Australia, Aug. 16 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on July 16:

1. In October 2023, the appellant purchased a second-hand 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee from the respondent. The purchase price was $30,000. She returned the vehicle to the respondent in April 2024 after she noticed that the engine oil temperature warning light had come on. The respondent's mechanic suspected that there was an internal leak, concluded that the engine needed to be replaced and it needed to be removed and stripped down to determine the cause of failure. In August 2024, the appellant then arranged for various further investigations to be carried out.

2, Following those investigations, the appellant commenced proceedings in the Tribunal in which she sought a refund of the purchase price and consequential losses. Her total claim was for an amount of $30,086.53. Her claim was founded upon an alleged breach of the statutory guarantee of acceptable quality in s 54 of the Australian Consumer Law (NSW) (ACL).

3. The Tribunal agreed that there had been a breach of this statutory guarantee. However, instead of the relief sought by the appellant, it made orders for the respondent to carry out work to remedy the defects, including to locate and repair an internal leak in the vehicle's cooling system and, if necessary, replace the vehicle's engine with a second-hand engine of similar mileage.

4. These orders were made on 19 February 2025.

5. The appellant lodged her appeal on 10 March 2025 but did not seek a stay of the work orders. At the hearing of the appeal, the appellant told us that this was a deliberate decision and that she had decided to accept that the work order should be carried out and confine her appeal to seeking various additional costs and losses.

6. It was uncontroversial that the respondent carried out the work orders. It collected the vehicle from the appellant, carried out the work orders and the vehicle was collected by the appellant in late March 2025. Since that collection, some additional repairs have been carried out by the respondent at no cost to the appellant and the appellant has made complaints about additional issues that have arisen in respect of the vehicle since the work orders were carried out.

7. In the appellant's written submissions on the appeal the orders she sought were stated as follows:

Reimbursement of Taree Mechanical services invoice $60

Reimbursement of Taree Auto Electrics invoice $198

8-months of Toyota Insurance $980

NCAT appeal fee $509

Financial compensation $6000

Blue slip $78

Warranty added to orders

Reimbursement Taree Auto Electrics invoice $66

Reimbursement Medecke motors group invoice $439. 03

Total $8330.03

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1980c9caace101826d0d5e0e)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.