Received a civil money claim - please help!

MariusAdam

Hello,

I receive today, 27/05/2020 a civil money claim regarding a car that I sold on Facebook Marketplace in February 2020. (private sale)
I have attached the letter and a few other things I thought might be relevant.


Timeline of what happened:

25.02.2020 - On the day of the purchase three gentleman turned up to view the car, they all inspected it and one of them also test drove it giving it the green light and confirmed that the car works and drives well. During the viewing I mentioned the timing chain will need replacing soon. Following this, we both singed an AA private car sale contract, exchanged the v5 and after he transferred the money they left driving the car.

26.02.2020 - I received a text message from the buyer asking me for £150 towards the repair of the timing chain (see message attached). I replied politely saying that I already knocked money off the original asking price for this issue so I will not be refunding the additional £150 asked.

07/03/2020 - I received a phone call from the buyer asking me to take the car back and give him a full refund because the car has been in an accident, it doesn't have the original engine, has multiple electrical faults and the airbags removed. I reply saying that I will not take the car back nor offer a refund because I was not aware of any of these problems. I owned the car for nearly 9 months and I never had a problem with it. I used the car to commute to work and would not do so if I was aware of these problems, especially the lack of airbags. I also mentioned that if I probably knew about these things I wouldn't invite them inside my house so they would know my address and I definitely wouldn't be such a genuine guy by mentioning the timing chain even though they never been asked about it.

06/05/2020 - I receive a complaint letter saying that I miss-described the goods by saying that "The car has covered 48k miles from new when in fact upon inspection we have discovered the car doesn't have the original engine therefore your description of low mileage from new is incorrect". I replied to this by saying that I have found a HPI check that I have done on the day before I bought the car and the HPI check came back all clear without mentioning any of the stated problems.

27/05/2020 - I received a civil money claim that I have also attached in this thread.

In the civil money claim the buyer attached a version of his timeline of what happened, however there are many inconsistencies and untrue events in there.
For example:

Page 1 26/02/2020: The buyer mentioned he took the car to a garage and said the garage advised the timing chain was okay however the alternator was not charging the battery. In the text message I received on 26/02/2020 (see message attached) from the buyer he is asking for £150 towards repairing the timing chain.

Page 2 07/03/2020: - The buyer claims I advised him to sell the car on and that I deleted my Facebook account.

Page 3 07/04/2020 - The buyer said I originally claimed that I purchased the car from a garage where it had been brought in as a part exchange and then on 07/03/2020 via the phone call he claims I said I bought it from a friend. I originally said I bought the car from a guy in Manchester via Facebook marketplace and that the seller told me he got the car as part exchange when he sold a different car. I never mentioned I bought the car from a dealer or a garage.

On page 3 in the Evidence section the buyer is claiming that he sent two initial letters that I refused to take receipt off, however on page 3 16/04/2020 he is saying "Our correspondence had been addressed to the property next door".

In the claim on page 4 there is also a statement of truth that the buyer signed. It clearly states that he believes that the facts stated in this claim for are true, which they are not.

On contacting multiple solicitors I have been told that it would cost me more their representation then repaying for the car so they advised me to represent myself. I have never done anything like this before so I decided to post on here to see if there is anyone that can give me advice in this situation.

English is not my first language so I hope this makes sense. I am more than happy to provide more details if needed. Thanks in advance for your help.

DoaM

What was wrong with your previous thread?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6139849/sold-car-privately-now-told-the-car-was-misdescribed

MariusAdam

DoaM said:

What was wrong with your previous thread?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6139849/sold-car-privately-now-told-the-car-was-misdescribed

I didn't know how to add attachements to the original thread so I created a new one and also reviewed the story, hopefully adding more sense to it. Did I do something wrong by creating a new thread?

waamo

It's much better to stick to one thread and keep all the information in one place. Multiple threads just gets confusing and may lead to bad advice which you really don't need.

GrumpyDil

Yes much better to use one thread. That said in the particulars of claim they say the chain did not need doing but the text asks for momey to do it!
Did they send you a proper LBA asking you to resolve the issue and stating if you didn't resolve it they would issue proceedings after x days?

Have to point out that as long as the ad was truthful to the best of your knowledge and you did not lie/mislead the purchaser then the onus is on the purchaser to do their checks before purchasing the car.

ciderboy2009

I find it interesting that the particulars of claim don't mention reports from the mechanic and auto-electrician as part of the evidence.  Without those there's no proof of any faults!

MariusAdam

ciderboy2009 said:

I find it interesting that the particulars of claim don't mention reports from the mechanic and auto-electrician as part of the evidence.  Without those there's no proof of any faults!

Hmm, I never thought of this. Can I ask for these reports?

waamo

MariusAdam said:

ciderboy2009 said:

I find it interesting that the particulars of claim don't mention reports from the mechanic and auto-electrician as part of the evidence.  Without those there's no proof of any faults!

Hmm, I never thought of this. Can I ask for these reports?

There are no surprises in court. If they want to use it they have to show it you.

George_Michael

I would have thought that it would be in your interest not to ask for any reports.
If you ask then they may realise that they are needed for the court so could go and get them (possibly done by a friend). If you don't ask and they don't get any reports, that's something else that should go in your favour.

Jumblebumble

I have no idea what a court is going to say but the crucial question is when was the car presented for it's last MOT as this should have detected the missing lamps on the dashboard and airbag ? 
You could suggest that you assume that the 3 people who inspected the car were professionals and if they did not spot the issue 
why should you be able to.
If the buyer has bought the car with a short MOT he has found out it's true value which is  £100 mixed metals at the crushers
I doubt that anyone  is going to be at all interested in  what you paid for the car or where you got it from

MariusAdam

Jumblebumble said:

I have no idea what a court is going to say but the crucial question is when was the car presented for it's last MOT as this should have detected the missing lamps on the dashboard and airbag ? 
You could suggest that you assume that the 3 people who inspected the car were professionals and if they did not spot the issue 
why should you be able to.
If the buyer has bought the car with a short MOT he has found out it's true value which is  £100 mixed metals at the crushers
I doubt that anyone  is going to be at all interested in  what you paid for the car or where you got it from

The MOT was done a moth before I purchase the car. Like I said, the new MOT, HPI check and the fact that my brother in law was with me when I purchased the car (he knows more about cars than me) makes me think that this guy is trying his luck with me. I used that car for 8 months for 15-20 miles daily commute and had absolutely no problem with it. I can't believe that car could have all these problems.