Cancel car order - reservation fee and refund

eschaton

I hope OP returns.

papaface

Sorry I've been on holiday for a few days.
Just to clarify, I really don't care if I get the deposit back. I'm posting here to gauge if I were to ask for it back if I would be within my rights to do so; and conversely if they are within their rights for withholding a refund when they did not state at the time of payment or prior that it was non-refundable, nor did they point me in the direction of their Tc & Cs and even if they did it does not say anything in there about the deposit being non-refundable!

Takmon wrote:

To form a contract terms can also be oral so it doesn't have to be written down and they could just say they told it was non-refundable. You must have asked if it the deposit was refundable because it would be pretty silly paying £500 and not even asking.

You could say I was silly for paying without asking but I had every intention of buying the car and it formed part of my larger down payment so I didn't really feel the need to bother asking. Point taken though.

Takmon wrote:

Well if you want to compare it to a house deposit then when you rent a house you pay a deposit and if you comply with the terms of the contract you get it back at the end. If you broke the contract for example by not paying the rent they won't refund the deposit.

So in your case of the car you broke the oral contract that you agreed to buy the car and haven't paid for the car as agreed so therefore you are not entitled to your deposit back, if you follow the same logic.

With respect, you're not following your own logic here. I come back to the fact that there is nothing in their Ts and Cs about the deposit being non-refundable. This is the pertinent point.

Mercdriver wrote:

Surely the time to have objected would have been when they notified you that it was non refundable. You've allowed a further 5/6 weeks to elapse. You will likely get it back, but it could be argued that after 6 weeks, you have been seen to accept those conditions.

100% agree but again we come to these "conditions" being applied after the fact. There was no meeting of the minds and just because the seller states something as a retrospective condition, surely doesn't make it binding? I'm obviously no expert but that'd be a recipe for disaster in contract law?

Arklight wrote:

The documentation they sent you is not the same thing as a schedule of official terms and conditions for whatever transaction you entered into, unless this is stated.

You need to ask to see the TCs that explicitly were in force regarding your reservation, at the time you made it, and see if this allows you a refund.

They didn't direct me to any Ts & Cs or ask me to agree to any, so surely I can't be bound by them?

Scrapit

papaface wrote: »

Interesting. On what contractual basis?

You tell us, you've agreed to it and paid it.;)

papaface

I assumed it would not be refundable but that’s purely an assumption. Having looked into it now it appears that there are no statements or terms covering the refund of the deposit and the only term put down confirming it was non-refundable was stated 2 weeks after I had paid it.

Takmon

papaface wrote: »

With respect, you're not following your own logic here. I come back to the fact that there is nothing in their Ts and Cs about the deposit being non-refundable. This is the pertinent point.

So what has happened is that you have agreed orally to buy the car and paid £500 towards the full price and agreed to pay the rest of the money at a later date. You have entered into a contract to buy the car for the agreed price (remember contracts don't have to be written down they can be oral).

So surely the default is that you would expect the money paid so far to be non-refundable and you actually owe them the full amount.

Another example when you buy a house and you sign a contract to agree to exchange on a certain date you pay a deposit. If you decide to not exchange and go against the contract you certainly don't get back any of the money paid so far.

papaface

Not quite that clear cut because I knew DSR meant I could cancel the contract within 14 days of taking delivery of the goods. So I knew I was protected with that anyway.
Also it was described to me as a “reservation fee”, not a deposit.

papaface

I've chased up the dealer today and they've confirmed that they will be issuing me a refund in full. So there was no need for me to argue with them in the end

papaface

Update: Just received a voicemail and email advising that my car is ready for delivery anytime w.c 17/6... :rotfl::rotfl: