used car guarantee?

[Carolski]

Hello

Would like to know if its true that if you sell a second hand car over here in France, if something goes wrong with it in the first 6 months, you are liable. Its not that I have a problem with that as such but we plan to sell it then return to the UK. What happens in these cases (there must be a lot of people who do this). I have spoken to our local Renault garage (as its a kango and in good condition) and he is happy to 'take it off our hands' for less than we could possibly get for it privately but to be honest given the convenience factor and possibly this 6 month warrenty, it may be easier to do this.

[Ron Avery]

There is no legal warranty that you have to give, the only criteria is that it has to have a current CT with more than 6 months to run.

If you had done a search on "selling a car" you would have found this.It answers your question.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1054955/ShowPost.aspx

[Sunday Driver]

Just to clarify - the CT certificate has to be no more than six months old.

Whilst you are not obliged to provide a warranty, there is a legal proviso under article 1641 of the civil code relating to 'vices cachés' which means that if a seller was aware of a significant problem with the vehicle at the time of the sale and failed to tell the buyer about it, then the buyer may be entitled to compensation.  This can either involve the seller repairing the defect, offering an equivalent refund or taking the car back and returning the money. 

In the case of a private sale, matters are not always clear cut because the onus is on the buyer to provide proof that the seller was aware of the defect at the time. So, if he contacts your servicing garage and they confirm that they told you last week that your engine was on the way out....[:(]