We are specialist dispute resolution lawyers renowned for our down-to-earth approach, unique understanding of the collector car market, and expertise in high-value, rare and classic vehicle restoration and modification claims.
We have advised and been instructed in cases both in the UK and internationally involving the modification and restoration of a wide range of collector motor cars, including AC Bristol, Aston Martin, BMW, E-Type Jaguar, Ferrari, Jenson, Lamborghini, Mercedes, and Triumph.
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Navigating historic and classic car purchase disputes
Buying a vehicle which is 5 years old can be risky, but that’s nothing compared to a vintage or classic car, which could be 20 or 120 years old.
For most customers, assessing satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose of rare, unique, and antique vehicles is, unlike modern and volume brands, a matter of experience and simple like-for-like comparison. While it is true that some disputes arise out of unrealistic customer expectations regarding performance, handling, reliability and idiosyncrasies of a 50-year-old E-Type vis-à-vis a 2-year-old F-Type or a Mercedes 230 SL (W113) compared to an SL (R231); these are rare.
By far, the more common problems are bodged or poor repairs and disguised problem areas such as chassis corrosion, rusted inner wings, outriggers and sills, covered-up underlying engine and gearbox issues, or defective or water-damaged wiring and electrics.
The limited availability and cost of replacement spare parts lead to dealers and repairers taking shortcuts, leaving the car buyer with an expensive problem.
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Common classic car disputes
Restoration costs
Unexpected escalating costs in classic car restorations are common, often due to the restorer’s inability or unwillingness to properly assess and quote the work needed. Vehicle make and model-specific experience is also crucial. For example, experience with Jaguars doesn’t necessarily apply to Ferraris or Mercedes. This can translate into you paying more for their learning curve. This may also have the knock-on effect of increasing the number of jobs which require subcontractors, for example, the engine, gearbox, interior trimming, and metal fabrication. This can lead to delays, rising costs, and quality issues.
The exponential rise in classic and rare car prices has also led them to become investment opportunities, creating an ‘open chequebook’ culture where ‘if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it’.
Cases involving misquoting, profiteering and ever-increasing costs to repair and restore motor cars are challenging and often require forensic analysis of the correspondence, documents, payments and quality of the work.
Poor quality issues
Just like antique restoration, vehicle restoration is a highly skilled profession that needs multidisciplined artisans, such as including engineering, manufacturing, panel beating and spraying, upholstery and joinery. These tradespeople must also be able to replicate the original materials and finish of the classic car. This is especially crucial with the coachwork and painting. If the body shell is not properly prepared, any defects like sink marks, micro blisters and delamination will be visible in the topcoat.
Re-upholstering involves removing the interior, stripping the original fabric or leather, repairing seat frames or wadding, and reassembling with care. Poor workmanship can cause colour bleeding, bad stitching, puckering, warping, or defective cannulising.
Electrics, fuse boxes, relays and switches need checking, resoldering and replacing where required, while the interior and carpets are removed to allow easy access, reassembly and to avoid damage.
There are many areas in which quality can be affected, and this poor quality will, in all likelihood, give rise to a claim of negligence or breach of contract.
Originality
With rare and collectable motor cars, provenance is key. For some brands, the manufacturer offers an authentication program where it inspects the vehicle and the parts used in the restoration to confirm originality. These certification schemes are rare, and the majority of builds will be reliant on the integrity of the restorer.
If you’ve been charged for original parts and been supplied with pattern parts, you will likely have a claim.
Excessive delay
Most people appreciate that perfection is a time-consuming pursuit, but there is a limit.
The duration of a restoration project will be to a point dictated by the availability of parts and the manufacture of new ones, as well as the arduous task of disassembling and reassembling the vehicle.
However, restorers can bite off more than they can chew or are unable to resist the temptation of a better, more lucrative job, leaving yours in the corner of the workshop gathering dust.
