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Seller pulled out of sale, won't refund deposit
Hi. I viewed a van (private sale), agreed a price then put a £100 deposit down on it. Seller and myself signed a receipt confirming he'd received the deposit and i said i'd be in touch asap to arrange collection. The following day i arranged to pick up the van 3 days later, seller was happy. Two days after agreeing the pick up date the seller messaged me to say the van had been broken in to and impounded by the police and he couldn't sell it any more, he said he'd send my deposit back asap. You can probably guess the rest, numerous dates promised yet the money never turned up. I've now sent him a Letter Before Action; I have the receipt for the deposit, screenshots of the advert plus the whole facebook conversation to back up my claim. Is the small claims court likely to go in my favour as it seems crazy that a seller could just rip people off like this and keep the money?
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Comments
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It's all down to who is the most believable on the day. If you go armed with plenty of evidence then you should win.0
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That's how i understand it; the facebook conversation confirms every detail. Not that i'm expecting him to even turn up!0
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They key in civil cases is the balance of probability. In other words which is more likely. If you've got things like Facebook messages then this is very good evidence as to what is most likely.
I would shove a claim in0 -
I definitely will be, he's still got two weeks but i can't see it forthcoming. If it was me who'd pulled out i'd have no grievance with him keeping the deposit.0
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There's legion of low life's out there, who's word means absolutely nothing.
Best of luck with the money claim.0 -
Ask for the crime ref number from the police.0
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The police were the first port of call, they said it's a civil matter.0
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Ask seller for crime ref number.0
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Classic open closed case for a judge. You will win0
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Oh sorry i misunderstood. He has ceased all communication after the money didn't go in to my account (yet again) on the day he said. He initially claimed he sent cash through the post tracked and it didn't turn up, he claimed it was because nobody was here to sign for it (they were), no card was left by Royal Mail either funnily enough. I asked for the tracking number but he didn't give it.0
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