with this complaint.

I don't think the law would take your gender into consideration :c)

In what way do you think the car was defective?
Was that a consequence of the repair?
Did the man you bought it from do the repair?
and would he have to have been aware that the repair was faulty?

Personally I rather suspect that you'd have a bit of an uphill struggle on this one. You're actually quite fortunate that your insurance company is paying up at all - they could have sat on their hands and said that a material fact affecting the cars value (it's history) hadn't been disclosed to them.

[Ethel]

Buying privately does not give you the same rights as buying from a trader.

The Sale of Goods Act states (in the case of private sales) that goods must be as described.

So if the seller described the car as a red ford fiesta and this is what you have, there is no recourse in law.

If he described it as excellent condition then you MAY have a case. You would have to show that the seller knew that the car was an insurance write-off. You didn't, and maybe he was in a similar situation. You would also have to show that he should have been aware of any defects.

The law very much states 'buyer beware' and on the facts you have given I don't think there is much point in suing the seller.

[confused79]

Im not sure who repaired the car as i was never told it was previous write off.
I understand that it may have been repairs that cost more than the car was worth as the reason i bougth this car was someone hit me in my car before this and they wrote it off too (yes i have had bad luck to say the least)

I did on a couple of occassions mention to my partner i felt the car was not right in some areas, he looked at it and although he knows some things about cars he is not a professional.

When i bought it the man said it had been through service and MOT and it 'sailed through' and i took his word for it.

The accident i had i still cannot understand how it happened i even had two witnesses and they saw i was not going fast and it now is playing on my mind there was something wrong.

I want to approach the man i bought it from to give him benefit of doubt but dont know if i should as yet.

The witnessess said i was lucky to stil be alive and it worried me now that something could of happened with my children in the car, luckily they wernt when it happened

[confused79]

I may not go ahead with this, but stilli feel angry about this man as he see i had 3 children etc.

He mentioned the car had a very small 'twang' at the back and had new bumper and thats all he said, apart from that it was excellent car good runner and nothing wrong with it.

Just think i will be very vert wary when buying priavetly again, i insured the car for so much higher thani am now getting paid out, my fault probably.

[redcrx]

you dont know what the car had been written off for or what category it was.
My sisters fiesta was written off purely because it was cheaper for the insurers to pay out than to replace a door that had been broken when a thief pulled the lock out of it.

Just a thought too but did it say anything on the vehicle registration document? I presume you would have looked this over.

[confused79]

no it didnt say anything on the reg document i looked this over too yes, noy sure what category write off it was i may be able to get this from my insurance company i think, i will check and let you know.

[redcrx]

best to get that checked before even considering taking matters further.
Others may be able to advise where on the document it could be noted.

[Ethel]

I have NEVER known an insurance company pay out the full value the vehicle was insured for.

They will always find reason to offer much lower - you should never accept the first offer.

When my car was written off, the insurance company said the car was in poor condition - 'it didn't even have the hubcaps'. It did immediately before the very nasty crash!

[confused79]

yeah i know that too but just to make you aware i insured it for 1500 they offered me �400 no i didnt except this offer!!
it was a top range escort, i know escorts are nothing to write home about but it also was in very good condition, although unbeknowns to me it had previously been written off.the �400 was about the amount of the wheels so no way was i going to accept this.

[neg213]

It is not against the law to sell an insurance write off car, as ther can be many reasons for it being so. If you had asked the seller wether it had been written off or in an accident previously, and he said "no" then there would be some come back through the courts, but he is under no obligation (as a private seller) to offer that infomation.

[bednobs]

who even knows whether it was a writeof during that mans ownership. If it was a top of the range escort, but only worth 1500 quid, i would bet its fairly old, and probably has had many owners. The write off may have occurred with the previous to that man owner, or even the one previous to that. You can get a hpi check for not too much money, before you buy a car and as someone else said "buyer beware" applies with 2nd hand cars. You an never assume anything about them