Suspicious car seller, what are the rules?

sarahlancs

Hi all, not sure if this is more suitable for this thread or the motoring thread but I'm very interested in the rules for selling vehicles on ebay so i'll pop it here but am more than happy to move it if required.

Here are some facts:

1. Partner found a 2002 Audi A3 on ebay. Advert declared a long MOT, taxed etc being sold under a username that indicates the seller is a female. Called to enquire & to arrange a viewing & was immediately dealing with a male. He told us the eBay account was his mother's. Do ebay rules state you have to use your own account to sell an item?

2. Carried out a HPI check online prior to the viewing. Discovered the vehicle was a Cat D write off but not until 2011 so gave the seller the benefit of the doubt but decided to get more info from him. We also did an Internet search of the seller's address to get directions & found articles from a local paper declaring the seller had been banned from driving due to lack of tax & insurance and then again as he had not retaken his test after the initial ban.

3. Went to test drive the vehicle. All seemed ok. Seller declared he did not know the car was a Cat D as he had bought it from a dealer a year ago & they had not mentioned it. Called garage that had carried out the repairs from the write off & found it was rear quarter panel damage. Put down £100 deposit on the basis 1 tyre would be replaced before we collected the following week.

4. When we went to collect the vehicle the V5 was not in the name of the seller. He said it was in his step dad's name as it had been his car but they never changed the registered keeper. My partner asked if he planned to forge his stepdads signature to complete the sale &! he had said yes he would have too. At this point my partner backed out of the sale, not feeling comfortable as the seller had no proof he had legal ownership of the car. Things got heated & my partner said the seller could keep his deposit to cover the cost of the replaced tyre, but we wanted nothing else to do with the sale. Out of interest, when we got home we ran the DVLA check & found out the vehicle was not taxed.

5. The next morning we got aggressive texts saying my partner was a time waster and he would take him to court for "breach of agreement". Does the seller have any right to pursue this claim? By the point the car was relisted on ebay. He did not mention on the relist that the vehicle was a Cat D even though we now know that he knows. Is a seller obliged to disclose this if they are aware?

6. One week later & the original seller (on his mothers ebay account) now has another vehicle for sale, another A3. The advert almost reads word for word to the previous one, & a little research into the account shows he has also sold a BMW & a Honda S2000! in the past.

Apart from the questions in bold, I guess what we would like to know is, is there anything ebay can do about this seller who is clearly running some kind of business through a personal account and also would ebay be able to investigate the vehicles he is selling as something isn't quite right about the way he is acquiring and selling these vehicles as his own.

Thank you for any help

Voltaire7

Mind your own business? You had a lucky escape, I would just move on with your life.

To answer your bolded questions:
You have the same access to the rules of eBay as anyone else
Yes, he can pursue any claim he wants.
He is obliged to disclose this if he is aware.
eBay are too busy with other stuff.

RFW

Pass the details to Trading Standards and leave well alone.

timbo58

To answer:

Breach of agreement is nonsense, a contract is not formed until either paperwork is signed to that effect or the sale is concluded.

Obliged to disclose? Not sure I'm afraid.

eBay probably won't be at all interested, they are collecting fees after all and have no legal obligation to do anything about it.

Agree with RFW, contact TS and walk away.

Frankly as it appears the seller was less than open & honest I'd have asked for the £100 back but it's unlikely given the sort of communication afterwards that this would have been forthcoming. I doubt he'd have put any decent tyre on it so the extra he pocketed from the £100 would have probably paid for the eBay relisting.

Collabora

looks like he is a trader and not a private seller

Brooker_Dave

sarahlancs wrote: »

Apart from the questions in bold, I guess what we would like to know is, is there anything ebay can do about this seller who is clearly running some kind of business through a personal account and also would ebay be able to investigate the vehicles he is selling as something isn't quite right about the way he is acquiring and selling these vehicles as his own.

Find another car and forget about it.

The seller *may* be a closet trader, but TS or Ebay won't care.

(cars are always cheap for a reason)

Collabora

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

The seller *may* be a closet trader, but TS or Ebay won't care.

Yes they will TS for seller misleading buyers and Ebay for using a private account not in your name to sell as a trader to mislead buyers

TKPeters

V5 does not prove ownership, only whom is the registered keeper & the Tax is no longer an issue, as the new keeper has to re-tax the car under the rules since last year.

As soon as the report showed Cat D, I would have walked away
Most likely he is buying from the auctions & reselling on eBay, which should be declared

bartelbe

The guys a car dealer, trying to avoid his legal obligations by posing as a private seller. As a dealer he would have to disclose the Cat D and would be liable for faults after sale.

Frankly the moment I found out about the Cat D I would have walked.

Should be easy for ebay to get rid of cowboys like this, no private seller is going to be flogging cars at that rate.

You could report him, but I suspect you will be wasting your time.

mrcol1000

You could report him to Trading Standards, the planning department of your local council (assuming he is operating his business from home) and Ebay. No-one really is going to be that interested to be honest.

Buying a second hand car is stressful enough and it sounds that from the very start it did not feel right. The car was obviously very cheap for you to ignore all the warning signs and plough ahead to a deposit regardless.

Its all fair complaining about this person operating as a business but pretending to be a private seller. However by doing this they can sell the car far cheaper. Had you brought the car and been happy with it then the fact he was a business pretending to be a private seller would not have bothered you. Personally I would forget about it and get on with your life.

usefulmale

Dare I say, report him to HMRC too.