NSW toughens up auto trade practice laws

Recently introduced consumer protection laws that better regulate motor vehicle dealers, recyclers and repairers in New South Wales are the subject of an education campaign by seven teams of NSW Fair Trading motor industry inspectors who have been on the road in Sydney recently.

The current Motor Dealers and Repairers Act 2013 came into effect in December 2014 and brought various changes to the laws.

These include higher penalties for some breaches such as odometer tampering, which has been doubled to $22,000, while it is now mandatory to comply with certain disclosure-to-customer conditions including information "that might affect a consumer's decision to buy a car or buy a car at a certain price."

These include items such as "any major modifications to a vehicle, past flood or hail damage, whether a vehicle has previously been written off and whether there is any suspicion of odometer tampering."

The new laws also simplify the business of licensing requirements, reducing the previous six motor dealer and 16 motor vehicle repair business licence types to just three: motor dealer, motor vehicle recycler and motor vehicle repairer.

Under the new rules, Fair Trading inspectors are now able to issue rectification orders to resolve disputes between consumers and traders about repair work on a vehicle that is incomplete or defective, or if a dealer guarantee has not been met.

Importantly, new enforceability rules enable the rectification orders to be used as evidence before a court or tribunal.

Mr. Greg Patten, who is the CEO of the Motor Traders' Association (MTA), welcomed the opportunity to work with Fair Trading, pointing out that the initiative was underpinned by the association's Code of Ethics to help provide greater confidence to consumers when dealing with MTA members.

In 2014-2015, NSW Fair Trading received 2384 complaints about used cars and 52 complaints about used motor cycles – a total of 2436. It also received 1529 complaints about new cars and 84 complaints about new motor cycles for a total of 1163. In the same period, Fair Trading issued $115,510 in penalty notices for 131 offences. Prosecutions resulted in court ordered fines of $123,435 for 81 offences.