i have recently bought a car "as seen" but have since found out it is a category D write off? what can I do?

Question

what can I do? How can I convince the seller to take back the car?

Answer 1

Did the seller know it was a catD?

Answer 2

The first question is,did you buy the car off a dealer. If you have, then you have a number of recourses under the Sale of Goods Act. Any vehicle sold by a trader must be "fit for the purpose it was intended for". Wether or not he advertised the car and sold it to you as "sold as seen", you are still protected. I would speak to your local citizens advice centre and give them the details. Its quite complex but unless you bought the car for a ridiculously low price which would reflect the Cat d status, i think that you may have a chance. The small claims court will hear cases with a value under £1000 for no cost to you. The other side of the coin is if you bought the car from a private seller, then you are no where near as well protected. If during the course of you buying the car, you asked the seller a direct question, ie "Was the car ever involved in an accident" and they reply "No" or "Not to my knowledge", then if they knowingly gave you a false answer, you may be able to pursue the matter with Police as it is now a criminal case because the seller knowingly deceived you and commits an offence of deception or obtaining a pecuniary advantage in legal terms. Either way, its not going to be easy, Good Luck.

Answer 3

If you didn't ask the seller if it had been written off then he's not obliged to tell you.

If its a trader his only responsibility is that the car is roadworthy, ie had a current MOT.

If its a private sale then sod all you can do.

Even if you find a solicitor prepared to take it to court for you, bear in mind price paid will be taken into consideration. If your car was worth eg £4k retail from a garage and you paid £3.5k then you would be unlikely to get any recourse through legal means.

To put it into perspective, somewhere in the region of 70% of cars over 5 years old have some form of hidden history.

Answer 4

If you ask the seller if its a right off or had accident damage and he says 'no' you could issue him with a county courte summons to get you money back. However, you have to be able to prove all of that which would be impossible.
If the car looked ok when you bought it, then someone else with similar knowledge would buy it from you. My advice is sell it !!. DO NOT declare the damage unless asked. Nothing illegal about that. cars cost alot of money and you must be ruthless, as no1 else will ever do you any favours. If it is registered as cat D that will appear on the log book. so bin that when your selling it, and tell the new keeper you have lost it. He can apply for a new one at the post office. Cruel but necesary. By the way, CAT D means panel damage.. which is not as bad as chassis damage

Answer 5

If you bought from a trader, he has to supply a roadworthy car. If you bought privately, that doesn't apply. If you didn't ask if it had been written off, he's told you no lies.

Bear in mind that a Cat D write-off isn't necessarily unroadworthy, it's just that the insurers have deemed the cost of repairs is not economical for them to cover. It might be, for instance, that the paintwork's been keyed everywhere and they've decided the cost of a full respray is more than writing it off would be.

Buddy of mine bought a Cat D Mondeo last year, every pane of glass had been smashed and the cost of professional replacement was more than the insurance company would bear.

With a bit of hunting scrapyards and some work, he's now got a superb car (well, for a Mondeo) for peanuts!

Answer 6

A cat D write off is nothing to get wound up about ,
A cat D means it`s an uneconomical repair say for instance you had a car valued at £2,000 and you had a bump and it was going to cost £1,000 to repair it then they would write the car off as is not considered worth paying a grand to fix it .
The assessor prices all panel`s as to be renewed and labour cost`s at £ 30 per hour you could get the same repair done private for say £300 .
Just because it`s declared a write off doesn't mean it`s been wrapped around a lamp post , i`ve known car`s be wrote off just for having paint stripper thrown over them or having all the glass smashed by Vandal`s . If it had been a cat "C" then you could maybe do something about it but as a class D then no i would`nt worry to much about it .

Answer 7

Cat D isn't as serious as it sounds. It just means the insurance company felt a repair to the car using the original manufacturers parts would cost more than the car is worth, hence an economical write off. If it has been repaired properly with good pattern parts at a reasonably priced (normally private) bodyshop, it should be fine.

Answer 8

unless the seller declared it wasnt a write off then pretty much nothing! is he a trader? if he is report to your local trading standards they may take up a complaint. you could keep the car cat d could be fairly minor damge even something like a cracked bumper on an older car would render it into cat d. if you decide to sell it you could sell legally as cat d but dont lie is someone asks you specifically as then you ve been dishonest and that will come back and bite you on the butt!

Answer 9

be careful Mo. the place motor vehicle maintenance are in touch a splash expertise would be an exceptionally risky element. If the fix middle is quoting £2500 to repair there is a lot greater incorrect with the front end than a minor bumper dent and somewhat rust. How lots the vehicle is 'worth' to you is immaterial i'm afraid, if the insurers assessor valued it at 3 grand that's what the insurer will initiate its calculations on and undergo in techniques, any furnish they make would be much less your agreed 'extra'. no person here can make certain what the insurer would furnish in case you desire to take the vehicle back unrepaired even nonetheless it will be lots decrease than you anticipate/desire.

Answer 10

can you prove that it was a write off when you bought it?


by the way

my dads profession is in cars and normally a write off will go to a junk yard...the only write off I've ever seen fixed was my truck...and the only reason was because my dad told the insurance to shove it that he'd fix it himself that it was not going to be a write off....and even then it cost sooo much to fix it...

so you obviously got really ripped off..take it back and demand a refund or exchange..
if you're still not satisfied there's the better business bureu for problems like this!

but since it was as seen...you probably screwed yourself....

I don't know man....just go see what can be done....

Answer 11

Report the seller to the relevant authority(DVLA/POLICE) and take the seller to court.You may not have to go to court if the seller is prosecuted for selling an unroadworthy vehicle