Legal Advice regarding Car Sale

[e-honda]

Muzzer79 said:

Absolutely nothing - as long as there is a caveat stating that agreement.

OP didn't make that caveat.

Buyer A made an offer. OP accepted.

OP did not say "Offer accepted, unless someone else comes along before you collect the car and offers a better deal for me"

The buyer and seller both made that caveat when they agreed to eBay's terms and conditions

[Jayne Redland]

Wow! Your horse is so dead that it's a burger.

[Muzzer79]

e-honda said:

Muzzer79 said:

Absolutely nothing - as long as there is a caveat stating that agreement.

OP didn't make that caveat.

Buyer A made an offer. OP accepted.

OP did not say "Offer accepted, unless someone else comes along before you collect the car and offers a better deal for me"

The buyer and seller both made that caveat when they agreed to eBay's terms and conditions

No they didn't because eBay was just used as an advertising tool.

The contract was not formed through eBay because eBay didn't handle the sale - it just handled the advertising of the sale.

The contract was formed through the text messages.

[Durzel]

e-honda said:

Cascade360 said:

e-honda said:

What in UK law says 2 people cannot make an agreement that say when we reach an agreement on price neither of us will regard it as a contract.

Nothing. You could say "I'm happy with the price in principle but I am not accepting your offer and it remains for sale until you've put cash in my hand".

OP didn't do that though.

That doesn't match what I said.
Seller says right before you view the car, The car remains on sale untill you put the cash in my hand the car remains on, if we agree a sale it is an agreement in principle not a binding contract.
That is not allowed?

I think you can't see the wood for the trees, to be blunt.

You can caveat acceptance of an offer. The OP didn't do that. If and how you caveat acceptance might be tested in court, if it comes to it. OP accepted Buyer A's offer, without caveats or stipulations. If Buyer B hadn't come along, the contract would almost certainly have been fulfilled.

It's really not that difficult. Nothing is stopping you imposing terms on the acceptance of an offer, but if you don't then you can't expect to just invalidate it simply because someone offers more money, or because the buyer can't collect by a certain date when you never made that a requirement of the acceptance.

EDIT: Stop banging on about eBay, their terms are irrelevant when it comes to UK law. They might and should align to avoid confusion, but it ultimately doesn't matter what they say or don't say/

[e-honda]

Muzzer79 said:

No they didn't because eBay was just used as an advertising tool.

The contract was not formed through eBay because eBay didn't handle the sale - it just handled the advertising of the sale.

The contract was formed through the text messages.

Yes but my whole point has been a contract should not have been formed through the text messages, because they both previously agreed with eBay that such messages would not for the basis of a contract.

[Cascade360]

e-honda said:

Muzzer79 said:

Absolutely nothing - as long as there is a caveat stating that agreement.

OP didn't make that caveat.

Buyer A made an offer. OP accepted.

OP did not say "Offer accepted, unless someone else comes along before you collect the car and offers a better deal for me"

The buyer and seller both made that caveat when they agreed to eBay's terms and conditions

You've had several lawyers on this thread tell you that you are wrong, and a finding of a judge that shows you that you're wrong. Yet you continue to insist you are right. You are nothing if not stubborn.

[Muzzer79]

e-honda said:

Muzzer79 said:

No they didn't because eBay was just used as an advertising tool.

The contract was not formed through eBay because eBay didn't handle the sale - it just handled the advertising of the sale.

The contract was formed through the text messages.

Yes but my whole point has been a contract should not have been formed through the text messages, because they both previously agreed with eBay that such messages would not for the basis of a contract.

eBay can say what they like, it does not over-ride contract law. As an advertiser, the sale contract was nothing to do with them.

[APontus]

This crazy argument will still be going when the TVR has probably disintegrated to the extent all that's left is some switchgear and GRP body panels.

[e-honda]

I've spent a lot of money on cars on eBay classifieds over the last 10 years, I've never end up in court because I've always bought what I made an offer on.
But I have in a couple of cases made offers on cars I've not been 100% confidant on with the belief I could walk away at any point, I would not have done that if I believed eBay's t&C's are a farce.
I've not seen anything so far that is particularly convincing that they are.

[liner33]

e-honda said:

I've not seen anything so far that is particularly convincing that they are.

