Scottish Consumer Legal Rights (Small Claims Court) on Private Sale of 'Faulty' Electrical Appliance

Grumpy_chap

ecosse206 said:

The buyers own a holiday rental business and a renewable energy business.

Makes you wonder why a buyer with means would be interested in a second hand of a relatively modesty priced fridge freezer...

ecosse206

Alderbank said:

Thanks for your prompt replies.

Based on them I think you are OK, particularly since the buyer completed the contract by taking the fridge away without powering it up and testing it in any way, in spite of that being available if they had arrived as agreed or waited for your return.

My only comment now is that your ad did not include a price, even a guide price (I see you included the current new retail price). Presumably the buyer contacted you and made an offer which he would pay before collection and which you accepted?
It is possible that the buyer might allege that before you agreed on a price he asked various questions and only offered that price because of the answers you gave.
Was that the point where you said something like 'If you can find anything wrong with it, I'll give you £200 back'?

Out of interest, what was the final agreed price?

Thank you Alderbank for your continued support

The agreed price was £550 and this was mentioned as part of the main Title, Location and Description. ( I have attached images above to exemplify)

At no point was the price of £550 discussed. I told them that they would have to be happy to proceed without me being present to demonstrate/mediate the sale. at that point I was sent a Bank Transfer and the contact details of their employees. I called him and let him know how to get to the appliance and advised him where my tools were should they want to take the doors etc off as it is big and heavy.

I offered the £200 back as a good will gesture as they had spent £550 for the appliance and £175 for the engineer to inspect/repair. The engineer however advised: 

• Two old pizza boxes sitting on top of the ice maker which has damaged the unit and now won't work. Pizzas were very old / disintegrated and had obviously been there a long time. Likely they had fell down the back of the drawer if the drawer was full of frozen goods.
  
  
• Water is leaking out of the filter housing when switched on
  
  
• The left hand door is tripping the miniature circuit breaker in the house when the door is opened/closed, due to a fault with the wiring. This is an electrical hazard. This fault is likely due to the wiring loom for the appliance that runs from the control panel on the left hand door through to the printed circuit board at the rear of the appliance having perished. it is likely that some of the sheathing of the wires has perished over time due to age, wear and tear or use.
  
  

SUMMARY- 

The appliance needs a number of spare parts to fix the issues stated above, but due to costs this is economically unviable and it is also unknown what other faults might be occurring within the appliance once the initial parts are replaced.

Do you have any other questions I can answer in relation to Sale of Goods act 1979 or Consumer Rights Act 2015? I genuinely believe neither of us want court proceedings although the buyer has threatened to lodge with the court if I have not refunded by this Friday.

Out of interest Alderbank do you come from a legal background?