being threatened with court by ebay seller

sailboat

ebay..had a winning bid on a vehicle ,vehicle was not what i expected , hes taking me to the small claims court

in retrospect i should have known that the listing omited some very important facts about the vehicle for sale.
i had the winning bid on an auction on ebay .co.uk.
when i went to pick the vehicle up it was in a very poor condition. it did have a 11 months mot on it (advertised as 12 months)
but it was not in a cherrished or beloved condition as the seller discribed.
i had talked to him on the phone a couple of times and did ask if it had any rust ,leaks or ruff bits i should know about .he told me there wasnt.
by email i asked if it had any ruff bits he said it had had a small leak which had been repaired.
i did not buy the vehicle .
the seller filed a non-payment claim on ebay against me which he won.
he is now saying that it cost him over £400 to bring it over to me..last week he said it cost him £100! i have both these emails.
he also says that i am legally required to buy the van as he discribed it acuratley (which he did ) if only stating the good things about it and none of the bad is accurate. he also said it was free tax from next year (due to the age ) it isnt. it was in a terrable state ,interia structure was gone and lots of holes under the bonnet ,the photos did not protray any of the damage and on the phone he omited to mention any faults.
he is going to sue me for the cost of the van and his costs .
i did say to him the sale was subject to our inspection but again on the phone so i have no proof of this.
ebay uks terms and conditions state that bids on ebay vehicle classifies are non-binding and are not a legal contract however i can not see anything relating to an auction format. but as you can not bid on a classified add on ebay is it actually refering to auction bids?

the van was in a very poor condition the photos he took were taken in such a manor as to not highlight its faults.
please help i have got the £ 2750 i bid but this is everything we have ive been saving up for several years to buy a camper as we have a large young family,i did intend to buy.
i am terified that this man will take all our savings and alot more money on top .
leaving us with the bailiffs comming to the door and taking everything which i am pretty sure wont cover the costs.
should i be worried silly?
pleasehelp i cant find anything on the web that in informative.
thankyou
WE LIVE IN SCOTLAND.
i was really nieve, i believed the guy was honest and was describing his vehicle truethfully. i didnt go to see it i know now i should have.
we live on a scottish island and he lives on the next one. it was just going to be time consuming and we are genrally very honest up here as we all have to live together in what is very small close comunities.
i wonder if in law what is not said is a defence for not as described?

this is what ebays terms and conditions say ...Liability

You will not hold eBay responsible for any loss you may incur as a result of eBay taking any of the actions described in the Abusing eBay section above nor for other users' actions or inactions, including, without limitation, things they post, items they list or their destruction of allegedly fake items. You acknowledge that we are not a traditional auctioneer. Instead, our sites are venues to allow anyone to offer, sell, and buy just about anything, at anytime, from anywhere, in a variety of pricing formats and locations, such as stores, fixed price formats and auction-style formats. At no point do we have possession of anything listed or sold through eBay.

We do not review users’ listings or content and are not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. While we may help facilitate the resolution of disputes through various programmes, we have no control over and do not guarantee the quality, safety or legality of items advertised, the truth or accuracy of listings, the truth or accuracy of feedback or other content posted by users on our sites, the ability of sellers to sell items, the ability of buyers to pay for items, or that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction or return an item. For certain categories, particularly motors vehicles and real estate, or bid or offer is a non-binding transaction representing a buyer’s serious expression of intrest in buying the seller’s item and does not create a contract for sale between the buyer and the seller.

Please do not assume that the offer, sale, purchase, export or import of any item is valid and legal simply because it is listed on one of our sites.

i am asking for helpful advice from people who know their facts. thank you all very much for reading this.

MamaMoo_2

If he has omitted all details of faults, even when asked, then he is in the wrong.
Also, as e-bay's T&C's say, it's not a legally binding contract. You have every right to back out. Including, I believe, under the 7 day period under DSR's.
Go to court, bring copies of the listing, all emails & a copy of the T&C's with the text you highlighted above underlined.
From what I can see here, this guy hasn't got a leg to stand on.

pendulum

How do you know he's taking you to court?
Have you actually had papers through or is he just threatening?

You seem to have made a good case for not proceeding with the purchase, at least it appears that way to me. I cannot see him winning if he took it to court, although you can never be 100% sure.

freeoffers

He's threatening you because he knows the only way to get any money is to try and frighten you. DO NOT PAY him. He won't go to court because it is not a legally binding contract.

techspec

He's got the van - you have your money. Theres nothing here for a court to sort. Just forget him and move on.

pcombo

If the seller is worried about fees, Telling them to open a closure dispute and accept and all fees are refunded.

Except insert fee maybe.

sailboat

update... have spoken to legal advice...
he does have a case ...
ebays terms and conditions do not adhere to uk laws.

not as described is not a defence buyer beware.........

pendulum

There's legal advice and then there's 'legal advice'...
If your 'legal advisor' told you that "not as described" isn't a defence, you need a new legal advisor.
If eBay terms and conditions don't adhere to UK laws and thus mean nothing, then surely the sale was never valid in the first place?

From where did you get this legal advice? If you have free legal advice bundled with a service or subscription, then they sometimes just aren't interested and will just advise you to sort it out yourself (settle).

Get a second opinion from a respected source before you do anything.

MamaMoo_2

He has no case. There is nothing in law to say that you have to buy this car. He has no case, from what you've said. You cannot force someone to buy something that is not as described.
As said above, you have the money, he has the van. No-one has lost out, really.

The_Pedant

Not as described is not a defence? Ummm for second hand goods (assuming it's a private sale & they're not actually a trader), I thought the goods do have to be as they are described. However, you can simply list a car for example as "25 years old" and provided the car is in the sort of condition a car of that description may be in (full of rust etc) then that is as described. However, it must also meet any other statements made about its 'description' over the phone, by email etc.

Write out a list of what was said/emailed and when; then seek some proper legal advice.

Looking at the eBay terms you posted, it sounds more like their view of guidelines on how they will view any dispute.

paddedjohn

sailboat wrote: »

update... have spoken to legal advice...
he does have a case ...
ebays terms and conditions do not adhere to uk laws.

not as described is not a defence buyer beware.........

Sack your lawyer....you havnt parted with your cash so the deal hasnt been completed so you are not the buyer and he doesnt have a case at all, i have walked away from 3 cars that were not as described when i went to collect them.
another point is the free tax thing, it only applies to vehicles that were registered before 1st jan 1973 not as some people think when they reach a certain age.