I adopted a cat from an animal charity a month ago, who is house trained but unchipped. I have fallen in love with him, but what are my rights if his previous owner were to locate him?
JJ, via email
DEAN DUNHAM REPLIES: It depends on the circumstances that led to the cat being adopted. If the previous owner has abandoned or gifted the cat to the charity, he will have effectively relinquished his rights to it, so he will have no legal grounds to claim the cat.
There is a legal obligation for cat owners to keep their contact details up to date on a Defra-approved microchip database, writes Dean Dunham.
However, the situation is complicated if the cat had been “lost”, since the law considers animals to be “property”. This means that, if the previous owner can prove that he actually owns the cat and did not abandon it or give it away, he will have the right to claim it back.
You are unlikely to run into an ownership problem and in any case, regardless of the potential risk of this, you now have a legal obligation to microchip the cat. In this sense, in England, the law states that cats must be microchipped before 20 weeks of age, except for cats without owners, such as feral and community cats. The default position if you don’t do this is that you have 21 days to microchip your cat, or you can face a fine of up to £500. You will find that most vets require your cat to be microchipped before carrying out any treatment.
The other point to consider when adopting a cat is that there is also a legal obligation for cat owners to keep their contact details up to date on a Defra approved microchip database. Therefore, even if you adopt a chipped cat, you will need to take some steps to update the details associated with the chip.
Finally, I should point out that these laws currently apply only in England.
The dealership did not tell me that my car’s warranty was void because it was never serviced. Should pay?
I bought a two year old Ford with 34,400 miles from a dealership. Now it has a problem with the gearbox so I contacted Ford. However, Ford says the car was never serviced and this voided the manufacturer’s warranty. The dealership did not inform me of this when I purchased the car. What I can do?
Richard Graham, via email
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that goods sold, including cars, must be “as described”
DEAN DUNHAM REPLIES: The Ford manufacturer’s warranty covers three years or 60,000 miles from new, whichever comes first. However, the warranty also contains a number of exclusions where you will not be covered under the warranty. One of them is “failure to properly maintain the vehicle in accordance with Ford’s maintenance schedules and service instructions.”
So, on the face of it, Ford has the right to refuse to repair the problem for free under the manufacturer’s warranty.
Now let’s go to the dealer who sold you the car. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 states that goods sold, including cars, must be “as described”. This means that merchants should not lie or mislead consumers with product descriptions. If the dealer told him that the car had a full service history, he will now be entitled to a repair, as this will constitute a breach of contract.
Under English law, the remedy for breach of contract is to return the innocent party (you, in this case) to the position they would have been in if the breach had not occurred.
In this case, this will mean that the dealer will have to pay for the repair and update the service schedule to ensure that you have the benefit of the remaining warranty term. If the dealer didn’t mention the service history or manufacturer’s warranty when they sold you the car, the law is still on your side.
Unless you were told otherwise, you were entitled to assume that the car was being sold with the benefit of the remainder of the manufacturer’s warranty, and this will clearly have formed part of your ‘purchasing decision’.
The dealer’s failure to inform you that the car did not have a complete service history, meaning the warranty was void, becomes a breach of contract, giving rise to the rights and remedies I described above. Finally, as this appears to be the manufacturer’s fault, you can also claim that the car was not of “satisfactory quality” at the time of purchase and, under the Consumer Rights Act, you are entitled to a free repair. This would be a different route to the same result.
Do you have any questions for Dean? Write to Money Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY or email d.dunham@dailymail.co.uk.
The Daily Mail cannot accept any legal responsibility for the responses given.
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