Private van sale gone wrong 23 September 2022 at 9:24PM in Motoring 17 replies 1.3K views

Missdotty1993

Grumpy_chap said:

Missdotty1993 said: it

Hi I really need some advice please 

Sold a van 10 days ago 
prior to buying the van the buyer was in contact with me for 13 days and saw the van several times, drove the van & finally purchased the van
buyer contacted me several times since saying how happy he is and how amazing the van is.
suddenly getting constant messages off his girlfriend and mum kicking off as the van cambelt has now gone.
the cambelt was never asked about on any viewing and it was only replaced 4K ago which is recorded under the bonnet. 

They are now looking forward ever possible excuse to take us to court. 

Everything listed on the advert we can prove with receipts but the cambelt was not listed as we had replaced and never asked about. 

The van had very little history and had bedding sat for 2 years prior to us doing work on it to get it through an mot to sell, it came with 12 months mot and no advisories we spent a lot of money on the van prior to sale to get it up to standard.

how worried should we be about going to court and losing? 

Thanks for your help 

Thinking on from my earlier note when I supported the "stop all contact" approach, I wondered whether this is actually a private sale.

It is a van.  If the van was owned by the OP's business and sold, then this becomes a business sale.  May not be a motor trade business sale, but still a business sale.  If the purchaser was a private individual, they may then be covered under consumer rights.  If the purchaser of the van was another business, then this could be a B2B sale.

Has the OP kept the initial messages saying it was all OK?

We don’t have a business

Missdotty1993

The van was a campervan not a work van. Neither buyer or seller have a business of any kind 

Missdotty1993

I have 3 messages saying how great the van is. I have never received a negative message from the buyer but have constant messages from his mum and girlfriend 

chrisw

Sounds like the buyer knows exactly the position and where he stands but his mum and girlfriend are unhappy about it (maybe understandably?) They've probably had a go at him as well!

Sea_Shell

chrisw said:

Sounds like the buyer knows exactly the position and where he stands but his mum and girlfriend are unhappy about it (maybe understandably?) They've probably had a go at him as well!

Maybe he's just blown their holiday money on a campervan, when they were eyeing up a week somewhere hot and sunny 😎

macman

Missdotty1993 said:

I have 3 messages saying how great the van is. I have never received a negative message from the buyer but have constant messages from his mum and girlfriend 

So just block them. They have nothing to do with this, the contract for sale was with the buyer. 
Every time you respond, they will be encouraged to believe that they can scam you. 

Aretnap

Ectophile said:

Your only obligations are that:-

• You had a right to sell the van.
• It was honestly described.  But anything you didn't say can't be held against you.
• It was roadworthy at the time you sold it (or else you warned the buyer that it wasn't roadworthy).

Breaking down after you sold it doesn't mean that it was unroadworthy.

The "unroadworthy" point is largely irrelevant in any event. While there is a (rarely enforced) offence of selling an unroadworthy vehicle, it's a piece of road safety legislation, not a piece of consumer legislation. It doesn't give the buyer any additional consumer rights over and above those he would have if he were buying anything other a car. So if the car did turn out to be unroadworthy, the seller would still only be entitled to a refund unless one of the first two points also applied