Private sale, car has gone catastrophically wrong

Dukesy

Hi all,

Some months ago I sold a vehicle through ebay - the buyer bought the vehicle before the auction ended.

A few months prior to the sale, I had a reconditioned engine put in the vehicle, as the original engine had thrown a con rod. I sold the truck with the reconditioned engine, having done a couple of thousand miles on it and had it serviced at the first 1000 miles, as per the conditions of the engine warranty.

The buyer has now got in contact with me saying that the crankshaft has snapped. Whilst he's had it for something like four months, he's only done about 600 miles on it. He's asked if we can get in contact with the garage that did the job, as their paperwork states the engine warranty is non transferable (although I'd question whether this is allowable or not). We can't get hold of the garage at the moment, phones not being answered etc, and the landline number we had for them is out of service.

Basically we couldn't even begin to refund the buyer, and I'm fairly sure that we are not responsible or liable for anything here - is this the case?

Sgt_Pepper_2

As long as the vehicle was honestly described. Private sale = sold as seen.

If the warranty is non transferable don't even consider claiming on behalf of the owner.

Dukesy

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

As long as the vehicle was honestly described. Private sale = sold as seen.

If the warranty is non transferable don't even consider claiming on behalf of the owner.

No, I've told my husband not to do so - I don't even want to get involved. I can just see this becoming our problem if we were to do so. Feel awful for the chap, but we've had similar things in the past (bought a car a couple of years back that needed a new clutch within a month or so). Just wanted to make absolutely certain that we shouldn't be preparing ourselves for any trouble, as we sold it in completely good faith.

spacey2012

Inform the buyer that they own the vehicle and you have no responsability to maintain or repair the truck. If buyers want protection they pay dealers rates.

mcjordi

did you say it had a warranty on the engine?

if the car was as described then tell them to Foxtrot Oscar

Dukesy

mcjordi wrote: »

did you say it had a warranty on the engine?

if the car was as described then tell them to Foxtrot Oscar

The engine was warranteed for a year, but we gave him all the paperwork to look through and keep when he turned up to pick the truck up, so he should have been aware that it was non transferable before he handed over the money. We just stated facts on the advert.

Tilt

Buyer has no comeback against the OP under the SOGA as it was a private sale.

I would simply pass on the garage details (who did the work) to the buyer and suggest that they take advice from CAB to see if they can pursue them.

End of story as far as the OP is concerned.

Dukesy

Thanks for the replies, they've reaffirmed what I thought was the case. I panic far too easily about this sort of thing...

colino

If it's a genuinely private sale, it is caveat emptor and you really don't want to continue any dialogue wth the buyer. Up to them if they find the warranty and want to represent themselves as you.

spacey2012

Just be careful, hubby may want to play "one of the lads"
Do the family a favour and take over from him before you end up in court.
Cut it off dead, private sale, it is his truck now.

Dukesy

spacey2012 wrote: »

Just be careful, hubby may want to play "one of the lads"
Do the family a favour and take over from him before you end up in court.
Cut it off dead, private sale, it is his truck now.

Have rung him and re-emphasised that he is not to make any contact at all with anyone over the matter, and relayed the advice here. Our biggest problem is that we're too nice, really - feel like complete ****s for selling a truck that has now gone wrong, even though we absolutely sold it in good faith. It's a Nissan D22 engine and having looked it up this morning, I have found one hell of a lot of threads on forums relating to problems with them.