Manipulated!

emmatink

Hi. I have no idea where best this thread should be! 

My husband sadly passed away recently and it has been tough to deal with. We own a business together that I am now sadly having to close and sell all the goods of. A friend of my husbands has brought some very expensive goods that I have now learned for a third of the price. He assured me of the worth of it all and paid in cash very briskly. This was all a verbal agreement but he knew I had no idea. Goods haven’t been collected as yet. I’ve been so upset about this as he knows that any money made goes to my children’s future! 

Am I within my rights to return the money and not sell him the goods for a ridiculously unfair amount or do I have to suck it up?
Feeling so let down and hurt. 

welshmoneylover

Did you give him a receipt? If not give him the money back and try and sell the goods elsewhere.
sorry for your loss

tacpot12

I'm not sure welshmoneylover is correct here. You have a contract to supply the goods, and he has paid for them. (Contracts can be verbal). Whether or not you gave him a receipt, doesn't change the fact he paid the price you agreed upon, and you willingly accepted the money. It doesn't seem fair that you have a right to cancel or repudiate this contract. I am also inclined to thing that you are better off with the money and not having the hassle of selling the goods. It's not clear if you have delivered the goods.

This doesn't stop you asking him for more money; you could make it clear that you think he has underpaid and taken advantage of the situation. If he won't pay more, I don't think there is much more you can do, but if you have home insurance, and have legal expenses cover as part of this, you will have a legal helpline you can call you will be able to confirm whether there is anything you can do. It would be better to get proper legal advice from the helpline or a solicitor before giving up.

If you still have the  goods, you could try what shops do when a mistake has been made in marking the price on goods, and cancel the sale due to the error. Clearly any action on your part to terminate the sale will ruin the relationship you have with them, but it seems like that boat has sailed...

bpj

tacpot12 said:

It doesn't seem fair that you have a right to cancel or repudiate this contract.

Disagree strongly that it would be unfair based on what's presented, but of course you may be right about a contractual obligation. Still, personally I'd hope an arbiter would use any discretion possible to side with OP.

emmatink

Thank you all for your responses. @tacpot12 I am financially ok and I’m no hurry to sell anything at the moment at all thank fully so that was never an issue. I think if I can I will leave selling much till things settle down re Covid that would be better financially. He actually had it on his mind over the week as he knew he really had taken me for a ride paying me a third of what I could’ve got and offered the right price so all in all a good result! He felt awful knowing my husband would’ve been upset. Nice that any confrontation and bad feeling didn’t amount to anything. 

fenwick458

tacpot12 said:

You have a contract to supply the goods, and he has paid for them. (Contracts can be verbal). Whether or not you gave him a receipt, doesn't change the fact he paid the price you agreed upon, and you willingly accepted the money. It doesn't seem fair that you have a right to cancel or repudiate this contract. 

whilst this may be true, how can the buyer prove this verbal contract? all there is here is a verbal agreement and a cash payment, no paper trail, very easy to just give the money back and tell the buyer that the deal is off you want more money for them.

victor2

emmatink said:

Thank you all for your responses. @tacpot12 I am financially ok and I’m no hurry to sell anything at the moment at all thank fully so that was never an issue. I think if I can I will leave selling much till things settle down re Covid that would be better financially. He actually had it on his mind over the week as he knew he really had taken me for a ride paying me a third of what I could’ve got and offered the right price so all in all a good result! He felt awful knowing my husband would’ve been upset. Nice that any confrontation and bad feeling didn’t amount to anything. 

Sorry for your loss emmatink and the inevitable stress it has resulted in.

Nice to see a satisfactory outcome though, where old friendships seem to have prevailed.