Attorneys

The Uniform Commercial Code or UCC has been enacted in all 50 states and some of the territories of the United States. It is the primary source of law in all contracts dealing with the sale of products. The TARR refers to Tender, Acceptance, Rejection, Revocation and applies to different aspects of the consumer`s relationship with the purchased goods. TENDER ­ The tender provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code contained in Section 2­601 provide that the buyer is entitled to reject any goods that fail in any respect to conform to the contract. Unfortunately, new cars are often technically complex and their innermost workings are beyond the understanding of the average new car buyer. The buyer, therefore, does not know whether the goods are non­conforming. ACCEPTANCE ­ The new car buyer accepts the goods believing and expecting that the manufacturer will repair any problem he has with the goods under the warranty. REJECTION ­ The new car buyer may discover a problem with the vehicle within the first few miles of his purchase. This would allow the new car buyer to reject the goods. If the new car buyer discovers a defect in the car within a reasonable time of inspecting the vehicle, he may reject the vehicle. This period is not defined. On the one hand, the buyer must be given a reasonable time to inspect and that reasonable time to inspect will be held as an acceptance of the vehicle. The courts will decide this reasonable time to inspect based on the knowledge and experience of the buyer, the difficulty in discovering the defect, and the opportunity to discover the defect. REVOCATION ­ What happens when the consumer has used the new car for a lengthy period of time? This is the typical lemon car case. The UCC provides that a buyer may revoke his acceptance of goods whose non­conformity substantially impairs the value of the goods to him when he has accepted the goods without discovery of a non­conformity because it was difficult to discover or if he was assured that non­conformities would be repaired. Of course, the average new car buyer does not learn of the non­conformity until hundreds of thousands of miles later. And because quality is job one, and manufacturers are competing on the basis of their warranties, the consumer is always assured that any non­conformities he does discover will be remedied. T. Michael Flinn, www.defect.com, writes this information.