Sold car privately, buyer wants money back

[Turkish91]

Wasn’t there a chap on here who sold a TVR(?) privately and then got taken to court and lost? Not for a full refund but something wrong with the car maybe? He posted a similar thread to this, advice all the same, then all went quiet for maybe a year and he came back to say he’d lost and had to pay the buyer several thousands?

[MitchT]

Turkish91 said:

Wasn’t there a chap on here who sold a TVR(?) privately and then got taken to court and lost? Not for a full refund but something wrong with the car maybe? He posted a similar thread to this, advice all the same, then all went quiet for maybe a year and he came back to say he’d lost and had to pay the buyer several thousands?

Totally difference scenario. Price agreed with first buyer. Seller then pulled out and sold car to second buyer for more. First buyer then sued for "loss of bargain" and won.

Thread here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[biggbn]

Turkish91 said:

Wasn’t there a chap on here who sold a TVR(?) privately and then got taken to court and lost? Not for a full refund but something wrong with the car maybe? He posted a similar thread to this, advice all the same, then all went quiet for maybe a year and he came back to say he’d lost and had to pay the buyer several thousands?

Surely no court would find in favour of the plaintiff if the premise was that a TVR went wrong..

[Thankyou4calling]

jm8403 said:

This. Don't st your pants.

This isn’t how the court system works at all.

If a claim has been lodged it will be heard.

It can’t simply be dismissed.

The defendant needs to respond to the claim and a magistrate will then decide what action to take.

To say ignore or it’s buyer beware is asking for trouble as you need to respond.

There’s absolutely no way it can be said categorically that it’s tough luck and it’ll go in the bin.

It won’t.

[jm8403]

Thankyou4calling said:

This isn’t how the court system works at all.

If a claim has been lodged it will be heard.

It can’t simply be dismissed.

The defendant needs to respond to the claim and a magistrate will then decide what action to take.

To say ignore or it’s buyer beware is asking for trouble as you need to respond.

There’s absolutely no way it can be said categorically that it’s tough luck and it’ll go in the bin.

It won’t.

I was agreeing with a post which says: respond, but don't worry as has been advised.

[Muzzer79]

Turkish91 said:

Wasn’t there a chap on here who sold a TVR(?) privately and then got taken to court and lost? Not for a full refund but something wrong with the car maybe? He posted a similar thread to this, advice all the same, then all went quiet for maybe a year and he came back to say he’d lost and had to pay the buyer several thousands?

Not helpful

The seller of the TVR agreed a price, then went back on the deal to sell it to someone else at a higher price.

The first buyer sued him for loss of bargain and won.

So, totally different to the OP.

OP - you have nothing to worry about, but you must send the paperwork back to the court and defend your case, not matter how ridiculous the claim is (which this one is)

[Thankyou4calling]

jm8403 said:

This. Don't st your pants.

This isn’t how the court system works at all.

If a claim has been lodged it will be heard.

It can’t simply be dismissed.

The defendant needs to respond to the claim and a magistrate will then decide what action to take.

To say ignore or it’s buyer beware is asking for trouble as you need to respond.

There’s absolutely no way it can be said categorically that it’s tough luck and it’ll go in the bin.

It won’t.

[alscar]

d_a_n1979 said:

Fill the paperwork stating all this & send it back...

They'll read through it, file it under BIN and reject the claim

The buyer will be £88 out of pocket and the cars his to deal with as he agreed to buy it in the state it was sold

Make sure that you absolutely mention this; so it's all above board etc...

Do not add any unnecessary info in there or any claim to have further knowledge...

Keep the reply/info clear & concise and send it back & forget about it

+1 as seems to be the most sensible advice here and definitely keep each bullet point succinct without any waffle or additions.
If the car was only minor accident damaged and repaired ( and of course it may not have been been anyway ) it wouldn't show up on any V5 paperwork in the first place.

[Ryyy]

I've only sold 2 cars and I'm glad I've not had to put up with this crap. 1 was sold to to a bit of a Mike brewer sort and the other was for scrap value.

A HPI check would have showed this information its not like you've hidden it or denied it.

[Xcore]

Been through this game and won(defendant), Youl get a preliminary hearing and may be a final one. Luckily mine was done via teams on the laptop so I didn’t have to travel to any courts.

She has no case unless your a dealer or mechanic aka an “expert” but the whole thing is a pain in the ass and mine dragged out for over a year with needing to take holiday from work to take the calls etc.

It is frustrating how someone can cause a reasonable amount of stress in someone else’s life, for not owning their own mistakes by not doing their own due diligence.

