Not upheld: satisfactory quality of goods supplied under hire purchase agreement complaint against MI Vehicle Finance Limited trading as Mann Island

Decision detail

Summary

Miss H purchased a used car through a hire purchase agreement with Mann Island in May 2023 for £13,990. The car was almost four years old with 30,300 miles. In October 2023, she verbally raised a potential ADAS issue during a service but deferred diagnostic testing. In November 2025, over two and a half years later, a health check identified a historic fault code for the front camera. Miss H complained that the car was not of satisfactory quality at the point of sale and sought reimbursement for the £2,500 repair cost and compensation for distress. The ombudsman found that Miss H had not provided sufficient evidence that the fault was present or developing at the point of supply, as the first documentary evidence only emerged after she had driven the car for over 23,000 additional miles, and subsequent diagnostics found no active fault. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which implies that goods supplied under a hire purchase agreement must be of satisfactory quality. For a used car that was almost four years old with 30,300 miles at the point of supply, a reasonable person would expect it to be free from major defects and provide trouble-free motoring for some time and distance. However, the burden of proof lies with Miss H to demonstrate that a fault was present or developing at the point of sale, given that the first documentary evidence of any problem only emerged over two and a half years later when the car had been driven a further 23,000 miles. The ombudsman found that the pre-delivery inspection showing no faults, the absence of any recorded fault codes in the October 2023 service, and the lack of any active fault in the January 2026 diagnostics collectively evidenced that no fault was present or developing at the point of sale. Miss H's inability to provide documentary evidence of a pre-existing fault, despite having the car repaired, meant insufficient evidence existed to conclude the vehicle was not of satisfactory quality when supplied.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website