Seller retaining deposit

Robbie_Duck

Quick question for you all...

Mrs is looking to buy a horse. Finds a horse she likes, wants to get it checked out by a vet. Seller asks for a deposit. She gives her £250. Horse fails vetting, will be unridable very soon. Seller says she will send deposit back. Then swerves all attempts to contact her, sellers husband leaves message saying that "after 'talking to other people' they dont have to give the deposit back. We might give you a bit back but not until we've sold it" I get angry, Mrs gets upset.

What can we do, if anything?

Optimist

With the circumstances as you describe and their was something wrong with the horse I see no reason why they should retain your deposit. I assume you got a receipt from the vendor and a report from the vet.

I would write giving them 14 days in which to return your deposit or you will start a small claims action against them . Then if they don't respond you need to carry that out and start the small claims process

Robbie_Duck

Thanks, Ive just been reading through the small claims process. Cant see how much it is? Would it be worthwhile persuing £250 this way?

Optimist

Cost is £25 if you do it online which you can claim back. It takes about 10/15 mins. However you really need to write to them first and give them time to pay

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco/index.jsp

If they decide to defend it it will go before a County Court

I'm assuming you are in England or Wales.

The_Pedant

I believe that normally, any deposit made is subject to any agreements made between you and the seller.

In most cases, the non return of a deposit (if you choose to cancel the sale) is to reimburse the seller for any costs they have incurred. This could cover for example, the cost of re-advertising the horse for sale, or the cost of keeping it a little longer etc. If you feel the deposit amount far exceeds reasonable costs incurred then you have grounds to negotiate a part return.

On your side however, I would have expected that you stated that you would be willing to buy the horse, subject to it passing the vet's health check. The deposit therefore was to secure the intent to buy, subject to that agreement.

As it turned out, the horse was deemed to not be in the best of health. If no such health problems were flagged prior to your agreement, then I would probably say that you could argue that the 'goods' were possibly not as described. This, I would expect gives you grounds also to seek the return of the deposit.

Tozer

Yes you can claim it back in full. The deposit was to stop time wasters. You were not one and are withdrawing from the contract for good reason.