Sold a car and getting grief!

[Speedtouch]

+1. You should have insisted on keeping a copy of the note yourself to cover your own ar$e.

[Chase007]

I would give half the money back your fault or not, then if she takes you to court you atleast tried to rectify the situation and she will be lumbered with court costs for trying it on any further and court would look at you with more evenly rather than purely bias towards the buyer.

That is a load of rubbish mate (sold as seen) which means u should check everything over before parting with cash, the only time you should return any money is if the car turned out to be a ringer thats it!

[HairyScreech]

the mot tester would have flagged it if there really was an issue. as they check the break fluid level so they go under the bonnet, a hot car with a hole in the top of the coolant reservoir would have been fairly obvious.

could she have screwed it into the ground girl racer style and then they stuck the hole in the res to make it look like you sold a dodgy car?
tbh i dont think they have a leg to stand on.

[psychochild187]

i recently had to find out about the sold as seen note thing
it doesnt mean a thing even if it is there,

its all about who sold it and who bought it

private sale and private buyer is a sale where both parties are happy with what they are buying /selling

if i sell the car for 400 quid and it gives up 3 miles away
nothing can be done as they handed the money over because they were happy with the car..

other wise situations where an old lady who knows nothing about cars is expected to know everything about her 4x4 turbo jap import shogun thinng and warranty it for a year to protect the buyer..



if you had a hole in the bottle and you saw it its your fault but you didnt know it would loose its water and die
they should of checked this car over
they took the private sale risk and the sold as seen is a worthless peice of paper.
if it goes to court you sold it moted and running your not a mechanic
and its there problem

as far as concience goes maybe split the repair bill

[steerfromtherear]

Surely you could buy a new motor for £100 if its a corsa?
Id be tempted to pay for the motor if they get it fitted and if they dont like that they can do one.

I wouldnt want to hand any money to the buyers personally.

[DanThe]

Getting this to court would cost more than the repair bill, and all for £650 worth of car? I wouldnt take any notice of court threats, anybody who has been through a litigation process before will know its best avoided as the amount of time/money needed will often outweigh any proceeds.
All you need to tell them is you know your rights and your not giving them any money back, you sold them a car you had put through an MOT days earlier, your not a mechanic, your not a car dealer and as far as your concerned the car was roadworthy when it left you

[hennabm]

Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware certainly applies if a private sale.
What she has to prove is that you are NOT a private seller eg she finds adverts for other stuff you sell on a regular basis. That would be classed as a none private sale and then she has recourse on you through the legal system.

It happens alot - back street traders trading as a private seller so they don't have to face up to their responsibilities. The buyer then gets stung.

However if you are a genuine private seller then the law as it stands cannot touch you.

[gareth]

agreed. that's part of the reason a car on private sale will be cheaper than from a dealer.
you pays your money, you takes your choice. along with a cheaper car from a private seller, comes a larger risk should it go wrong. that's why it's cheaper.

[adit]

whenever i sell a car, i write a receipt (with a carbon copy underneath) stating "sold as seen, tried and agreed" then "seller" which i sign, and "agreed" which they sign.
i give them the top copy and i keep the duplicate. covered!

[hennabm]

whenever i sell a car, i write a receipt (with a carbon copy underneath) stating "sold as seen, tried and agreed" then "seller" which i sign, and "agreed" which they sign.
i give them the top copy and i keep the duplicate. covered!

But don't you sell quite regularly on the Zone? If this was proved by a buyer, the paper would be worthless as you would be classed as a trader.

[adit]

only parts henna, not cars. i mean when i sell my own car, over the years.

[bmwowner]

is it the head gasket? or are they just saying that for a bit of money back? have you seen the car since?

[sarkie83]

when i sold my cortina, i got a call from the guy who bought it 2 hours later saying the alternator had packed up and he was stuck on the slip road of the m25!

he was ok about it, as he wasn't far from home. I did feel a bit bad as he was a nice, but it was sold as seen.

when i bought the capri I knew it was going to be a few hundred miles hme, so I had a set of spanners, screw drivers, gaffer tape, instant gasket just in case!

