Small claims against me

Littleconfused

please can someone in the know please tell me what to do when I have received a money claim from my local court by the trader i bought a car from. My boyfriend told me he had seen a car in a garage and to go and look at it. Imdid this and liked it, there was no,price on windscreen, but the year Of the car lead me to believe it would be in my price range. I liked the car, and was part ex ing my car against it. We finally agreed a price for mine against the car and asked him what would that leave me to pay? He said 5250, I said ok and paid, not knowing anything about cars this seemed about the right price as there was damage to bumper too. He then messaged me and said he made a mistake it was 10250! As far as im concerned i paid in good faith the price he told me and gave me the receipt for but now,he has made a claim in small claims court against me and iv no idea how i write my defence as it seems theres a certain way to do it and things i need to include but iv had no instructions as all sent by email, please can you help me? He has lyed in his defence forms and contradicted himself too

DiddyDavies

What is the make, year and model of the car concerned and what sort of mileage has it done?
Even though you paid the asking price, under certain circumstances it is still possible for the dealer to cancel the contract.
This is when something known as a unilateral mistake occurs.

Unilateral mistake (where one party is mistaken and the other knows or ought to have known of the mistake). If the mistake relates to the fundamental nature of the offer the contract can be voided.

So if the deal was too good to be true and someone thought this and took advantage of the mistake, the contract can be voided.
Whether or not the judge in the court agrees this is the case is a gamble.

Were_Doomed

Go to the Parking board (bear with me) and look at the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread ... the County Court process is fully explained in there. Yes, that is geared towards defending claims from parking companies, but the process is exactly the same for you.

Note: use a laptop/PC - don't try and read the NEWBIES FAQ on a tablet or (shudder, worse still) a phone.

Littleconfused

It was a nissan quashqui and 63 reg, basic model, 27000 miles, and before deducting my car would of made it 6750, needs tepair to bumper and new mot, doesnt sound,un reasonable to me, what do you think?

Littleconfused

We just got the claim through with his description of what happened, i have no idea what comes next, i would of thought there would be a leaflet or something, i just have no idea what to do, i will look and hope theres some kind,of explanation and a template or something.

steampowered

You could offer to return the car, in exchange for a full refund, plus a fair amount for the car your traded in.

Why has the trader filled in "defence" forms? Surely you mean "claim" forms?

If the trader is suing you, the next step is to complete the "Defence" clearly explaining why you do not agree with the trader's claim - explaining that you paid the agreed price for the car and received a receipt. The instructions you would have received with the claim form will explain what you need to do.

Aylesbury_Duck

Littleconfused said:

It was a nissan quashqui and 63 reg, basic model, 27000 miles, and before deducting my car would of made it 6750, needs tepair to bumper and new mot, doesnt sound,un reasonable to me, what do you think?

I'm no car expert but that looks like it might be in the "surprisingly low price" bracket, given the low mileage for a six year old car.  I found a few of that age at around that price, but all with much more expected mileage for the age, e.g. 90,000 miles.  Dropping the mileage to the sort that yours has suggests prices much closer to the £10,000 the dealer is saying it should have been.  That suggests to me that a pricing error was made and that the alleged real price is realistic.

How soon after paying and taking away the car did the dealer contact you about the alleged pricing error?

Is there more to this story than you're letting on?  It seems very strange, especially given the size of the pricing discrepancy.  Be honest about it here (which of course is an anonymous forum) because if you can't convince people on here, the chances are you won't convince the court.

lincroft1710

Before you received the claim, did the dealer contact you about the price discrepancy or send you a Letter Before Action?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

We purchased a standard 2011 Qashqai in nice condition around 3 years ago for £7300 from a dealer with a showroom that had around 44,000 miles on the clock.

What did you part ex? Or do you know the part ex value? Ignore this I see you got £1500.

If you want to defend the claim you'd need to show the £6750 is a fair market price for the car. 

Aylesbury_Duck

lincroft1710 said:

Before you received the claim, did the dealer contact you about the price discrepancy or send you a Letter Before Action?

According to the OP, the dealer "messaged" her.  Whether that was the only contact before court papers arrived, or whether there was intervening communication, OP will have to expand.

I think there's more to this than we're being told.  Not that OP is deliberately withholding information, but that they haven't yet given the full story.   I would be very surprised if a dispute over £5,000 went from a text message straight to court action.

arthurfowler

As someone who is not an expert, I would think steering clear from court is best for your sanity. The advice here from steampowered seems good:
You could offer to return the car, in exchange for a full refund, plus a fair amount for the car your traded in.

If they don't accept that, then I guess you can use that in court to show how you tried to reach an amicable decision. I looked online too and it looks like the car can be had for between £7-10k with similar mileage. £6,750 is a touch off that, but if there is damage to the bumper too, that could scrape a few pounds off.