[JQ]

Jane

Please can I ask that you update this thread with your progress over time - it always frustrating when we never get to see the outcome.

Thank you.

[d_a_n1979]

alscar said:

d_a_n1979 said:

Fill the paperwork stating all this & send it back...

They'll read through it, file it under BIN and reject the claim

The buyer will be £88 out of pocket and the cars his to deal with as he agreed to buy it in the state it was sold

Make sure that you absolutely mention this; so it's all above board etc...

Do not add any unnecessary info in there or any claim to have further knowledge...

Keep the reply/info clear & concise and send it back & forget about it

+1 as seems to be the most sensible advice here and definitely keep each bullet point succinct without any waffle or additions.
If the car was only minor accident damaged and repaired ( and of course it may not have been been anyway ) it wouldn't show up on any V5 paperwork in the first place.

I had this issue; I also had the project of the car on here and on one of the other BMW forums and so much paperwork all scanned onto my Mac...

As soon as this was made aware to the courts; they rejected the claim...

I knew I'd done nothing wrong; just the buyer was a tit

[Plainjane91]

superlightr said:

Pls clarify.what have you received from the court?

Im what name? Yours or your sons?

Who did the buyer pay? Was is into your account or sons account or cash in hand?

If they have issued a summons it should be in the sons name as the owner and beneficery of the money.

The summons letter (small claims) was addressed to me. The buyer paid me as my son only has an Australian account and the buyer would have had to pay a fee, i transferred the money to my son the following day.

[Plainjane91]

JQ said:

Jane

Please can I ask that you update this thread with your progress over time - it always frustrating when we never get to see the outcome.

Thank you.

Yes of course

[Dingu]

can't remember said:

Monkeylegend said:

Did the write off classification not show up on the V5 log book which your son had, assuming he was the registered owner?

Obviously his insurance company didn't point it out to him either when he insured it.

Why would they?

[Plainjane91]

d_a_n1979 said:

alscar said:

d_a_n1979 said:

Fill the paperwork stating all this & send it back...

They'll read through it, file it under BIN and reject the claim

The buyer will be £88 out of pocket and the cars his to deal with as he agreed to buy it in the state it was sold

Make sure that you absolutely mention this; so it's all above board etc...

Do not add any unnecessary info in there or any claim to have further knowledge...

Keep the reply/info clear & concise and send it back & forget about it

+1 as seems to be the most sensible advice here and definitely keep each bullet point succinct without any waffle or additions.
If the car was only minor accident damaged and repaired ( and of course it may not have been been anyway ) it wouldn't show up on any V5 paperwork in the first place.

I had this issue; I also had the project of the car on here and on one of the other BMW forums and so much paperwork all scanned onto my Mac...

As soon as this was made aware to the courts; they rejected the claim...

I knew I'd done nothing wrong; just the buyer was a tit

Can I ask did you have to go to court? That’s the thing that is bothering me. I know I’ve done nothing wrong but not been through anything like this before. So stressful!

[sandman77]

Putting aside the legal part of this, you have sold a written off off car to some poor sod for the price of a clean car. Why didn’t you do the decent thing and offer to refund her the difference in value? I’m sure you could have resolved this before getting to this stage.

[Heathwood]

sandman77 said:

Putting aside the legal part of this, you have sold a written off off car to some poor sod for the price of a clean car. Why didn’t you do the decent thing and offer to refund her the difference in value? I’m sure you could have resolved this before getting to this stage.

OP’s not a trader and was unaware; it’s not her responsibility. And how do you know the price was based on a clean car? Could have been good value regardless for all we know.

[SpeckledJim]

sandman77 said:

Putting aside the legal part of this, you have sold a written off off car to some poor sod for the price of a clean car. Why didn’t you do the decent thing and offer to refund her the difference in value? I’m sure you could have resolved this before getting to this stage.

Because she didn’t know. And because the buyer couldn’t be arsed to check.

Responsibility for the situation lies with the lazy buyer.

Stage one: decide if you want the car
Stage two: buy the car, or don’t buy the car

Never the other way round.

[Austin_Metro]

Jane,

It would be useful to post up details of what the claim form actually says. Those are the claims you have to meet.

There’s also an issue that she might be suing the wrong person. You were acting as agent. The claimant likely should have sued your son. And served proceedings on him in Australia, although county courts sometimes don’t care about these niceties, but they are important.

I would make that point (that you are not the seller, he’s a different person) in the first line of the defense you file.

Make sure you file the defence within the time limits stated., answering each point raised.

If you get a hearing in person (could well be by zoom etc) it will be in a little office not an imposing court room.