Small claims against me

MalMonroe

I'd be interested to know what kind of paperwork there was BEFORE this person made a claim against you. That is, what written agreements were made and signed prior to you driving off in the car? And also, what paperwork is there after the sale? Does the receipt indicate that you only made a part payment?

What you say here : "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" - leads me to believe that there was an agreed verbal contract. What proof does he have that the car was originally £10,250?

And also what proof does that person have that he contacted you to discuss this matter prior to issuing a court claim?

You could do worse than contact Citizens Advice so you can get a proper idea of your legal rights, failing that, see if you qualify for Legal Aid, in which case you can hopefully get some legal help that you don't have to pay for. 

In any event, please don't just accept that what this person is saying is true. Question it and get some good legal advice. 

In my opinion, having been a car purchaser and driver for more than 25 years, that car was overpriced at the outset, being 7 years old with a damaged bumper and no MOT. Not at all reasonable. Did you take a note of the reg number and google it to see if the car had failed MOTs in the past and what the advisories, if any, said?  What kind of road tax do you have to pay? What insurance bracket does it fall into? You say you don't know anything about cars and my advice - as a divorced woman who was similarly ripped off in the past - is LEARN. And never, ever buy a car the first time you look at it.

However, I don't think that all is lost, you just need to gather all the evidence together, all the papers you have, and contact someone who can advise you what to do. Some solicitors also offer a free one-off session.

Whatever happens, please don't let this person get away with fraud, or scare you with a court case.

pinkshoes

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?

£6750 for even a basic model Nissan Qashqai is VERY cheap. Which model was it? Most start at £8000... 

Has the garage contacted you BEFORE you received this court paper asking for a resolution?

Your ONLY defence would be to prove that the garage did NOT make a mistake with the price, so you would need evidence of current selling price for that particular model with that mileage, and use this as your defence that you had no idea a mistake had been made as this was a reasonable price as per other cars. 

So unless it really is a basic model with LOTS of damage, then I'm thinking the garage perhaps did make a mistake. 

Were_Doomed

I'm not 100% on this, but ... surely the unilateral, obvious error needs to be identified and notified before the contract concludes? If the OP is to be believed then there had been significant interaction between the two parties during contract negotiations (and not computer-computer negotiations - real human beings), and the seller agreed to provide the vehicle for the consumer's consideration ... a part-ex vehicle plus a sum of money. This was completed - both parties providing their parts of the agreement - and contract was thus concluded.

davidmcn

Were_Doomed said:

I'm not 100% on this, but ... surely the unilateral, obvious error needs to be identified and notified before the contract concludes? If the OP is to be believed then there had been significant interaction between the two parties during contract negotiations (and not computer-computer negotiations - real human beings), and the seller agreed to provide the vehicle for the consumer's consideration ... a part-ex vehicle plus a sum of money. This was completed - both parties providing their parts of the agreement - and contract was thus concluded.

No. If the contract hadn't been concluded then any errors would be irrelevant, wouldn't they? All those other factors may play a part in arguing whether there had been an error, but if the court agrees that there was, then the contract can be unravelled.

Littleconfused

yes tried to keep it simple but ill explain more. basically we hadnt seen the car advertised prior to this, just advised the garage had whati wanted so I, rang to view it and test drive it, and discussed the part ex more looking back. it was a merc c220, in actual fact he offered £1500 and we declined and he agreed £1750. however, on the receipt he put £1500 which i didnt notice at the time. on the receipt he put car price £6750, part ex £1500, leaves £5250 to pay,  yet on the declaration he sent to the courts it says  the car was advertised at £10490 on autotrader, however, thats irrelevant we didn't see it there for sale, but on the paper work he contradicts the amounts and says the car was £10250 and and sold for £6250, he seems to be just making amounts up as he goes along. he rang me on the way home about 30 mins after i left but was driving, he left a message saying i put the wrong amount on the invoice you owe me £3500, i text and said i will seek advice on this, he then said you haven't paid the full amount im calling the police. i said ok because i have the receipt, but felt intimidated so rang the police for advice. they said it seems strange and that the price we paid isn't obviously wrong and had it of been £2000 or something clearly too low that would be fair enough, and that he would be letting action Fraud know about this as he felt he was trying to scam me out of money. he said bring the car back and take the money but i didnt want to, i like the car. he then put in a money claim to which i replied agreeing to mediation but not the money difference and then got papers by email that was like a statement his side of the story, it certainly wasnt the truth as he didn't mention the right price we agreed for the merc, the money off or return for the new mot and like i said couldnt stick to correct prices so very confusing. as far as im concerned we discussed the car price, agreed it, transferred the car to my name online, bough the tax, cleared out my car, and he didnt notice the price was wrong? i cant see it myself

Ganga

Where does the Nissan Qashqai come into the story ?

Littleconfused

can i add that i had looked at all types of cars, different makes, different years, models, miles, and know nothing about cars other than if i like the colour and the stereo, my boyfriend was buying the car me as it transports our new baby and wanted an suv for safety, i had looked at cars from £5000 to £10000 just to see what i liked, so stupid as it may sound i woudnt know if it was cheap or not, just that it was a nice colour, wasnt rusty or smelly inside and looked nice, i felt that as it was from a garage it would be a good car anyway.

Littleconfused

th

Ganga said:

Where does the Nissan Qashqai come into the story ?

its the car that this is about

Littleconfused

i was at the garage for quite some time, we spoke about several things, there was plenty of time after the receipt was written to notice the error, i was on the phone texting the amount for my partner to transfer to me and then make the payment, like i said going online to dvla to register new keeper, then the tax, get the documents all together, transfer all the junk and baby seat etc out of the car into the new one, it wasnt a mad rush and not enough time to notice, i just dont think it was an error and if i bought in good faith surely im not in the wrong?

photome

Littleconfused said:

yes tried to keep it simple but ill explain more. basically we hadnt seen the car advertised prior to this, just advised the garage had whati wanted so I, rang to view it and test drive it, and discussed the part ex more looking back. it was a merc c220, in actual fact he offered £1500 and we declined and he agreed £1750. however, on the receipt he put £1500 which i didnt notice at the time. on the receipt he put car price £6750, part ex £1500, leaves £5250 to pay,  yet on the declaration he sent to the courts it says  the car was advertised at £10490 on autotrader, however, thats irrelevant we didn't see it there for sale, but on the paper work he contradicts the amounts and says the car was £10250 and and sold for £6250, he seems to be just making amounts up as he goes along. he rang me on the way home about 30 mins after i left but was driving, he left a message saying i put the wrong amount on the invoice you owe me £3500, i text and said i will seek advice on this, he then said you haven't paid the full amount im calling the police. i said ok because i have the receipt, but felt intimidated so rang the police for advice. they said it seems strange and that the price we paid isn't obviously wrong and had it of been £2000 or something clearly too low that would be fair enough, and that he would be letting action Fraud know about this as he felt he was trying to scam me out of money. he said bring the car back and take the money but i didnt want to, i like the car. he then put in a money claim to which i replied agreeing to mediation but not the money difference and then got papers by email that was like a statement his side of the story, it certainly wasnt the truth as he didn't mention the right price we agreed for the merc, the money off or return for the new mot and like i said couldnt stick to correct prices so very confusing. as far as im concerned we discussed the car price, agreed it, transferred the car to my name online, bough the tax, cleared out my car, and he didnt notice the price was wrong? i cant see it myself

This post is difficult to read without paragraphs, but one point I think I have seen is that the dealer rang you within 30 minutes of the sale and said there was a mistake and if you returned he would refund you..is that right?

If it is then I think you may struggle to argue that you didn’t know there was a problem