You have clearly not looked very hard

[Muzzer79]

This took me 10 seconds to find:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/selling-classified-ads?id=4167

Link said:

Remember, since Classified Ads are posted on eBay, but the transaction takes place off eBay, you don’t have access to services such as feedback

[Cascade360]

e-honda said:

I've spent a lot of money on cars on eBay classifieds over the last 10 years, I've never end up in court because I've always bought what I made an offer on.
But I have in a couple of cases made offers on cars I've not been 100% confidant on with the belief I could walk away at any point, I would not have done that if I believed eBay's t&C's are a farce.
I've not seen anything so far that is particularly convincing that they are.

What, like the judgment finding in favour of the claimant?

Remember, there is a distinction between eBay classifieds and eBay auctions.

[e-honda]

Muzzer79 said:

This took me 10 seconds to find:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/selling-classified-ads?id=4167

Link said:

Remember, since Classified Ads are posted on eBay, but the transaction takes place off eBay, you don’t have access to services such as feedback

That's my whole point.
Outside communication is standard for eBay classifieds so
Why does this section of the user agreement exist of what you tell me is correct


for motor vehicles and real estate (property) listed in the Classified Ad format, a bid or offer is not binding, but expresses a buyer's serious interest in the item;

[Cascade360]

e-honda said:

That's my whole point.
Outside communication is standard for eBay classifieds so
Why does this section of the user agreement exist of what you tell me is correct


for motor vehicles and real estate (property) listed in the Classified Ad format, a bid or offer is not binding, but expresses a buyer's serious interest in the item;

A bid or offer becomes binding once accepted.

Not that eBay's terms and conditions have any relevance to a private sale conducted off eBay.

[e-honda]

I was asked what me defence would be a few pages back.
This was it, so what is the counter argument

e-honda said:

I would included a copy of this page Selling with Classified Ads
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/listings/listi...

A copy of the ebay user agreement
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/member-behavi...

I would have stated

The car was advertised for sale on ebay classifieds, a copy of this advert has been included in the claimants file.
The messages exchanged directly between the claimant and myself were normal for a sale of this type conducted using ebay, as explained in "Selling with Classified Ads".
By using ebay both the claimant and myself were bound by ebay's user agreement.
It was my belief that the buyer's offer was not binding, but expressed a buyer's serious interest in the item, in accordance with section 7 bullet point 3 of the ebay user agreement, and did not form the basis for a legal contract.

[Jayne Redland]

e-honda -

[Spleen]

e-honda said:

I was asked what me defence would be a few pages back.
This was it, so what is the counter argument

e-honda said:

I would included a copy of this page Selling with Classified Ads
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/listings/listi...

A copy of the ebay user agreement
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/member-behavi...

I would have stated

The car was advertised for sale on ebay classifieds, a copy of this advert has been included in the claimants file.
The messages exchanged directly between the claimant and myself were normal for a sale of this type conducted using ebay, as explained in "Selling with Classified Ads".
By using ebay both the claimant and myself were bound by ebay's user agreement.
It was my belief that the buyer's offer was not binding, but expressed a buyer's serious interest in the item, in accordance with section 7 bullet point 3 of the ebay user agreement, and did not form the basis for a legal contract.

'The car was advertised for sale on ebay classifieds, a copy of this advert has been included in the claimants file.'

Have you just binged on Line of Duty? Christ Almighty mate, give it a rest.

[e-honda]

Jayne Redland said:

e-honda -

1

[e-honda]

Spleen said:

'The car was advertised for sale on ebay classifieds, a copy of this advert has been included in the claimants file.'

Have you just binged on Line of Duty? Christ Almighty mate, give it a rest.

2

[Muzzer79]

e-honda said:

Muzzer79 said:

This took me 10 seconds to find:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/selling-classified-ads?id=4167

Link said:

Remember, since Classified Ads are posted on eBay, but the transaction takes place off eBay, you don’t have access to services such as feedback

That's my whole point.
Outside communication is standard for eBay classifieds so
Why does this section of the user agreement exist of what you tell me is correct


for motor vehicles and real estate (property) listed in the Classified Ad format, a bid or offer is not binding, but expresses a buyer's serious interest in the item;

A contract is formed when an offer is made and accepted

The whole crux of this argument is that the OP accepted the offer. It wasn't just an unacknowledged bid.

eBay are just differentiating between classifieds (where an unacknowledged bid isn't binding) and auctions (where it is binding)

Basically, you can't force someone to buy a car that hasn't sold because they made an unacknowledged bid for it, like you can in an auction.

It does not mean that you can wriggle out of a formed agreement.