Consumer law changes

1. All sales by Suppliers in trade for domestic use will be subject to the guarantees under the Consumer Guarantees Act.
2. The Government has defined a supplier in trade as any person or entity that, in trade, supplies goods or services to consumers.
3. It is important to note that the above covers all sales including outcry and internet based auctions and tenders.
4. The CGA guarantee is a principle based guarantee and breakdowns and failures will be judged on whether such failures would occur normally within the time frames involved.
5. All documented and reported defects before sale are exempt from CGA guarantees.
6. The liability under the CGA lies with the vendor or the supplier of the goods and not the auctioneer.
7. The consumer will have a legal right to expect failures/defects to be rectified by suppliers in trade by the following methods:
   a) Repairing the defect
   b) Replacing the product with a similar or equivalent one
   c) Rejecting the purchase and get a full refund, including consequential cost i.e. transport.

17 June 2014.

In very simple terms it means that all your sales to private buyers for domestic or non-commercial use will now be liable to a guarantee of acceptable quality under the CGA. 

As a seller, you need to work out whether you’re in trade, not in trade or a mixture of the two. We can’t determine if you’re in trade or not, that is for you to decide. We recommend that you seek legal opinion to ascertain whether the CGA will apply to all your sales. 

Turners will need to disclose to buyers extra information, specifically:

1. The nature of the vendor.
2. Whether the vendor is in trade or not.
3. Whether or not the CGA applies to a vehicle.

Vendors can reduce their liability by providing more information about every asset sold:

1. Document and provide written disclosure to buyers of all known defects.
2. Knowledge of the asset for all vehicles i.e. service history, known defects, major events (including significant structural body repairs and major mechanical repairs) etc.
3. The reason for sale for all vehicles i.e. surplus to requirement, repossessed goods to clear debt etc.
4. Disclose whether the vendor has had possession of the goods or has inspected them.
5. Anything else the vendor recommends that the purchaser does to check for acceptable quality.

Turners proposes to mitigate your risk under the new CGA via contracting out of all B2B sales and providing a detailed vehicle condition report. Along with the information you provide on known defects and the proposed condition report, we hope to inform buyers of all known and existing defects. Turners will also receive, handle and ascertain liability on all claims received on your assets for you at no charge.

1. Increased security in purchase will help attract more end users to auctions.
2. Quality assets will sell faster, therefore reduce the storage times.
3. Creates a level playing field for all sales channels i.e. outcry/physical auctions, online auctions, brokered deals.

Please feel free to call ­­­us on 0800 TURNERS (0800 887 637) if you have any questions.