Private sale, car has gone catastrophically wrong

motorguy

Can those who are struggling to grasp, i am repeating the O/Ps words for the avoidance of doubt.

Dukesy wrote: »

I would never have said that the warranty would be transferable, and I showed him the invoice for the recon engine, that also explained the terms of the warranty on it before he handed the money over to us.

bryanb

For those unable to understand the implications of MENTIONING the word warranty in an ad.
It is not necessary to say whether it's transferable for a buyer to expect a warranty.

IF the word Warranty is mentioned eg. If it simply said a new engine with a 12 month warranty had been fitted, then a buyer could argue that was part of the deal.

The OP has failed to say whether warranty was mentioned - Why?

Telling us what was NOT said does not answer that point.

arcon5

Agree with above -- the fact you wouldn't have said the warranty is not transferable is of no relevance whatsoever!! What is relevant is what you did say about the warranty?? If you said there was a warranty, the simple fact you omitted crucial information could be seen a misrepresentation.

Scrounger

Dukesy wrote: »

We just stated facts on the advert: the engine was warranteed for a year...

If it goes to court it might be better for the op to claim that they hadn't realised that the warranty was non-transferable?

Scrounger

steve-L

Scrounger wrote: »

If it goes to court it might be better for the op to claim that they hadn't realised that the warranty was non-transferable?

Scrounger

If it ever did go to court (which seems extremely unlikely) then the OP simply handed over all paperwork for the car. This is normal and good practice and often includes everything be it an non-enforceable warranty or not. They could have handed over a receipt for a battery with a 1 yr warranty that had expired....

As a dealer it might be argued that it was relevant information to point out expired warranties, as a private seller not.

They have the same professional competence as the buyer.

It's not irrelevant information to include.
Regardless of if the warranty is transferrable if I were buying I would prefer a car with a engine/gearbox etc. that had a 1 year warranty than one with a 3 month or no warranty even if I couldn't avail of it as it indicates at least the part has some confidence.

All in all it doesn't even seem that the buyer is really trying it on with the OP, simply asking if they can try and 'pretend' they still own the car so it can be fixed under warranty!

chris-j

Even if they did mention warranty, it would be irrelevant since the warranty is with the garage.
The buyer could take the garage to court arguing that ownership is not relevant to the warranty and it is an unfair contract' but this has nothing to do with OP now.
The buyer could easily have done something to damage engine eg to much load as has already been mentioned.

vaio

steve-L wrote: »

If it ever did go to court (which seems extremely unlikely) then the OP simply handed over all paperwork for the car. This is normal and good practice and often includes everything be it an non-enforceable warranty or not. They could have handed over a receipt for a battery with a 1 yr warranty that had expired....

As a dealer it might be argued that it was relevant information to point out expired warranties, as a private seller not.

They have the same professional competence as the buyer.

It's not irrelevant information to include.
Regardless of if the warranty is transferrable if I were buying I would prefer a car with a engine/gearbox etc. that had a 1 year warranty than one with a 3 month or no warranty even if I couldn't avail of it as it indicates at least the part has some confidence.

All in all it doesn't even seem that the buyer is really trying it on with the OP, simply asking if they can try and 'pretend' they still own the car so it can be fixed under warranty!

nah, I'd say if the warranty was mentioned in the advert then it forms part of the description and can be relied on by the buyer.

If it wasn't transferable then that should have been mentioned in the ad as not to do so could rightly be argued to be misleading or even deceptive.

It's not clear cut but given the odds for the buyer it's certainly a gamble I'd take if I was in his shoes. Couple of grand for a new engine vs couple of hundred for small claim court.

If I was seller then I'd be trying to find out if warranty was mentioned and even more importantly, does the buyer have a copy of it?

If he does and you think he's going to push it then maybe think about making a contribution.

If he doesn't then tell him to take a hike

custardy

Dukesy wrote: »

Spoken to the buyer again, basically offering us three options suggested by trading standards. 1. We refund. 2. We pay for repairs. 3. We go halves. He's said he's offering us this as he'd rather not go to small claims. We've told him categorically that we cannot pay anything and have spoken to trading standards ourselves, who have said all that can be done in a case like this is that the buyer can approach the seller for a goodwill payment. Some consolation, but we could do without the stress

sounds like the buyer has you down as a trader to TS
however if you mentioned the engine as having a 1 year warranty(regardless of being non transferable) then it could muddy the waters