Used car, agreement to purchase

SwiftEdge

I recently placed a deposit to hold a car while a credit check was carried out. I did this even before test driving purely as I wanted to see if I would be able to obtain credit, I would then take any purchase decision from there. I had been told the deposit was refundable or else I never would have placed it.

Within a few hours of paying the deposit my situation had changed and I was no longer interested in getting a second car. I went straight to the dealer and told him to cancel the credit check as I didn't want them to go through any unnecessary procedures towards nothing. He was grumby about my change of mind but agreed to give me the refund the following day, it being a bank holiday and him not having authorisation to do so on his own.

The following day he refused to give me a refund, saying it was non-refundable and that he had gone ahead and processed the credit check anyway (which went through fine). I argued with him and his manager but neither would budge.

The next step I took was on the advice of trading standards. I sent a letter formally requesting the refund which had been agreed. Almost two weeks letter I received the reply from the dealer which maintained that they would not give a refund and in fact were being kind to me by not sueing me for the full price of the car which I had "agreed to purchase".

I've seen similar situations to this on the forum before with many people saying that the individual should not be entitled to a refund for such a thing. I would say in my situtation that no expense or loss has been incurred on their part; seeing as it was a bank holiday, no paperwork had been processed in the short time and he was initially fine with giving the refund.

I already have the credit card company following a dispute on this, although I have no idea how long that might take. My question is as to whether or not I could be sued by the dealer for the full amount, as I had hoped to take the matter to a small claim court (with no risk to myself) if the credit card dispute failed. I never signed any document agreeing to purchase the car, nor said so verbally. I don't even remember having to sign for a credit check to take place, just provided my details, so no signature was made. Am I at any risk? I feel like they are just threatening me with such a thing to make me back down.

Thanks for any help or opinions.

Hintza

Not any help. But just an opinion NEVER EVER leave deposit until you are ready to deal.

In most cases I would have little sympathy but it does sound slightly different to the norm, so good luck. If it was me I would be parking my backside in their showroom being a little loud until they sorted something out.

Mankysteve

They can not withhold an entire deposit by law but they can take a proportion from it to cover there cost such as credit checks etc.

Equaliser123

Mankysteve wrote: »

They can not withhold an entire deposit by law but they can take a proportion from it to cover there cost such as credit checks etc.

And which law is that?

OP was told deposit was refundable.

SwiftEdge

It has definitely been a lesson in trust for me and I'll be much more cautious about such things in future. When speaking to the manager about it his attitude came across that he could pay me the refund but deliberately wanted to punish me "teach me a lesson" for having changed my mind. I think I just thought that since he said it was refundable and nothing was signed that there was no chance of him attempting to withhold it from me. I mean I was so sure of this that I put it down before even test driving the vehicle.

I believe it is the law that the most they could withhold on an unsigned deposit would be enough to cover expenses incurred, I've seen this mentioned in a variety of places although have little legal knowledge to describe the exact law. I'm sure they could make up a load of rubbish about running costs for the business etc. but in reality it cost them nothing whatsoever in the 3 hours (max) that I was gone.

Personally I'd feel disgusted with myself if I was running a business and behaving like this. They are purely out to make a quick buck from it, no matter that they haven't done any work to earn the money. I'm really hoping that the credit card company can sort out the dispute without me having to take further action. I want them to be punished, which a CCJ certainly would achieve, but am definitely worried about this suggestion of being sued as I cannot afford that.

Equaliser123

SwiftEdge wrote: »

I believe it is the law that the most they could withhold on an unsigned deposit would be enough to cover expenses incurred, I've seen this mentioned in a variety of places although have little legal knowledge to describe the exact law. I'm sure they could make up a load of rubbish about running costs for the business etc. but in reality it cost them nothing whatsoever in the 3 hours (max) that I was gone.

.

No that's not the law. Forfeiture of a deposit requires the deposit to have been a genuine pre-estimate of the loss likely to be suffered in the event of the purchaser not proceeding.

If it is not a genuine pre-estimate, then the ENTIRE amount is reclaimable.

Further, given that you were told that the deposit was refundable, this just shouldn't be an issue.

Ditch the view about "punishing" with a CCJ though. Just not helpful to anyone.

vaio

You say it was refundable and just for a credit check rather than being based on a decision to buy, they will say that it was part of an agreement to buy subject to the credit check.

To be honest putting a deposit down just to check credit rating seems silly….

From your point of view, if you have iffy credit then an unnecessary check will appear on your record and possibly make it worse, why would you pay a deposit just to run a check if there wasn’t a sale attached?

From their point of view running a check costs time & the credit agency fee, can’t see many dealers doing that without a provisional sale and deposit in hand.

If you can’t talk them into giving it back then you could sue for the deposit via the small claims system, they might well defend and maybe even lodge a counter claim for some other losses associated with you not buying the car. A judge will decide which version of events seems most likely.

SwiftEdge

You're right, punish was a poor choice of word. My feeling is that the £200 is not a great deal of money and shouldn't make a big difference to them. Having a CCJ against their name would surely make them think twice of going back on an agreement again and hopefully make them feel bad for being so money grabbing in the first place.

I guess I hadn't seen the deposit as just for the credit check, rather that if things were to go ahead afterwards it would form a part payment for the car. Definitely crazy for placing it so early but was just sure that their 'it's refundable' was trustworthy.

Equaliser123

SwiftEdge wrote: »

You're right, punish was a poor choice of word. My feeling is that the £200 is not a great deal of money and shouldn't make a big difference to them. Having a CCJ against their name would surely make them think twice of going back on an agreement again and hopefully make them feel bad for being so money grabbing in the first place.

I guess I hadn't seen the deposit as just for the credit check, rather that if things were to go ahead afterwards it would form a part payment for the car. Definitely crazy for placing it so early but was just sure that their 'it's refundable' was trustworthy.

I'm not sure you understand the CCJ process. It is only if a judgment is not satified that it goes "against their name". If they pay a judgment straight away, nothing adverse is recorded.