What is the test for misrepresentation in a vehicle sale?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Campbell v. Di Fruscia, 2021 BCCRT 345 (CanLII):

26. While the principle of ‘buyer beware’ largely applies to a private used vehicle sale, a seller may not misrepresent a vehicle’s condition. A “misrepresentation” is a false statement of fact made during negotiations or in an advertisement that has the effect of inducing a reasonable person to enter into the contract. The seller must have acted negligently or fraudulently in making the misrepresentation, the buyer must have reasonably relied on the misrepresentation to enter into the contract, and the reliance “must have been detrimental in the sense that damages resulted”: see Queen v. Cognos Inc., 1993 CanLII 146 (SCC), [1993] 1 SCR 87 at paragraph 110.

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