How do i stand with a deposit

[leylandracer]

A bit of a long shot, but was hoping some of you lads on here will know a thing or two re: the law on holding a deposit.
About 8 months ago i had my R5 Turbo 2 advertised on here, There was stacks of interest with two buyers fighting over it in the end (well as near as J) to cut a long story short a guy from Switzerland paid a 4k deposit and said that he would be collecting it in four to six weeks (This was August last year!!!)Time went on and it was put off until Jan (He paid £400 as a storage fee (With what we agreed this covered up until mid feb) The last email i received from him was in early Jan saying it would be four to six weeks, since this time i have sent countless emails with no replies, just as though he as vanished!!
The last email i sent, was last week where i have given him a deadline for collection & payment by the 23rd of this month with a reply to my email by the end of this week (tomorrow) still nothing to date.
What do you reckon? Am i in my rights....... :-)

Steve

[sunoco69]

Not sure if you could keep all the deposit but a cetain amount for time and effort should be allowes. Call it an admin fee and send him a receipt.

[R0162]

I think if you send him a registered letter by a solicitor he will be given a time perid to formally reply...if he desnt reply then what else can you do but to advertise the car for resale...and if u cant get in touch with him then how can you even return the deposit?...if he eventually resurfaces i would probably partially refund if he has a good enough hospital story...4k is alot of money to lose on a deposit maybe he has had an accident..

[ShiDevil]

Hi Mate,

Something might have happened to him. Do you not have his name, and try and locate him online, facebook etc. He could be in hospital as mentioned, overseas and can't contact you, in the forces etc. It seems to be following the pattern of before. No contact then contact etc.

Steve

[Gadgeroonie]

what an inconvenience - i am happy to look after the car for you until this is all resolved



he either has more money than sense or something is wrong

do you think he is struggling to find the money to buy it ?

[5paulmv]

you know were there is a good home for the car near you good luck sorting it

[leylandracer]

It did cross my mind that somthing might have happened, but his son did a lot of talking on the phone when we were nagotiating the sale, so that rules that out i think? struggling to find funds? Maybe? but im sure i would be making a excuse and asking for more time? Maybe he's wanting to back out of the sale but thinking thats his deposit gone? but saying that i would be asking for part of it back with some sort of story? Totally lost with it.........
Without sounding tight or cruel, i always thought a deposit was a deposit, meaning if you back out its lost? Funny thing is beleive it or not..... the wife and Son went to look at the 3R and left a 1k deposit on it, i reckon when i went to collect it and if i had said na i dont like it, can i have my deposit back i reckon he wouldnt have given me a pat on the back and a cuppa then handed it back over :-)
Really lost with it though, and the trouble is its sat in the garage with no ins etc and im dying to take it out for a spin :-(
Any solicitors on here for my legal rights :-)All funds go to a good cause (the 3R) ;-)

Edited by leylandracer on Saturday 7th April 22:17

[ShiDevil]

Looks cool mate

[F.C.]

I think this all depends on paperwork (contract of sale) I'm guessing you have a verbal only agreement, so it'll probably be a difficult argument to prove.
I'm no lawyer but I think EC law (switzerland is part of this though not in EC!!) will side with the buyer as far as the deposit is concerned.
On the other hand if you have paperwork that says non-refundable deposit of 4K paid, I think its drinks all round.

[snuffy]

This looks like the stuff you need to know:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/jun/08/yourri...


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/you-and...


So, if you hand money over ( i.e. deposit ) then a contract has been formed. If the buyer then fails to pay the balance then they have broken the contract and the deposit is yours.

Edited by snuffy on Sunday 8th April 09:52

[Du1point8]

snuffy said:

This looks like the stuff you need to know:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/jun/08/yourri...

The only question it raises is if the deposit is a large proportion of the price or not. I've no idea what the sale price of your car was so I dont that part.

R5 Turbo 2 is at least £30k+ for a nice example so the deposit is only a fraction of the possible sale value.

[snuffy]

Du1point8 said:

R5 Turbo 2 is at least £30k+ for a nice example so the deposit is only a fraction of the possible sale value.

There you are then. The buyer has had 8 months to pay the balance and has failed. Since he paid about 15% it clearly is a deposit so it looks fairly clear to me - keep his £4k.

[951]

I would think you can keep the deposit.

You lost the sale to the other interested buyer, and by definition (in UK law anyway) a deposit is non refundable by default and has to be expressly agreed as refundable up front for that to change.

Do what you can to get in contact and complete the deal of course, but if that fails then try to resell the car for what you can and keep the deposit as compensation.

[leylandracer]

Du1point8 said:

R5 Turbo 2 is at least £30k+ for a nice example so the deposit is only a fraction of the possible sale value.

Yours for £36000 :-) Its prob one of the best in the UK, with mods i.e. TDC CR box, Fresh 1.6 TDC spec engine rebuild and on EFI etc etc, ear plugs are a must though :-)
Re: contracts, a lot of email correspondence, detailing collections dates etc and the payment details, Just the normal stuff most would do when selling a car, Suppose it will sort itself out.

[F.C.]

All the above is related to a business (company) transaction, someone with an idea of private individuals rights may be better,
Try a solicitors forum on the net, there are many and if you can wait (a while) for an answer cost nothing.

ETS The examples in the links above are business reated.

Edited by F.C. on Sunday 8th April 10:14

[F.C.]

On another note, how much do you want for the car?

[snuffy]

F.C. said:

ETS The examples in the links above are business reated.

So what ? The idea of a contract is still the same, i.e. money has changed hands - a contract has been formed.

[F.C.]

snuffy said:

So what ? The idea of a contract is still the same, i.e. money has changed hands - a contract has been formed.

Consumer law is very different where business is involved as opposed to person to person.

[GC1]

Post this on the Legal thread here on PH always lots of people with spare time today who would love to give their opinion.....

[snuffy]

F.C. said:

Consumer law is very different where business is involved as opposed to person to person.

I know. But is this not contract law, not consumer law ?