Beware of curbers

For Sale: Vehicle in mint condition at a decent price. It's the kind of advertisement seen often on sites such as Kijiji, which are designed to lure potential buyers.

In this case, the promise was too good to be true and the car was in an accident prior to being offered for sale. It needed new brakes and a power steering rack unbeknownst to the buyer, a young man excited for his first vehicle.

He only learned the car wasn't safe for the road when he took it to Matthew Lee's garage, St. Albert Auto Care. A background check at the registry office later revealed the news about the accident.

The parts needed for the repairs would have cost $1,500. Sadly, that happens a lot, the St. Albert mechanic says.

He was fortunate. The inspection may have cost him $90 and likely another $100 at the registry office, but he and his mother "were very happy" about going the extra step, he says.

Other customers were not so lucky. They paid $1,500 to $3,000 for a used car and ended up with the same cost in repairs afterwards. Most of the cars came from private sales and the seller promised nothing was wrong with the car.

"I've had a lot of cars from private sales where people have cried a little bit," he says. "Anyone who is buying a new or used unit from the Internet or from the newspaper, you are taking a risk. You are gambling."

The St. Albert case may have been one of a person trying to sell his or her own car. But, often it's an example of a curber trying to make a quick deal.

Curbers are people who make a living or extra cash, buying and selling vehicles through private sales without a dealer's licence, says John Bachinski, executive director of AMVIC.

They work from home, out of a mall parking lot or other obscure locations. They often tell believable stories, pretending to sell their daughter's or grandmother's car, and connect with buyers through websites such as Kijiji, Trader and Craigslist.

Curbers may appear as professionals, but they are not.

"(Curbers) are dangerous, they are not licensed, they often do not disclose the history of a vehicle," he says. "Sometimes they do their own repairs and the vehicle has mechanical issues the consumer is not aware of."

Cases of fraud

Bachinski recalls the case of a Fort McMurray woman who put a down payment on a car in Edmonton. She had only seen the car online and when she came to pick it up, she noticed it was damaged.

She ended up buying it, not because she wanted to, Bachinski says. But the curber told her she would not get her deposit back otherwise. Regrettably, she only called AMVIC after the sale, he adds.

Other examples are vehicles sold with outstanding bank loans, or curbers who sell cars for other people but then disappear with the money. Sometimes they take a deposit for a vehicle they don't own or sell the same car to several buyers, he says.

Some of the vehicles are in good shape but more often they lack proper care or are damaged beyond repair, as was the case with a large investigation AMVIC undertook in the mid-2000s.

Following Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of curbers brought in vehicles that were flooded. They looked clean but later started to rust, and had not been properly repaired.

"And then (the buyers) go to register the vehicle the next day and then they find out it's a write-off," he says. "Then they call the curber up and guess what, the phone number doesn't work anymore."

Consumers don't know that they are supposed to request a lien check when buying a car from a private dealer, which is part of the problem, he says. Alberta also doesn't require continuous registration, so buyers don't always know who owns the vehicle.

AMVIC receives about 5,000 complaints about bad business practises every year.

If a licensed business or sales person is found to be at fault, AMVIC can try to resolve the dispute, fine them or, in rare cases, take away their business licence. They also have a fund that, if the matter is not resolved or the business goes broke, can assist the consumer with a partial compensation.

"But if you deal with a curber, you are on your own," says Bachinski. "We can investigate the curber but we can't help the consumer."

Research before you buy

Before purchasing a car, buyers should search a business or individual sales person to see if they are registered on AMVIC's website, or ask to see their AMVIC licence, he says.

Vehicles brought in from outside of the province also require an out-of-province inspection but sometimes curbers find their way around that.

Instead, people should always get their own, independent inspection done before buying a used vehicle, and avoid repair shops "recommended" by the seller, he says.

"It's safety, it's quality, it's getting what you are paying for," he says.

"You are basically trusting the seller with what they say," Lee adds. "You are buying a used vehicle without knowing the history. But if you buy blind, you could have some nasty surprises."