A fine for the seller of a car that tampered with the mileage, and the price of the car was refunded to the buyer

The Al Ain Court of First Instance ruled that the contract for the sale of a four-wheel drive vehicle was rescinded for an amount of 200,000 dirhams, and obligated the seller to refund the amount to the buyer, after the latter discovered that the first had tampered with the mileage in the car, and changed it from 189,388 kilometers to 75,425 kilometers, and obligated the defendant to compensate the plaintiff 5,000 dirhams for the damage incurred.

In the details, a car buyer filed a lawsuit against a seller, in which he demanded the termination of the sales contract and the consequences thereof, and obligating the defendant to receive the car indicated in the contract, with an obligation to return the amount of 200 thousand dirhams that he paid for the vehicle, and the legal interest at 12% from the date of the contract. Filing the lawsuit until full payment, with an obligation of 50 thousand dirhams in compensation for the material and moral damages he sustained, and obligating him to pay fees, expenses and attorney fees.

 The plaintiff indicated that he had bought from the defendant a four-wheel drive car for the amount of 200,000 dirhams after the latter showed it on one of the social networking site "Instagram", and the plaintiff registered the vehicle in the name of his brother, and the defendant received the price of the vehicle. He was surprised by the agency’s refusal to repair the vehicle after a careful examination proved that the vehicle’s meter had been tampered with and changed from 189,388 kilometers to 75,425 kilometers in November 2019, which proves that the defendant had tampered with the kilometer counter to introduce fraud to the buyer, and since the plaintiff was Accordingly, he concealed the order of the hidden defect from the plaintiff, who, if he had known of its existence, would not have purchased the car, and submitted a document for his claim, a copy of the advertisement, a copy of the sales contract, and a copy of the report of the agency that the car belongs to, which states that the car has been tampered with.

While the defendant submitted a memorandum in which he held that the case had not been heard because more than six months had passed since the plaintiff received the sale, and then the seller’s obligation to guarantee the hidden defects would be forfeited with the lapse of six months, and the defendant had indicated to the plaintiff that the car had been modified with its kilometer counter, and that the defendant accepted that Hence, his claim that the defendant sold him the car without his knowledge of the existence of an alteration in the mileage is not accepted, and he requested, in precaution, to dismiss the case.

For its part, the court clarified in the merits of its ruling that the defendant pleaded not to hear the case because more than six months have passed since the plaintiff received the sale, and then the seller’s obligation to guarantee hidden defects falls with the lapse of six months, with a response that it is decided according to the Civil Transactions Law that the defect warranty claim will not be heard For the passage of time after the lapse of six months from the receipt of the thing sold, unless the seller adheres to the warranty for a longer period, and the seller may not adhere to this period if it is proven that concealing the defect was fraudulent on his part.

She indicated that the evidence from the papers is that the defendant displayed his car on a social networking site, and the announcement contained data contrary to the truth and the fact that the distance traveled is 77,000 km, while the actual distance traveled is 189,388 km, according to the report of the car agency, which states that the vehicle Its meter has been tampered with and changed, which leads to fraud on the part of the seller, especially since the defendant did not prove the defendant's knowledge and approval of the modification made in the meter. 

She pointed out that the plaintiff’s request for the termination of the contract has a legal basis in accordance with the Civil Transactions Law, which states that if an old defect appeared in the sale, the buyer had the option to return it if he wanted, and if he wanted to accept it at the named price, he did not have the right to hold it and claim what the defect decreased from the price, and the defect is stipulated in the defect The old thing is that it is hidden, and the hidden defect is the one that is not known by seeing the outward appearance of the sale, or the ordinary person does not discover it, or the non-expert reveals it, or it appears only by experience.

The court ruled to rescind the contract between the two parties, which included the defendant selling the vehicle to the plaintiff for a total price of 200,000 dirhams and returning the sold car to the defendant, with the defendant obligating the defendant to return the price he had paid to the plaintiff, in addition to an amount of 5,000 dirhams as compensation for material and moral damages incurred. by him, with his obligation of appropriate fees and expenses, and rejected other requests.

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