Not upheld: Goods and services under S75 complaint against Toyota Financial Services (UK) PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr W purchased a used Toyota in October 2022 via hire purchase with TFS and reported window streaking issues in March 2023. Multiple repair attempts and inspections by two Toyota garages failed to identify a manufacturing defect, though a third garage later identified possible seal contamination. The ombudsman declined to uphold the complaint, finding insufficient evidence that the fault was present or developing at the point of supply, as the issue only appeared six months after acquisition and was not detected during detailed testing by authorized garages. TFS's £100 goodwill offer was rejected by Mr W.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which implies that goods supplied under hire purchase must be of satisfactory quality at the point of supply. The key issue was whether the window fault was present or developing at supply. The ombudsman found: (1) two Toyota garages made detailed inspections without finding a defect; (2) the issue only appeared six months after acquisition, suggesting it developed later; (3) inconsistencies in descriptions of the problem (wet conditions vs. window operation); (4) if the fault was present at supply, it would likely have been evident earlier and detected during the various testing processes. Therefore, the ombudsman could not fairly hold TFS responsible for a fault that developed after supply.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website