The latch will not catch even if closed hard. When I close the tailgate then the liftgate they both stay closed. When I then open the liftgate the tailgate is secure and I use the push down release to open it.

Not the biggest problem being that the system stays closed when the liftgate is closed. Odd that the latch doesn't work for the tailgate alone but when the liftgate is closed the latch for the tailgate operates.