BGH: Fire from unclear cause is enough to trigger seller's liability

If a car you just bought catches fire within six months and a technical defect cannot be ruled out, you don’t have to prove the car was faulty. Under German law, the burden of proof shifts to the dealer.

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Fire cause unknown – legal presumption still favours the buyer

Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) ruled on 6 May 2026 (case no. VIII ZR 73/24): if a car burns down within six months of purchase and a technical defect cannot be ruled out as the cause, German law presumes the vehicle was already faulty at the time of sale. That means the dealer – not the buyer – has to prove the fire had a different cause, such as arson. The fact that an expert could not identify the cause with certainty does not count against the buyer. The ruling overturned the Cologne Court of Appeal (OLG Köln, case no. I-25 U 25/23), which had dismissed the claim.

What this means for you: Under German consumer sales law (§ 477 BGB), if a defect shows up within six months of buying something, the seller is presumed to have sold you a faulty product. You don’t have to prove how or why it broke – that’s the seller’s problem. This is very different from what many people from common-law countries (like the US or UK) expect, where „buyer beware” is often the default.

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What happened

A buyer purchased a used VW – just over a year old – from an authorised VW dealer in August 2020. Two weeks later, the car was parked in a public car park in the seaside town of Sankt Peter-Ording and burned out completely. The buyer’s comprehensive car insurance (Vollkaskoversicherung – the German equivalent of full coverage) paid out around €35,000 to cover the loss, then tried to recover that money from the dealer. A court-appointed expert could not determine the exact cause of the fire – a technical defect, an animal chewing through a cable, and arson were all considered possible.

Quick note on how German warranty law works: In Germany, when you buy from a business dealer (not a private seller), you have a two-year statutory warranty (Gewährleistung). If something goes wrong in the first six months, the law assumes the fault already existed at the time of sale. After six months, it flips: you would normally have to prove the defect existed from the start. This case is about that six-month window.