[HMC]

Have a look at this,

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/you ... ate_seller

"You bought the vehicle from a private seller

You have very few legal rights if you have bought the vehicle from a private seller rather than a dealer.

The vehicle doesn't have to be of satisfactory quality. However, if the seller offers a description of the vehicle, it must match the description given. It must also be roadworthy and the seller must have 'good title' to the vehicle. This means that they must be the legal owner in order to sell it to you.

If the vehicle doesn't match the description given, you may be entitled to compensation. You may also be entitled to compensation if you have bought an unroadworthy car from a private seller, which has caused injury to someone. However, it may be especially difficult to get compensation from a private seller.

You will only be able to claim against a private seller for one of the following reasons:

* the vehicle doesn't match the description they gave you
* the seller broke a specific contract term
* the seller was actually a dealer posing as a private seller
* the seller did not have good title to the vehicle
* the vehicle is unroadworthy."

From that I would say they have little chance of getting anything.
.

However in the first post Adgie has basically said it was sold for profit, making him a trader, and we get this all the time the, customer will win, whats more if they report you as an unregistered trader you might have a pain in the arse with your local council
Ray

[Barx325i]

even if you try ask yourself the moral questions and put yourself in her position..

if she didn't have the car checked by an independant specialist prior to exchanging money and you provided no warranty then it really is her problem.

I wouldn't turn up to an air base and hand over a few million for a harrier on the advice that it's a good runner. As I'm not qualified to inspect a harrier I'd pay a dude hansomly to verify its air worthiness.

Simliarly if she didn't want to pay forecourt prices and expose herself to risk then it's just unfortunate.

[SUMPCRACKER]

Ive bought and sold many cars, i am a mechanic but i always claim to know nothing about cars, otherwise when the to55ers thrash it and blow the box or somthing they will come back saying i knew it was going to happen ect.. thats why i sold it ect..

Also i have bought many cars and some have failed shortly after (2 on the way home) but ive never botherd to contact the seller as i would expect them to tell me to "F" off - because thats what i would do.

As for being a trader- prove it.

Private sale, cheap car, and they obviously drove more than 5 miles, possibly hard and it doesn't sound like you can believe what they say, the car had a recent MOT which is an official checkover where a water leak would have been mentioned.

The only thing i would do is tell them where the nearest gararge is.

[hongkongfuey]

well said

[toby]

Easy to prove though isn't it? As Pete said;

If you sold a car that wasn't in your name for financial gain you will be deemed a trader .In that scenario sold as seen is of even less use than it is written on a receipt for a sale between two 'private' parties.........

What ever happened about the car in question though?

[beanoir]

its a difficult one this, many things depend on the outcome, should the other parties actually decide to take you to court, which is rare, specially for such a small sum.

Firstly, whether you sold it or should have sold it as a private seller or as a trader will be seperate to the claim from the other parties, so that should be set aside. This will be determined by the courts and fines can be issued against you, but will not be used in order to compensate the other party for any claim against the goods themselves.

The sold as seen debacle is tenuous, but essentially you have entered into a contract with the buyer. The goods were accepted by them, and then you accepted payment for the goods, there forming a contract in law. The only recourse they have to you through a court is to prove you broke that contract in some way.

What I would advise is, whilst morally you may feel that refunding them half, or a portion of the sum of money they paid to you, I would advise against it as this could be seen by a court as acceptance of fault, rather than being seen as a gesture of goodwill.

If it were me, and I was 100% sure that I had sold them what I believed to be the goods as advertised, then I would stand firm, I would be surprised if a court ruled in the other party's favour, or if they even pursued it. So often people or companies (and even solicitors) will threaten to take parties to court as a bluff, knowing that most will panic and secumb.

One thing that does confuse me, is how if the hole was in the top of the water resevoir, did enough water come out of the system to drain it and cause it to overheat? Surely that could only happen at a lower point in the coolant system?

[JJ26]

Someone would only drill a hole for one reason, relase excess pressure!. Sounds to me like the head gasket was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen, and in some ways lucky for you, after the car left your possesion. It was their responsability to make sure the fluid levels and everything else! was satisfactory before buying it. Ask me then serves them bloody right for buying a car and not checking the oil and water levels prior to buying it.