A car sale-gone wrong!

[deek]

Hi

This is a very long story, but I will try to keep it to the brief major points. The car was brought from a friends neighbour, nearly 2 years ago. On trying to register the carte grise at the prefecture we were told that the car had previously been written off and we needed a further test to confirm the car was road worthy (it was sold with a new C.T.). The guy took the car back and (apparently) arranged for the test. Now the problems... we have never been able to get the results of this test from the seller. We were originally driving the car around, but when all this came to light I felt very unhappy about driving it, and it has since sat on our front drive. The seller has been a complete nightmare to get hold of, his promises to sort things out, never happen and now it is found out that he has used some of the commune money to sort out his own house renovations !! So all not going well. I have cancelled the insurance as I wasn't going to keep paying out for nothing. We do hold the carte grise, but as I said this is invalid due to the car being previously written off. We have completely given up on the man, and will no longer spend time and money trying to ring or go round his house. My question really is, can we get this car registered ourselves and who do we contact to start the ball rolling. The mad thing is the car is actually a good little runner and always started 1st time right through the winter. So do we try and sort this mess out and how? or can we just sell the car as for parts only? I really don't want to lose all our money we paid for it. Thanks for any response I might get. Dee

[Sunday Driver]

The procedures for dealing with a "véhicule gravement accidenté" are clearly set out in the code de la route - that's the French Highway Code, which I assume you have a copy of.

Under Art R326-1, a vehicle sustaining damage which renders it unsafe for use on the road is subject to immediate immobilisation.  The immobilising agent must take possession of the carte grise, then immediately send it to the prefecture in whose department the accident occurred, together with a damage report.  A copy of the report is provided to the owner.

Under Art R326-2, the carte grise can be restituted to the owner only on production of a repair certificate issued by an approved expert repairer.

Under Art R326-3, if the owner decides not to repair it, or repairs are not completed within twelve months, then the carte grise is annulled.  Once this happens, then in addition to obtaining the repair certificate, the vehicle must be submitted for a DRIRE technical inspection before a new carte grise can be issued.

Under Art R326-4, the damaged vehicle can be sold and the new buyer is responsible for complying with the above procedures.

I assume you did not obtain the mandatory certificate de situation/non-gage from the seller at the time of purchase, because this would have alerted you to the vehicle's damage status and the surrender of the carte grise.  Given the above, I am not clear how the seller remained in possession of the carte grise - or is it just a photocopy?

It sounds like you have been stitched up, so I'd consider reporting the matter to the gendarmerie.

Finally, note that as the owner of the vehicle, you are required to maintain continuous third party liabilty insurance on it, even if it is not being used on the road.

 

[Chancer]

There are several possible scenarios. The guy may have had an accident whilst uninsured or didn't want to claim and lose his majoration, the car was probably not handled by an "immobilising agent" and the owner may have driven it home, claimed on the insurance who in turn declared it a total loss and allowed him to keep/buy the salvage.

In any case someone must have notified the prefecture whether it be the insurers, Gendarmes or Pompiers, but its not clear whether they requested the carte grise from the owner. 

I agree with SD that you have probably been stitched up by someone who has sought out a foreigner, in my community there are  many like this guy who think nothing of, and indeed enjoy getting one over their peers, they always seemed to seek me out offering to sell me their unsaleable cars or houses.

Word finally seems to have got around that I am not a pigeon like their previous victims but these same people still come to me asking if I know of any other English (less wise than myself) who they can sell to. They genuinely cannot understand why I refuse them.

[deek]

Thanks to your responses, I believe that the car had its accident in dept 83 (I am in 32), and that is was a relative of his that owned the car. Perhaps explaining why he had the carte grise. The other problem from what S.D. was saying is that I know he did all the repairs to the vehicle himself, thus not having a certificate to prove the 'authenticity' of the work. Oh I know he's had us over, its just trying to work out whats best to do with the car now. Thanks again. Dee

[Chancer]

I hope that you do manage to overcome the paperwork problem, at least you dont seem to be traumatised and wailing "I used that car to take my children to school" etc etc that many do.

There is no reason that if it has been reasonably well repaired, it wont be safe, I say that having only ever run written off cars repaired by myself until recent years. I just hope that you can overcome the paperwork problems to prove its safety and make good use of it.

Sorry that I cant be of specific help as I have not repaired any write-offs in this country, my local breakers yards however are always selling them at attractive prices so I am sure that the mechanism to verify/reregister is in place but perhaps your seller has circumvented it.

Good luck.