What do I do if my cat’s earlier proprietor comes knocking? DEAN DUNHAM

 I adopted a cat from an animal charity a month ago, who is house trained but not chipped. I’ve fallen in love with him, but what are my rights should his previous owner track him down?

J.J., via email

DEAN DUNHAM REPLIES: It depends on the circumstances that led the cat to be adopted. If the previous owner has abandoned or given the cat away to the charity, they will have effectively given up their rights, so will have no legal grounds to claim the cat back.

There is a legal obligation for cat owners to keep their contact details up-to-date on a Defra-approved microchipping database, writes Dean Dunham

However, it gets tricky if the cat had been ‘lost’, as the law views animals as ‘property’. This means, if the previous owner can prove they do indeed own the cat and did not abandon or give the it away, they will be entitled to claim him back.

It is unlikely that you will run into an ownership issue and, in any event, regardless of the potential risk of this, you now have a legal duty to get the cat microchipped. In this respect, in England, the law says cats must be microchipped before they reach the age of 20 weeks, except for unowned cats such as feral and community cats. The default position if you fail to do this, is that you have 21 days to have your cat microchipped, or you may face a fine of up to £500. You will find that most vets require you to get your cat chipped before they carry 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 microchipping database. So, even if you adopt a cat that is chipped, you will still have to take some action to get the details associated with the chip updated.

Finally, I should point out that, at present, these laws apply to England only.

Dealership didn’t tell me the warranty on my car was void as it’s never been serviced. Should it pay up?

I purchased a two-year-old Ford with 34,400 miles on the clock from a dealership. It now has a gearbox issue so I contacted Ford. However, Ford says the car has never been serviced and this has voided the manufacturers warranty. The dealership did not inform me of this when I bought the car. What can I do?

Richard Graham, via email

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 provides that goods sold, including cars, must be ‘as described’

DEAN DUNHAM REPLIES: The Ford manufacturer’s warranty provides cover for 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 by the warranty. One of these is ‘failure to properly maintain the vehicle in accordance with Ford maintenance schedules and service instructions’.

So on the face of it, Ford is within its rights to refuse to repair the issue for free under the manufacturer’s warranty.

Now let’s turn to the dealership which sold you the car. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 provides that goods sold, including cars, must be ‘as described’. This means traders must not lie or mislead consumers with descriptions of goods. If the dealership told you the car had a full service history you will now be entitled to a remedy, as this will be a breach of contract.

Under English law, the remedy for a breach of contract is to put the innocent party — you, in this case — back into the position you would have been had the breach not occurred.

Here, this will mean the dealership will have to pay for the repair, and get the service schedule up to date to ensure you have the benefit of the remaining term of the warranty. If the dealership did not mention the service history or the manufacturer’s warranty when selling the car to you, the law still sits on your side.

In the absence of being 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 have clearly formed part of your ‘purchasing decision’.

The dealership’s failure to tell you that the car did not have a full service history, meaning the warranty was therefore void, becomes a breach of contract, which gives rise to the rights and remedies I’ve outlined above. Finally, as this seems to be a manufacturer’s fault, you could also claim that the car was not of ‘satisfactory quality’ at the point of purchase and, under the Consumer Rights Act, you are entitled to a free repair. This would be a different route to the same outcome.

Do you have a question for Dean? Write to Money Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY or email d.dunham@ dailymail.co.uk. 

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