Legal advice needed

CAB for a start, 2nd take all pics you can & get a report from the garage you're at, then small claims court would be your best bet, do you have an invoice from the original garage who fitted the kit, or should I say tried?

Sorry to hear Jords.

Small Claims Court, you can do all the necessary work online, register, fill in some info. Straight forward

***************** DISCLAIMER: The following is not intended to be legal advice or acted upon by anyone. The writer is not providing this information in the course of his (or any other) profession. ************************

You had a contract with the garage for the supply of their services.

This is, therefore, covered by the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

Since the other party was acting in the course of their business, there is an implied term in the contract, by Section 13, that they were to use reasonable skill and care (unless expressly contracted out of this).

They breached this term by not doing the work properly and thereby causing damage to your car as well as failing to complete the work required.

Breach of Section 13 is a breach of an "innominate term" of the contract - your legal rights will depend on whether the effect of the breach "goes to the root of the contract". If so, this will be treated by a court as breach of a "condition" (entitling you to terminate the contract and claim damages); otherwise it will be treated as breach of a "warranty" (damages only).

Since your best bet seems to be to get this other garage to correct the work, damages should really be adequate, so it doesn't matter to you whether it is a condition or warranty. Anyway, it may be too late to opt to terminate now, so damages it is.

You can get the work done to fix this - putting you in the situation you would have been in had the contract been performed correctly - and claim this amount as damages. You have given them the opportunity to sort this so I would go ahead with the work, then write to them with the bill demanding they reimburse you within 28 days. When they don't (and they won't) go straight to court.

You are required to behave "reasonably" and to "mitigate your loss" - so you need to show that £450+VAT is an appropriate cost for repair. You can also claim for e.g. hire car and other reasonable losses sustained as a result of their breach.

The garage may (if appropriate) raise the following defences:

1. There may be an exemption clause in the contract you had with them. Whether this can be used will depend on its wording and whether it was actually (properly) incorporated into the contract. Courts do not like these so it would have to be very clear.

2. They may have expressly contracted out of the Act. unlikely and this would have to be both reasonable and fair.

3. They may say you were "contributorily negligent". In other words, also at fault - unlikely on the facts.

4. They may deny causation/responsibility by saying that the damage wasn't caused by them. You will, therefore, have the burden of proving that it was them.

Practically speaking, you should get a report by your new garage explaining the damage and how it was caused. Photos are very useful. You should write down your memory of all conversations with the old garage and date these (date of writing if different to date of conversation). Above all, show you have acted reasonably - Small Claims Court justice is designed to be quick, "rough & ready" rather than precise.

If/when it comes to it you can fill in the papers yourself (available on the Courts Service website, I think). There is an administrative fee (possibly £60) and no costs awarded against the losing party, which discourages people from racking up legal fees.

Hope this helps,

ATB

Yeap about what I said, but in a longer way, lmfao, but also get paperwork to prove/show your 2 recoveries as a result of this feck up, as this will also help with your claim.

IIRC think it was £80 fee aswell, but could be wrong, but I did check a while ago.

dirty f**kers,thats y they wouldnt take another look cos they knew they had damaged your wagon,prob just hoping that you'd just go away,give it to em with both barrels mate..good luck