Sold Car in August - now Buyer wants compensation!

sarymclary

We sold our 2nd car a couple or so months back. I'd recently moved in with my partner, and it had sat on the driveway for 5 months hardly used, so I sold it to pay off some credit card debt.

The car was advertised through ebay, but was purchased out of auction, as they buyer came to view the car, test drove it, and made me an offer at the time, so I agreed to withdraw the advert. I did all this in good faith, and it was a lovely little car. In fact I said only last week that I wished I still had it, and had sold our larger car instead.

The year before I had a minor accident with it, and the 3rd party insurance had paid out for full repairs to the vehicle. It was all cosmetic damage to the drivers side, but I got my money's worth on the repairs because they did the wing/door/sill/wheel/bumper, but it was in an extremely slow 5mph max incident in a carpark. The accident was obviously registered through the insurance company. However, it was not a write-off, and the repairs were all guaranteed. The car itself was still under warranty because it was under 3 years old. That said, I did not put this information in my advert, as I understand that I would only have to do so if I were a dealer selling the vehicle. Had it come up in an HPI I would have been completely honest.

However, today I've received an email from the buyer, complaining that he'd not got the MPG from the car that I'd told him I had. I had not tried to mislead him, I had been gettting approx. 60mpg when I had it, although I was doing a 20 mile round trip school run, so not town driving. He claims to have taken it to a dealer, and they discovered 'the fuel pipes at the back were broken, and hadn't been repaired properly'. I had never had them repaired, and had never had cause to get them checked over. He also claims that the dealer 'were refusing to let me have the car back, without first having a new air-con pump and belt fitted, as they said it could break and damage the engine'.

He's claiming that it's taken £1000 to make the car roadworthy, and states: 'I have been in touch with the Citizens Advice Bureau, and they informed me that it was most probably illegal to sell a car in that condition, 'As I bought the car on trust that it was roadworthy, I do feel there should be some compensation and would like you to contact me'.

Now, the person who bought the car was a little 'odd', I must admit. After he had left after viewing the car, I was unsure whether he had mental health problems, or was possibly autistic? He couldn't cope with lots of information at one time, and when I was trying to explain that I couldn't accept a personal cheque from him, without allowing up to 4 days for it to clear through the banking system, to be sure I was actually getting the money (ie. that it wasn't going to bounce, or I was being scammed). I must have had to explain it to him about 10 times, but his dad was with him, and seemed to understand what I was trying to say. He has put in his email, clearly to support his suspicion that I have knowlingly sold a 'duff' car to him that: You will also be aware that you especially asked me for cash, which at the time we thought was rather unusual.

Now, I feel confident that the car is still very sound. I didn't have any issues with it, and presume the issues he's had may well be due to wear and tear, although I'm a bit confused about the fuel pipes. I had no damage to the rear of the car, and have no idea how they could have been damaged. I know that as a private seller I wasn't under any legal undertaking to have to tell him of the insurance claim, and as it was all carried out with a 10 year warranty on the work, I didn't have any concerns about it. I've previously bought cars that had been subject to insurance claims, having discovered for myself with an HPI, but I still bought them. I don't want to ignore this guy's email, as I'd like to get back to him, 'without prejudice', but would be grateful if anyone could suggest some key wording I should use. I don't want to be nasty to him, but I felt I'd been fair when I sold the car to him, even deducting £100 to cover his windscreen excess because the weekend I put the ad live on ebay a passing car flipped a stone off the road, and it cracked the screen, so did so as a goodwill gesture.

I feel sorry for the guy, because he's clearly got some 'coping' issues, and I know he was selling his old car because it had developed a fault of some kind. He was really into getting maximum MPG out of a car, and had even devised a way of converting vegetable oil into fuel in his old car, or so he told us.

Your thoughts please, MSE guys?

Proc

Buyer beware. Unless you specifically stated it hasn't been in an accident the buy has no recourse.

Just ignore his demands.

sarymclary

Cheers Proc. That's pretty much what I thought. I think CAB have advised him wrongly, or he's trying to make me believe otherwise.

maninthestreet

It was a private sale, you didn't mislead him or lie to him about the car, so he has no come-back. Feel free to ignore the email - if you reply, it will only start a tit-for-tat sequence of emails where he re-states his position and you re-state your own.

sarymclary

Ignoring the email was my initial plan, but I'm a bit concerned that he may actually drive over here to have it out with me, as he only lives about 16 miles away. As he's a little odd, I wondered if he needed something written down to explain it to him? I could ignore any response to that I suppose, but then he may still drive over.... arrrrgggghhhhh!

steveo3002

id ignore it ...cars sold as seen

nothing strange about wanting cash

hewhoisnotintheknow

a lot of this around, people buy cheap cars from random members of the public an want a bloody lifetime warranty with it

More than likely his driving style, i can get more than 25% more economy from my fathers car than he can

People come on sites like this read up about their 'rights' and then cut and paste it to try and get their own way. You sold it, months ago and hes only just complained, tell him to do one

mrcow

Personally I wouldn't enter into any conversation with him over this. Especially if you had problems with him before.

It's December for crying out loud. He's had the car for three months.

redux

The fuel pipes may go along one side of the car, so could be prone to damage if it is stoved in enough. But I'm pretty sceptical, as this person mentions the back, though it could be his misunderstanding of what he was told, pipes from the back not at the back.

Fuel and brake pipes will corrode on an old car, but yours doesn't sound old. I have had hydraulic and then fuel pipes changed on an old Citroen a few years ago, and I vaguely remember £100 to £150 even at main dealer labour rates.

And I really don't understand why either the air conditioning work can be your fault, or the repairer's conduct about it if it's as described. There is a toothed timing belt that drives the engine camshaft, which if it breaks can mean the valves hit the pistons, especially on diesels, so that could be the engine damage implied but misunderstood. The air conditioning pump and the alternator and perhaps other ancillaries will be driven by a different belt, not toothed, and it isn't fatal to the engine for this to break, just means the battery won't charge etc. So even if the air conditioning pump was to seize up, I think it would just melt this belt due to friction on the pulley, and not damage the engine. So at least the reasoning is wrong, even if any work is actually needed to the ac, which I can't see you being liable for. If they are actually being advised to have a cambelt change, and might as well do the ancillary belt at the same time, they've misunderstood what they are being told, and that is just normal regular servicing after the extra miles done by now

Without discussing any of this with your adversary, you might quietly find out where the fuel pipes are relative to your previous repairs. If it turns out to be the opposite side, you might say so. If you get any hint from your previous repairer that maybe they should have noticed but didn't, it's up to your conscience, but other than that I'd be trying to compose non-committal replies that don't sound argumentative, and avoid making those either, or at least only verbally not in writing.

The fact that they've included absolutely irrelevant information in the dispute, for example cash versus cheque clearance time, implies to me they are making this case themselves without legal or even CAB advice

hewhoisnotintheknow

also try not to feel sorry for the guy, if his dad was with him he should of overridden any important decision if the guy was not capable of making such decisions himself

how much was the car and how old was it, just out of interest

Alan_M_2

Make it clear to the chap, this was a private sale, there is no warranty or guarantee provided or implied.

You have no legal obligation whatsoever.