It is not uncommon for a full nut and bolt restoration to take 12 months, and, in some cases, 2 years. Especially if the car is intended to be ‘classiche’ certified in the case of a Ferrari or Maserati, for example. These are, nonetheless, exceptions rather than the rule, unless you’re dealing with an extremely rare and high-value vintage car.
Time or excessive delay can give rise to a claim.
Identity disputes
There are some cars which have a twin, that is to say, there are two similar vehicles with the same registration number and/or VIN or chassis number: a car clone.
This can occur in a number of ways, for example:
- In the case of historic racing cars, it may be that the original car was re-shelled or had a chassis replacement because of an accident. Rather than dispose of the damaged body shell or chassis, it and the chassis number are sold, and another vehicle is built from it and registered with the same ID.
- Unscrupulous dealers and individuals will buy written-off, damaged or entirely deteriorated cars from abroad; VIN and chassis numbers can be removed from one vehicle and applied to another with relative ease, so the VIN tags, chassis plates, logbook and provenance are bought and applied to a similar stolen car.
Title disputes
These circumstances can occur in conjunction with identity disputes, but also when a car is claimed to be owned by more than one party.
It may be the case that the vehicle seller bought the car under a hire purchase or asset finance agreement, which they failed to disclose to the innocent buyer.
When the seller defaults on the agreement, the finance company take measures to repossess the car.
There have also been cases where the original classic car owner gave the vehicle to a dealer on a sale or return basis; the intention being to sell the car and pay the owner the sale proceeds less a commission. However, unscrupulous dealers have been known to keep the proceeds, leading to a dispute between the owner and the buyer.
Similar situations can arise where the motor car is left with a repairer for modification or restoration and is sold by them without the permission of the owner.
Auction sales
Usually, the Auction house acts as an agent for the owner of the classic vehicle, and the auction disclaims the accuracy of the catalogue description. This would make any dispute about the motor car between the buyer and the vendor, and not the auction, although there are exceptions.
Price and value considerations
Under normal circumstances, a car is exposed for sale, inviting the prospective buyer to make an offer for it and the seller to accept it. In this instance, it is difficult to claim that the buyer has paid over the top for the vehicle.
With classic, rare and collector car sales, sometimes the buyer is advised by the dealer or a third party as to the current and future value. If this advice is relied on by the buyer and that advice is found to be wrong, a claim may arise.
What’s important when choosing a specialist lawyer?
Specialism, experience, and expertise is achieved over a long career, and we’re proud to be a specialist automotive law firm who are critical thinkers with a deep understanding of vehicles and classic cars. We’ve achieved this through firsthand practical experience, and we can use our experience to help you with your dispute.
Do you have a legal issue with your classic car?
At Stormcatcher, we advise private clients, collectors, and dealers across the full spectrum of legal issues such as civil fraud, misrepresentation, negligence, breach of contract, breach of statutory duty, miss-selling and consumer protection regulations.
These cases and claims arise from circumstances such as title and ownership disputes, provenance, fake service history, poor and dangerous conditions, misleading advertising, identity disputes, and price and restoration both in the UK and internationally.
Why choose Stormcatcher Law?
We are considered to be a premier firm for legal advice and resolving disputes involving vintage cars as well as rare, collector and classic vehicles. We boast an enviable case portfolio involving some of the rarest and most valuable motor cars from across the 20th Century, including ex-racing and rally cars, E-Type Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz.
We have a lifetime of experience in and around the industry, we know the characteristics of the vehicles and the tricks of the trade inside out.
With over 30 years of unsurpassed expertise in classic car law, we have developed a leading reputation for resolving claims involving vintage and classic car sales, modification, and restoration. Having knowledge of how these cars were made and what it takes to make them right is fundamental in classic car disputes, and means we can hold the right people to account for any issues. Contact us today for an initial consultation to see how we can help you navigate your classic car dispute.
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FAQs
We deal with all manner of legal issues and disputes involving the sale, purchase and restoration of rare, high-value collectors cars and classic motor vehicles.
