Sold Car Privately - Buyer Unhappy - Wants to return - Help 27 February 2015 at 5:09PM edited 1 March 2015 at 12:34AM in Motoring 327 replies 87.6K views

arcon5

Marktheshark wrote: »

Using any type of contract places the seller at a disadvantage.
The safest contract is a shake of hands, your car now, bye.
Contracts can be challenged as unfair or disadvantageous to one party and you open yourself up to hundreds of case laws arguments.
Sold as seen, private sale, shake on it bye.

Or they can remove ambiguity. Can substantiate what potentially was or wasn't said. Even if nothing is written down a contract is still entered in to anyway.

dunroving wrote: »

Just out of interest, how old was the car, how many miles, and how much did you sell it for? The older, more used, and cheaper a car is, the less a buyer can complain about problems. To an extent, you assume when you buy a used car you are buying problems that might occur in a year or might occur tomorrow.


I sold my 10-year old car a couple of weeks back. Needed to keep it for 2 weeks and the buyer was happy for me to keep it (I think his son, who was buying the car, needed a bit of time to pull the money together).


Buyer's deposit receipt stated that in 2 weeks (when they came to pick it up) if the car had any obvious faults it didn't have at first inspection, they could either decide not to buy or negotiate a lower price. They also had the right to take for another test drive.


A few days before we were due to exchange money/car, the headlight went. I didn't even notice - a neighbour told me (main bulb gone, not the whole unit). The car had passed the MOT a few days earlier. With a blown bulb, the car was not "roadworthy" (would have failed an MOT), so I paid to replace the bulb. If I hadn't noticed it and the buyer called me the next day (or even a few days later), I would probably have sent a few quid to cover it, just out of courtesy and for reasons of karma.


If some unexpected problem had arisen that was clearly something I couldn't have anticipated I would have had no qualms about saying "Sorry it happened but I didn't know, and the sales invoice said sold as seen, etc."

Frankly that was a bit unnecessary. Just a receipt confirming how much was paid, a date and the sale price is all that's needed. Not a load of gobbledygoop

dunroving

arcon5 wrote: »

Or they can remove ambiguity. Can substantiate what potentially was or wasn't said. Even if nothing is written down a contract is still entered in to anyway.



Frankly that was a bit unnecessary. Just a receipt confirming how much was paid, a date and the sale price is all that's needed. Not a load of gobbledygoop

Only following the advice of the AA:


http://www.theaa.com/resources/Documents/pdf/motoring-advice/aa-car-buyers-sellers-contract.pdf


- not sure what is so gobbledegook about that.

colino

While receipts are a legal requirement for traders, they are useless pieces of paper for privateers. You sell a car, sign date and time the details on the V5C, count the money, hand over the keys and wave goodbye.
Anything else is an excuse for barrack room lawyers to get all excited. (Or pay your, "recommended" AA lawyer to fleece both of you).

Marktheshark

Just tell her its her car now, you sold her it and a 12 year old car will need maintenance and things will break, it could be tomorrow it could be in ten years.
If she has decided she does not want it she will have to sell it, she paid, she owns.

jaydeeuk1

Not your problem, private sale. Its a VW so of course it will have faults.

Just hope you're not like that other poster recently, asked for advice on here, completely ignored it and ended up refunding the chancer of a buyer £300.

funkycoldribena

Why do people hire cars? All you got to do is buy a car,use it for a week then return it to the seller complaining that it pulls to the left/smokes a bit etc, get full refund.

waamo

If you are not a mechanic or otherwise involved in the motor trade then it is the buyers problem.

londonTiger

looks like a lot of second hand car buyers are pressing their consumer rights on private sales. All the power to them!

waamo

londonTiger wrote: »

looks like a lot of second hand car buyers are pressing their consumer rights on private sales. All the power to them!

Yup kill the second hand car market ? What a great idea.

Marktheshark

londonTiger wrote: »

looks like a lot of second hand car buyers are pressing their consumer rights on private sales. All the power to them!

Until they try it with the District judge at county court and get booted straight up the backside by a cantankerous judge with hundreds of years of case law fastened to his boot..
You want comebacks, you buy of a trader and pay the premium.