Demanding money for repairs after buying

lordrah1m

I sold my car on the 28th of June. The car was advertised on Autotrader as well as Wizzle. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the car and had a major service done on the 4th of January. The individual initially made contact via Wizzle and later asked if I would sell outside of Wizzle so he didn’t have to pay the fees and to which I agreed. I provided all documentation, time to inspect the car as well as a test drive. Everything went smoothly and the car was driven 5 and a half hours away. For the next few days I was being told that it had this wrong with it and that wrong with it and that I would have to pay for the repairs. I was baffled as none of this was brought up earlier and agreed the car was in amazing condition. My family, friends and CAB have told me that the person has no rights as this was a private sale. I sold a car which was loved and always maintained by local Ford dealership. I have only now received a letter today from some independent legal advise firm demanding money. This has all caused me nothing but stress. I would really appreciate any advise and any guidance anyone could offer.

doningtonphil

Listen to your family, friends and CAB.  It was a private sale and it sounds like you gave every opportunity for inspection.

You say there wass 'absolutely nothing wrong with it'.  There are some thigns a dealer service wont pick up.  Other tthings they shoudlbubt dont.  My father in law recently sold his 15 reg Golf Estate to a friend.  He has had it religiously serviced at Volkswagen dealer and relly looked after it.  For some reason the new owner likes to put new tyres on cars he buys.  When he took it in to get them changed they pointed out that the inside edges of both front tyres were severely warn- casued by both shock absorbers going. All wihtin a 1000 miles of a service
SO I suppose a more accurate phrase would be 'absolutely nothing wrong ...that I am aware of'.

But the headline is - ignore him and his threats

Grumpy_chap

lordrah1m said:

I sold my car on the 28th of June. The car was advertised on Autotrader as well as Wizzle. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the car and had a major service done on the 4th of January. The individual initially made contact via Wizzle and later asked if I would sell outside of Wizzle so he didn’t have to pay the fees and to which I agreed. I provided all documentation, time to inspect the car as well as a test drive. Everything went smoothly and the car was driven 5 and a half hours away. For the next few days I was being told that it had this wrong with it and that wrong with it and that I would have to pay for the repairs. I was baffled as none of this was brought up earlier and agreed the car was in amazing condition. My family, friends and CAB have told me that the person has no rights as this was a private sale. I sold a car which was loved and always maintained by local Ford dealership. I have only now received a letter today from some independent legal advise firm demanding money. This has all caused me nothing but stress. I would really appreciate any advise and any guidance anyone could offer.

Unfortunately, this type of query arises periodically.  The answer is, as @doningtonphil said, to listen to your family, friends and CAB - ignore him and his threats.  Simply there are virtually no rights for the private buyer from private sale.  It is all caveat emptor. 

I assume:
1. you did not purposefully lie or omit anything significant when describing / selling the vehicle.  If you'd "clocked" the vehicle, for example, that would still be fraud.  
2.  you are a genuine private seller, not a dealer posing as private.

The service in January is mostly irrelevant as a lot could happen between then and now.  In the same way, a lot could happen in the 5 hour drive by the buyer.

You need to simply stand your ground, simply say the car was sold as seen and try not to get drawn into the issue any further.  Ignore / block the buyer is usually the advice given.

What is unusual is that this buyer has engaged a legal firm to write a letter.  I am not sure whether the "ignore / block" advice continues to hold against that - I am sure others will comment.  The first thing I would do, though, is check that this is a genuine legal firm - use an internet search engine and companies house etc.  If I so wished to apply pressure on someone, it would be very easy for me to create the letter head of "Grumpy-Chap and Partners Frightening Legal People".  

Out of interest, what type, age, mileage car was it and what did you sell it for?  What are the nature of the faults being advised?  Even if this was a trade purchase, consumer rights are tempered by reasonable expectations for the product purchased.

For your interest, I link below a recent thread where most of the issues around this topic were discussed at great length (although the specifics clearly vary from your case):
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6273081/sold-car-privately-buyer-wants-refund/p1

Stubod

Private sale, sold as seen, just tell them (politely), to do one or better still just ignore them completely...

Would be interested to know the age / mileage / price?

BOWFER

This is what scares my missus every time we sell a car, that something will go wrong and they "know where we live"
Reminding her of the large torque wrench I keep beside the front door doesn't allay her fears.
And people slag off the likes of We Buy Any car, who avoid this grief (at a cost of course).

lordrah1m

Ford Mustang, 2017, 48k, sold to downsize and was as invest further into property. The buyer initially messaged me saying: the clutch and brakes. In the letter has stated: the clutch, dual mass flywheel, front disc and pads, rear wheel bearing and vibration from the transmission.

Grumpy_chap

lordrah1m said:

Ford Mustang, 2017, 48k, sold to downsize and was as invest further into property. The buyer initially messaged me saying: the clutch and brakes. In the letter has stated: the clutch, dual mass flywheel, front disc and pads, rear wheel bearing and vibration from the transmission.

I assume that is 48k miles, not £48k.  Either way, on this age the buyer would expect the car to be reasonable condition, especially a more "specialist / enthusiast" car.  

Brakes are a consumable.  If you didn't state they had just been changed, tough luck.

Wheel bearing and vibration was presumably not present at the time of the test drive when it was "agreed the car was in amazing condition".  Maybe the buyer kerbed it heavily causing the vibration?

Clutch has either failed or not. It is a consumable item and can fail at any time.  An aggressive driver can cause a clutch to fail very quickly.  

You cannot entertain any refund or partial refund - if you did, you might not get back the same car / parts as you sold.  The buyer got a lower purchase price for private sale than dealership - if they wanted warranty etc., should have purchased from a dealer.

I am of the view to ignore / block, but did you verify whether the legal letter is even genuine?

GrumpyDil

As everyone has said as long as you didn't sell as a trader and did not make any explicit guarantees that everything was perfect then you have no liability for issues like that. In any case these all sound like issues which the buyer could certainly have identified during their test drive. 

lordrah1m

The firm is called law data and has come up on companies house.

lordrah1m

I did not make any explicit guarantees.

Grumpy_chap

lordrah1m said:

The firm is called law data and has come up on companies house.

Do you mean these people:
https://lawdata.co.uk/
They claim to be the "leading independent provider of legal advice to business in the motor trade."

Was your buyer a trader?  Even more reason to politely tell them to go away.