A car is the most expensive thing most people buy after their home, and the one where a defect is hardest to prove. The dealer says it is normal wear. The garage “fixes” the same fault three times and it comes back. On an imported car, the mileage turns out to be wrong six months later.
This has been our field for over ten years. We have seen it from both sides and built unique know-how in vehicle defect claims.
What clients bring to us
- A new vehicle with a fault that keeps returning
- A claim the dealer rejected as ordinary wear and tear
- Repairs carried out repeatedly that never resolved the fault
- Damage caused to the car at a garage, or invoices for work nobody ordered
- A used car with a concealed accident history or a manipulated odometer
- An imported vehicle whose defects only emerged after registration in the Czech Republic
- A dispute over whether the defect already existed at handover
What Czech law gives you
Since the amendment to the Civil Code that took effect in January 2023, a consumer buying from a trader may raise a defect appearing within twenty-four months of taking delivery (Sec. 2165 of the Civil Code).
The decisive rule is the twelve-month presumption: if the defect appears in the first year, the vehicle is presumed to have been defective at handover, and the dealer must prove otherwise. After that year the burden shifts to you. This is why the date you raise the defect matters far more than the date you decide to litigate.
For used vehicles the period may be shortened by agreement, but to no less than one year, and it must actually be agreed — burying it in standard terms is not enough.
The remedies follow a sequence. First comes repair or replacement, at your choice, unless the chosen route is impossible or disproportionately expensive. Only if the repair fails, the same defect returns, the breach is material, or the dealer misses the statutory thirty-day deadline for handling the claim do you reach a price reduction or withdrawal from the contract. You cannot withdraw over an insignificant defect.
Why a car claim is not like a washing machine claim
With a vehicle the argument is almost always about the line between a defect and wear. A car wears out by design, and dealers know it. Most rejected claims rest on that.
Three practical consequences follow. The notice of defect must be in writing and specific — “the car drives strangely” is not a notice of defect. The condition of the vehicle should be documented before it goes into the workshop, because once repaired the original state can no longer be shown. And in contested cases an expert report is unavoidable; the only question is when it is obtained and who commissions it.
Experience from both sides of the table
Alongside buyers, we have acted for several vehicle dealers over many years. We do not name them and will not — we are bound by professional confidentiality.
The value to you is concrete. We know what governs the decision on the other side to accept or reject a claim, which arguments are actually weighed there, and when a dispute is worth running as against when a settlement is the better outcome.
Cars imported from abroad, particularly from Germany
Imported vehicles are a category of their own — most often bought on German classified and trading platforms, either through an importer or directly.
The costliest misconception is that Czech consumer protection travels with the car across the border. It does not. Buying from a German private seller is a sale between two non-traders. Liability for defects is routinely excluded by a clause such as “gekauft wie gesehen”, and under German law that exclusion is generally valid.
It has a limit. The seller cannot rely on the exclusion where he fraudulently concealed the defect or gave a guarantee as to quality (Sec. 444 of the German Civil Code). A clocked odometer or a concealed accident therefore breaks through the “as seen” clause, and alongside withdrawal there is the possibility of avoiding the contract for fraudulent misrepresentation.
Where the German seller is a trader, the limitation period is two years (Sec. 438(1)(3) BGB). Shortening it to one year on a used car sold to a consumer has been subject to formal requirements since 2022: the buyer must be given specific notice before entering the contract, and the shortening must be agreed expressly and separately. These requirements are not always met in practice.
That leaves the question which decides the cost of the whole dispute: which court, and which law. On a cross-border purchase neither is obvious, and the answer turns partly on whether the seller directed his activity towards the Czech Republic or whether you sought him out in Germany. It has to be settled before anything else.
We handle these matters without a correspondent lawyer. Dr. Tomas Mach is admitted as an attorney in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany (Rechtsanwaltskammer Köln), and is a court-appointed expert for legal relations with foreign countries. We deal with the German seller directly, in German.
How we work
- We review the file — purchase contract, handover protocol, service history, correspondence to date
- We establish whether you still have a claim and within what period, and on imports which law applies
- We put the notice of defect in a form that will hold, and set the deadlines
- We arrange an expert report where the case cannot be won without one
- We negotiate with the seller and represent you in court if it comes to that
Frequently asked questions
The dealer rejected my claim as wear and tear. Is that the end of it?
No. A rejection is not a decision about your rights; it is the other side’s position. What matters is whether the defect existed at handover — and in the first year that is presumed.
How many repair attempts before I can withdraw?
The law sets no fixed number. What counts is whether the repair resolved the defect. If the same fault returns, or the breach is material, you need not wait for another attempt.
I bought privately. Do I have any rights at all?
Consumer rules do not apply between non-traders and liability is usually excluded. But if the seller concealed a defect he knew about, the position changes fundamentally — in Germany as much as here.
Is it worth going to court over a car?
Sometimes. We will tell you at the outset rather than a year into the dispute. Where court costs and expert reports would consume much of the claim, we say so and recommend settlement, even though that is less profitable for us.
Get in touch
Describe the situation and send us the purchase contract and service documentation. You will get an assessment of where you stand, which deadlines are running, and what is worth doing next.
More on our civil and consumer practice: Civil law · Czech law for English-speaking clients