Car written off before we purchased and sold on

Citychick50

Hi,

i'm hoping someone can help me with some advice. I traded a car in to a main dealer last year when i was buying a new one. i had the car for two years and was able to tax and insure it. Today i got a call from the garage to say that they sold the car to person X and person X has sold the car to person Y. Person Y tried to insure the car and has been told that the car is a right off. Person Y now wants to get their money back from person X who in turn wants to get their money back from the Garage. Where does this leave me? We were able to tax and insure the car so how can it be a write off? Will we end up having to pay for the car or chasing the person we bought it, privately, from to pay?

Any help is welcome.

vw4life

not really your problem if you traded it in,in good faith

jimmycrackcorm

Person Y probably tried to insure it with a company that previously insured and paid out as a write-off. That doesn't necessarily mean it actually was a wreck, only that it may have been economically to expensive for the Insurance company to fix.

bazz26

I would presume there is some sort of record somewhere of when exactly the car was declared a write off if Person Y's insurance company can tell this.

I cannot really advise you except to seek legal advice on what to do next.

jhegarty

You made a private sale to the garage , so caveat emptor on the garage afaik.

No recourse on to you.

JHMEG

Ignore it. A phonecall from a dealer making 4th hand assertion means nothing. And anyway what's to say person X didn't write it off - assuming the insurance info is correct, which it's probably not.

(EDIT: do not waste your money on legal advice)

Tipsy Mac

Who is to say that person X didn't write it off since they purchased it from the garage?

Alanstrainor

The problem is between person X and Y. I wouldn't get involved.

mickdw

I would look at it this way:

You should have originally had a history check done.
Garage who bought it off you should have checked history.
Person x should have checked history.
Person y has found the history. This falls on person x who would have fallback having bought it from dealer. The chain stops there though as they surely cannot come after you as long as this insurance claim wasnt made by you or during your ownership.
You therefore bought & sold the car in good faith so forget about it.

Tragedy

As long as you didn't know it was a write off at time of trade in, garage has no legal recourse. Politely but firmly inform them of this.

rodberg007

I would do all your homework first, check with the insurance company who insured the car for you during the time you had it, to see if it comes up as a 'write-off' now. I work in the motor business and I had a case like that recently with a 08 BMW X5 - when I ran a check on the vehicle on a website we use it was coming up as being a 'write-off' so I traced the car back to the original dealer and they confirmed that the vehicle was actually 'stolen and recovered' but revenue hadn't updated their records after the BMW had been recovered and therefore it was still showing up as being written-off. The vehicle had been insured with the current owner and all revelent documents were in place. You can run a check on http://www.cartell.ie/ for a small fee and get the info for yourself but we use http://www.carhistorycheck.ie/ which is more accurate and includes UK cross-referencing too. Ask the garage for proof of the car you traded in as being a write-off and see that the date it was written off was when it was under your ownership.

unkel

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The problem is between person X and Y. I wouldn't get involved.

In fact the problem is solely with person Y. So indeed, just tell the garage it is not your problem.

rodberg007

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Who is to say that person X didn't write it off since they purchased it from the garage?

Good point.. the garage failed to carry out the revelent checks during the transaction and they would have owned the car since you traded it in.

corktina

there is two types of "write off" the economic one where the Insurance Co paid out and someone subsequently bought the car and repaired it and the official one where the car is declared as scrapped.Yours is the first case I think and not your responsibilty porvided you dealt in good faith, which it seems you did.

Citychick50

Thanks everyone for your replies. I did think that I shouldn't be responsible but started to worry. I might try free legal aid for advice just to confirm. I don't need to worry coming up to christmas!

MarkR

You definitely have nothing to worry about. To be honest I'm surprised the garage even called you. Very unprofessional really.

You sold the car to the garage, and your involvement with the car ended then.

testicle

rodberg007 wrote: »

http://www.carhistorycheck.ie/

That's operated by SIMI, I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Talk about a cartel!

tin79

just to be sure of the situation here: Were you aware that the car had been written off at the time you traded in it?

JHMEG

tin79 wrote: »

just to be sure of the situation here: Were you aware that the car had been written off at the time you traded in it?

How can you be sure it was?

Tipsy Mac

I'd imagine the insurers should have provided the person they told it was a write off too with the date it was written off, no matter it's nothing to do with you.

Mr Benevolent

The problem is people hearing the words 'written off' and panicking. Perfectly legal to repair and resell a Cat C or D writeoff. As mentioned above OP, nothing to do with you. Which garage is this btw OP? I'd like to avoid it if I can.

Nasty, nasty trick to pull on someone, trying to get money off them for that. Now that I think about it, this could be a scam....

corktina

If you didnt know it had been a write-off, and any problems occur, just pass it on to whoever sold it to you.But that wont happen Im sure, as said before "buyer beware"

Citychick50

I checked with free legal aid tonight and they agreed with all your posts, we are not liable for anything and the garage shouldn't be in contact with us. Thankfully I can put this behind me.

rodberg007

Citychick50 wrote: »

I checked with free legal aid tonight and they agreed with all your posts, we are not liable for anything and the garage shouldn't be in contact with us. Thankfully I can put this behind me.

Well done - that's great news and a good result.

R.

Fey!

Bear in mind that a write off isn't necessarily a dangerous vehicle; if the car was a '00 Polo worth €1,000 and needed a new bumper and bonnet costing €600 it would be deemed to be a write off, even though that damage would be purely cosmetic rather than structural. The owner or the insurance company might well sell it off, and the new owner might chose to repair it.

Tipsy Mac

This thread illustrates the whole problem with buying cars in Ireland versus the UK, we have no official ratings system for damaged cars and so something which never should be allowed back on the road can be with no tests whatsover and when a car gets a slight knock it can be declared a write off despite it just being economically written off. Complete sham and something SIMI should be trying to get a ratings system in place for instead of moaning about dodgy histories on UK cars when the facts are that an Irish registered car is more likely to be suspect.

JHMEG

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

This thread illustrates the whole problem with buying cars in Ireland versus the UK,

No, this thread illustrates the level of p1sstaking which this garage will go to.