Texas Auto Fraud Attorney: We Sue Car Dealers for Texas Buyers

What Counts as Dealer Fraud Under Texas Law?

Texas protects you with a broad consumer statute, and it comes with one procedural rule that has to be satisfied before any suit for damages is filed. The Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act, Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.41 et seq., lists more than thirty false, misleading, or deceptive acts in section 17.46(b). The ones that fit a car deal: representing that goods have characteristics, uses, or benefits they do not have ((b)(5)); representing goods as new when they are used or reconditioned ((b)(6)); misrepresenting standard, quality, grade, or model ((b)(7)); advertising with intent not to sell as advertised ((b)(9)); misrepresenting what an agreement or warranty confers ((b)(12) and (b)(20)); turning back an odometer ((b)(16)); and failing to disclose information known at the time of the transaction where the omission was intended to induce the sale ((b)(24)).

Section 17.50(a) lets a consumer sue when a listed act was relied on to the consumer's detriment, when an express or implied warranty was breached, or when the dealer engaged in an unconscionable action. Reliance matters: the statute requires a showing that you acted on the misrepresentation, which is often straightforward when the buyer signed because of what the salesperson said about the car.

The Texas dealer statutes

The Certificate of Title Act, Transportation Code chapter 501, supplies the title rules. Section 501.072 requires every transferor to give the buyer an odometer disclosure that complies with 49 U.S.C. § 32705. Section 501.091(15) defines a salvage motor vehicle as one whose cost of repair, excluding repainting and sales tax, exceeds its actual cash value before the damage, and section 501.100(c) requires the title issued after a rebuild to disclose the vehicle's former condition in a way a buyer can understand. Section 501.0234 makes it the dealer's duty to apply for title in your name, which 43 Tex. Admin. Code § 215.144 treats as timely within 30 days of the sale, or 45 days for a dealer-financed sale.

Occupations Code section 2301.651 lets the Texas DMV deny, suspend, or revoke the license of a dealer that wilfully defrauds a purchaser, fails to fulfill a written agreement with a retail purchaser, or violates any law relating to the sale or financing of motor vehicles, and section 2301.801 authorizes civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation. Those are administrative penalties, not damages to you, but they are leverage.

Federal law applies in Texas too

The Federal Odometer Act, 49 U.S.C. § 32705, requires a written mileage disclosure on every covered transfer, and 49 U.S.C. § 32710 gives the buyer the greater of three times actual damages or $10,000, plus attorney's fees, for a violation with intent to defraud. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, revocation of acceptance under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 2.608, and the FTC Used Car Rule, 16 C.F.R. Part 455, round out the claims.

What Can You Recover Against a Texas Dealer?

The remedy depends on which claim fits the facts, and most Texas dealer cases plead several:

• DTPA economic damages. Under section 17.50(b)(1), a prevailing consumer may recover economic damages. If the dealer acted knowingly, meaning with actual awareness of the falsity or deception, the consumer may also recover mental-anguish damages, and the factfinder may award up to three times the economic damages. If the dealer acted intentionally, up to three times both.
• DTPA attorney's fees. Section 17.50(d) requires an award of court costs and reasonable and necessary attorney's fees to each consumer who prevails. Section 17.50(c) cuts the other way for a suit that is groundless or brought in bad faith.
• Federal Odometer Act. 49 U.S.C. § 32710: three times actual damages or $10,000, whichever is greater, plus costs and attorney's fees, for a violation with intent to defraud.
• Common-law fraud. The loss the lie caused, typically the difference between what you paid and what the car was worth as delivered, and in appropriate cases rescission.
• Article 9. For a repossession that violated the notice or breach-of-peace rules, section 9.625(c)(2) sets a minimum recovery for consumer goods of the credit service charge plus 10 percent of the principal, or the time-price differential plus 10 percent of the cash price.

Dollar figures above are statutory amounts set by law, not results in any case. What any client recovers depends on the facts, the documents, and the dealer's ability to pay.

How Does the Firm Handle a Texas Case?

Remotely, on the documents. The firm's office is in Hollywood, Florida, by appointment only; we do not maintain an office in Texas and walk-in visits aren't accepted. Attorney Joshua Feygin is admitted before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and Texas state-court matters are filed in the Texas courts. A client in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, or El Paso works with us by email, phone, and video. More about the firm. The office number is (954) 321-0507.

Two Texas-specific points. Since January 1, 2025, under House Bill 3297, Texas no longer requires an annual safety inspection for non-commercial vehicles; registration carries a $7.50 inspection program replacement fee instead, and emissions testing continues only in the listed counties around Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, and El Paso. A used car's condition is whatever the dealer's reconditioning and the Buyers Guide say it is. And there is no cooling-off period for a car purchase: as the Texas Attorney General's car-buying page puts it, you do not have three days to cancel the purchase.

Questions for a Texas Auto Fraud Attorney