The rise in classic car values has driven interest in barn finds and ultimately the growth in classic car restorers. With this comes bodyshops and accident repairers diversifying into this collector car sector without the necessary expertise leading to quality and integrity disputes.
Equally, classic cars are big business and problems involving restorations costing many times the original estimates. Sometimes the cost of the restoration can exceed or equal the value of the motor car.
We have enormous experience of the car restoration industry and resolving disputes in this area.
Anyone reading auction house terms and conditions will be excused for thinking that they exclude liability for virtually everything. So much so, that you could equally be excused for thinking that it’s a licence to deceive, giving carte blanche to describe a pile of scrap metal as Concours without fear of recourse.
This would, of course, be perverse and fail the test of reasonableness in determining whether the term is unfair and cannot be relied upon or not. However, this proves expensive through the usual channels.
We have contacts with a range of experts who have experience and expertise in virtually any make of care who we can put you in touch with. Our retained clients and contacts are some of the countries leading buyers and sellers of rare and classic cars who will be best placed to assist with valuations.
Aside from dealing with circumstances when things go wrong we are regularly instructed with prevention in mind rather than cure.
This can include investigating the provenance, service history and of course the legal ownership, tracing the history back in a similar way Philip Mould and Dr Bendor Grosvenor have done in researching the provenance of artworks.
Expert inspection and opinions on the vehicle are often required as well as forensic testing and examination of the documentation.
Car fraud where the identity of the motor car is not what it seems is on the rise and is an ongoing concern. This can be the use of counterfeit chassis plates and VIN tags or using those from a damaged or written off vehicle on a stolen car: known as cloning or ringing.
In some circumstances, there may be more than one car with the same identity. In a recent case, a client had purchased a 1970’s race car that had been involved in a serious crash and the parts sold off to two separate buyers. Each went on to build or rebuild a vehicle that seemingly matched the original neither apparently knowing about the other until one, which was outside the UK was imported back in.
We are not litigators but are instructed for our unparalleled insight and experience in the business. Our aim is to provide buyers and sellers with a cost-effective alternative to solicitors who often will prepare the case at great expense and instruct a barrister to present the case in court.
We are authorised to draft and settle the statement of case, be that the particulars of claim or defence, draft the witness statement and any other legal documents. However, more importantly, our overriding objective is to resolve disputes out of court using negotiation, mediation or arbitration.
Yes, we accept instructions from classic car dealers, private clients and collectors. Unlike other lawyers in the sector, our experience extends not only to the high-value multi-million-pound vehicles but right across the spectrum. This may include a 1980’s M3, Sierra Cosworth or Mk1 Escort Mexico, to Ferrari, Mercedes Benz SL or E-type Jaguar.
Growing up around cars in the 1980’s many of the cars of the 1960s and 1970s were nothing more than has-beens and bangers. The Triumph’s the Sunbeam Alpines, the 107 series Mercs were the cars we worked on, refurbished, did up and sold on. We got to know them intimately.
Then there was the ugly ducklings that no one wanted, Aston Martin Lagonda, Ferrari 400i and Mondial, Lotus Elite. The modern classics of the future, the Porsche 993 and 959.
Over 30 years, in the business, we bought, sold and were involved in all manner of classic cars from the working man’s sports car the Mk1 Capri to Ferrari F40, F50, Daytona, XJ 220 and DB5.
About Philip Harmer
Philip’s lifelong passion for classic cars began in childhood and developed into ownership, restoration, and trading of collector vehicles. He has owned, restored and sold numerous classic models including Porsche, Mercedes, and Sunbeam, and has advised on disputes involving a 1920s Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, E-Type Jaguars, and early Ferraris. His technical and historical knowledge of vintage vehicles makes him a trusted adviser in this specialist field.
He regularly advises on
restoration disputes,
classic vehicle complaints, and originality issues involving historic models.
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