Owed money from car dealer.

phoenix833

Hi,

I bought a car from a car dealer on the other side of the country and was given a 3 month warranty. Within the 3 months there was a problem with the car and it wouldn't start. Contacted the seller and he said to bring the car to a local garage and get them to have a look at what the problem was.

Anyway in the end we agreed that he would pay for parts and half labour costs if the garage fixed it and I'd pay the other half of labour costs.

Phoned him a week later when the car was fixed saying the bill was circa €1000. He wanted a look at the invoice and would "get back to me with a figure" within a few days and he "Is a man of his word" and "Will pay his share". He never got in touch. I eventually got hold of him a week later and he said he was willing to pay €500 (which wasn't quite parts and half labour) but I agreed and was told there would be a cheque in the post that evening.

Fast forward a week and no cheque so I rang again and he said "It was posted last night". I challenged him on this and he got abusive on the phone.

Another week on and no cheque and he wouldn't return my calls. So I contacted a solicitor and they advised me to send a 7 day warning letter first as the costs of going after €500 via a solicitor would be very expensive and I probably wouldn't see much of the €500.

I sent the letter via registered post, signed for but again no cheque. The garage who did the work then rang him and he told the garage he was stuck for the cash that's why he didn't send it but had it now and there would be a cheque in the post that night.

That was last Thursday and as you can guess, no cheque.

My questions are:

Can I take the company to a small claims court and represent myself as I have a record of all the phone calls, emails, letters exchanged? Also there is the person from the garage who was also told the same things I was. A witness if you will.

Or what would anybody on here advise me to do? I think I'm in a strong position in relation to getting the money but I can't be sure.

Thanks

Procrastastudy

One thing I do know is even if you have promised to accept €500 you can require the rest. So if he makes you go to court, go for the whole lot! If you can't go to the Small Claims court you could always represent yourself in the district court. Not that I'm suggesting that's a good idea!

I am slightly confused as to why you would not look for the thing repaired at his expense if it was under warranty though?

phoenix833

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

One thing I do know is even if you have promised to accept €500 you can require the rest. So if he makes you go to court, go for the whole lot! If you can't go to the Small Claims court you could always represent yourself in the district court. Not that I'm suggesting that's a good idea!

I am slightly confused as to why you would not look for the thing repaired at his expense if it was under warranty though?

Thanks for the reply.

Well he was adamant that what the garage said was wrong couldn't possibly be the problem. So I thought if he came up to collect the car to bring it back and fix it I couldn't be sure that he would fix it properly just to get past the warranty date, which was 2 weeks from initial contact.

I preferred getting it fixed somewhere I knew, within driving distance that I could go back to easily enough if there was another problem.

And I needed the car back asap so it being halfway across the country wasn't good for me. To be honest I wasn't expecting the bill to be €1000, was expecting about half that so I'd agreed with him to pay half labour already.

Milk & Honey

phoenix833 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

Well he was adamant that what the garage said was wrong couldn't possibly be the problem. So I thought if he came up to collect the car to bring it back and fix it I couldn't be sure that he would fix it properly just to get past the warranty date, which was 2 weeks from initial contact.

I preferred getting it fixed somewhere I knew, within driving distance that I could go back to easily enough if there was another problem.

And I needed the car back asap so it being halfway across the country wasn't good for me. To be honest I wasn't expecting the bill to be €1000, was expecting about half that so I'd agreed with him to pay half labour already.

No reason why you cant go to the Small Claims Court in the area where you did the deal. You can do it online for €18.

phoenix833

Milk & Honey wrote: »

No reason why you cant go to the Small Claims Court in the area where you did the deal. You can do it online for €18.

Thanks for the advice.

As I did the deal on the opposite side of the country would I have to go to the small claims court there or can I just do it via post/email?

Milk & Honey

You can email the District Court for the area where the dealer is based but if it goes to hearing you will have to travel.