Private sale - faulty item

SJ_MB

I am after a bit of advice, bit of an unfortunate situation for both me and the seller of a private sale for a car part.

The situation started with me purchasing a car of Facebook market place, as I intended to use the engine out of it and break the rest down and sell the parts.

This, until recently seemed to be going well, the car I purchased I had a test drive and then drove for few 100 miles before taking it off the road. The seller sold it to me at that point with nothing - apart from the clutch was going - was wrong with it and had been using it up until recently as a family car.

In the time I drove this car there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it, (im not a mechanic) I couldn't hear any unusual noises, nothing was showing up in the error logs - apart from an error related to low power (again the seller said he had left it a while and the battery died) - so as such the car seemed in relatively good condition, enough that I was happy to buy it with the belief that it was in good condition.

I then sold a few parts, describing them in good condition as they came from a working car with no known problems.

I have now been able to sell the front differential/transfer box through Facebook market place, again I put the description as what I believed - said it was good condition and explained the above that it was from a working car with no issues apart from the clutch. i.e. - not from a car that had been in a collision or was a cat D or something.

The buyer came and inspected the unit and fiddled around with the shafts and inspected the unit before purchase, he agreed to buy it at that point and paid cash.

The following day I get a message saying that he had taken the oil drainage plug out and saw metal shards, at which point he then opened the unit up and found that one of the gear's teeth had been worn down - thus possibly construed as not in a good condition.

I don't want to be the bad guy here and have started to see if there are alternatives to correct the situation but this is proving to be difficult.

but on the flip side I also don't want to be the one lumped with an item that I now know I must of purchased faulty - and I doubt the original owner knew there was an issue either as I doubt I could sell it again as I would have to state it was faulty.

So the short of the story is I purchased the car as seen on FB market place and sold part of the car in the same way - I have read the consumer rights where it says if I sold it as not described then the customer has the right to a refund - but as I said it was in good condition (believing it to be so) - and it turning out not to be, where do I stand?

I never implied there was a warranty, I also gave the buyer the chance to inspect the unit (where he could of pulled the oil drain plug out and would of possibly seen the issue - I had a full toolset on me that we used to remove another part that he wanted) before purchasing it but agreed at the time and as said paid in cash and took it with him.

Peter999_2

Caveat emptor

robatwork

The condition you bought it in is irrelevant. 

Your mistake here was advertising it in good condition (did you put that in the FB ad?). If so then it pretty clearly isn't in good condition. In your situation I would offer a refund if the axle is returned.   What you "believed" regarding good condition is irrelevant. The facts are - your ad said it was and it wasn't.

For future - just advertise parts as the part - "Axle from Vauxhall Corsa 2010. Any inspection welcome."

It's inherent in private sales that it's "sold as seen" apart from any claims you make in the advert that turn out to be wrong.

Al_Ross

How can you be sure that your buyer isn't trying to pull a fast one here,he would have a faulty differential/transfer box already there I presume?

SJ_MB

yeh, I thought of this but he has sent a picture of both, both with the same issue

Sandtree

Peter999_2 said:

Caveat emptor

Goods still have to match the description and the issue is that the OP has explicitly stated its in good condition... always better to avoid a direct comment on the condition and leave things where someone may infer its good without saying it... like the whole "owned since new", "non-smoking household"... all intended to imply its good nick but dont state that it is and you can factually prove these things even if the thing is held together with sellotape and string.