Sold a car a year back , buyer wants his money back

neoten

Hi,
Sold a car a year back and I am private seller. 
I told the person it is category n car. Now the buyer 1 year has contacted me saying I never told him and he is going to get his solicitor to go to court. 
He said he went to sell the car and found out it is category n.
The car was priced accordingly because it was cat n otherwise the car price should be another £5000. 

The advert i put, was on facebook. 

Where do I stand legally?

powerful_Rogue

neoten said:

Hi,
Sold a car a year back and I am private seller. 
I told the person it is category n car. Now the buyer 1 year has contacted me saying I never told him and he is going to get his solicitor to go to court. 
He said he went to sell the car and found out it is category n.
The car was priced accordingly because it was cat n otherwise the car price should be another £5000. 

The advert i put, was on facebook. 

Where do I stand legally?

Take a screenshot of the advert where it's listed as cat N and send that to him.

user1977

neoten said:

The car was priced accordingly because it was cat n otherwise the car price should be another £5000. 

If he paid the correct price for a category N car, what's the loss to him?

Aylesbury_Duck

You're on solid ground if your advert was honest.  Let him waste money on a solicitor to tell him that.

moneysaver

Did the advert mention it was a Cat N ?

Aylesbury_Duck

neoten said:

Hi,
Sold a car a year back and I am private seller. 
I told the person it is category n car. Now the buyer 1 year has contacted me saying I never told him and he is going to get his solicitor to go to court. 
He said he went to sell the car and found out it is category n.
The car was priced accordingly because it was cat n otherwise the car price should be another £5000. 

The advert i put, was on facebook. 

Where do I stand legally?

You've probably realised that your case hinges on these statements. 

Did the advert state it was Cat N?  If it did, he has no grounds for complaint.

It's not sufficient to assume the buyer would infer it was Cat N from the price, so if that's your defence, you're on shaky ground.  Edited to add: km1500 says otherwise, so you're probably ok here.

How did you tell him?  Have you got evidence of doing so if he asked?  If not, it's your word against his and if he does go to court, the court will decide who to believe.

diystarter7

Aylesbury_Duck said:

You're on solid ground if your advert was honest.  Let him waste money on a solicitor to tell him that.

Hi OP

Was it only advertised of FB??
If not, do you have copies/records of other ads?
Was any papers signed as often priate sellers do, eG 'sold as seen/testc' etc etc?


Its his word again yours and you are a private seller not a business so the buyer won't be able to find ads for other cars that has your details/email/phone etc etc.

The car you sold, did it become N cat when you owned it or was it like that before?
Did you buy and repair it etc and sold on and how log you had it for

If you can confidently answer those questions as a private buyer IMO, EG, I bought the car that had been i an accident and repaired and kept it for three years and sold it and was advertised in the only place I advertised ie FB as cat n and I told the buyer as well.  If the aforementioned is close to that, I'm not sure how they can win.

Thanks

km1500

private sellers only have to disclose  if asked ie they should not lie if asked directly

otherwise they don't have to say anything, including if cat N

m0bov

Your best course of action is to not get into a spat with him. Just ignore. Anything could have happened to the car in a year.

Just ignore.

diystarter7

m0bov said:

Your best course of action is to not get into a spat with him. Just ignore. Anything could have happened to the car in a year.

Just ignore.

Hi

Great advice. However, should it become impossible to avoid, I'm with the OP all day long as long as there is nothing else that OP has not yet posted.

TELLIT01

The only situation I can see where there may be an issue is if the OP does up and sells cars as a 'hobby'.  It's possible that would make him a trader in the eyes of the law.  It's just a thought and I have no idea what determines the difference between private and trade sales.