Your rights and responsibilities

A vehicle is one of the biggest and most important purchases of your lifetime. Regular servicing and preventive maintenance is a key to extending the worthy service lifespan of your vehicle. While most garages across the country ensure quality repairs and servicing, there are some garages that rip off their customers by charging so high for standard repairs or by doing poor quality repairs.

Being aware of your legal rights will help you make an informed decision if in any such problem and this will also help you avoid being ripped off. Most garages in United Kingdom make their customers sign a legal contract when they arrive for vehicle repair or servicing. In this post, we have put light on your legal rights that you should know before taking your vehicle for servicing or repair to any garage the next time.

What The Legislation Says

• The garage needs to provide you with pre-contract information prepared as per the consumer contracts regulations 2013. Click here to learn more about these regulations.
• As per the Consumer Rights Act 2015, you are legally entitled to receive standard vehicle repair service performed with right skills and care. Many garages or auto repair centers get legal binding contracts signed by their customers.
• All information written or verbally said by the repair service provider about themselves is a part of the legal contract.
• Except you have signed for a specific price offered by the auto center, you should be quoted reasonable prices for your vehicle repairs and regular servicing.
• In a legal binding contract, both parties can mutually agree to a timeline by which the car repair center will need to complete their job. And if the timeframe hasn’t decided, the auto center needs to finish their job (repairing or routine servicing) in a reasonable time.
• You are entitled to ask the auto center to re-perform repair or servicing if the work isn’t done as per regular standard or as per the information they shared about their workmanship earlier. The service provider can’t impose additional amount for repeat work on you.
• In case the second repair or servicing performed by the service provider again fails to meet the standard, you are entitled to a partial or full refund. Click here to learn more.

Legal Rights For Car Parts, Oil And Accessories (Known as ‘Goods’) Supplied During Repairing Or Servicing Of Vehicle

• The physical condition, cost, description, finish, durability, appearance, safety and appropriateness of the goods/products for the repair or servicing it is being used for are considered as important factors determining the quality of work. Any advertising or labeling content issued or shown by the auto shop, original manufacturer or their official representatives has to be precise and it can be considered while measuring the quality level of goods.
• When you ask the auto repair shop to fit a component or accessories for a purpose the product isn’t designed primarily for and if they use the product, you are entitled to expect that the product meet the purpose.
• If you are shown a sample of a product which will be used in the repair or servicing by the garage, the actual fitted product must match the sample.
• According to ‘Sale and Supply of Goods – your consumer rights’ guidelines, you can deny accepting the products and seek a full refund from the garage; you can also demand for product replacement or repair, or seek price reduction.

For more information or advice on consumer rights, visit the Citizens Advice Website.