Took Deposit on Car But change of mind

Bettyboop

Had 8 calls today for a car I have for sale 1st person arrived after I just advertised it:D After an 1hr standing in rain while he tests it etc he agrees to buy it.Took deposit on car and he agreed to give me rest in a week.During this hr outside I had lots of calls regarding car.Told them it was sold and removed ad.Now got a call from buyer saying he forgot the babys pram and it might not fit in the boot Do I have to return his deposit?:(
Thanks

EPM

I had something similar happen me recently. I kept the €200 I took. Cost me time and diesel so I told them straight out no one else would see the car until sale. They couldn't get the money together so not my problem.

Now, if they had given more than that I would have returned some. How much was deposit?

Well hung

Give it back, if it was the other way around you'd want it back. By the sounds of it you will have no problem selling the car.

tallaghtmick

Bettyboop wrote: »

Had 8 calls today for a car I have for sale 1st person arrived after I just advertised it:D After an 1hr standing in rain while he tests it etc he agrees to buy it.Took deposit on car and he agreed to give me rest in a week.During this hr outside I had lots of calls regarding car.Told them it was sold and removed ad.Now got a call from buyer saying he forgot the babys pram and it might not fit in the boot Do I have to return his deposit?:(
Thanks

Tell him to come back and trial the pram in the boot,I fit a huge pram into a hatch civic so it shouldnt be a problem,although you should return the deposit if it doesnt fit as you seem to have enough interest in the car just readvertise and say that buyer backed out due to boot space for pram.

colm_mcm

You don't have to but you really should. Get him to call up with the pram tomorrow and see if it fits. Tell him if he gets to You by tomorrow you can return his deposit if it doesn't fit. Otherwise you're readvertising the car and keeping the deposit.

Bear in mind a lot of wasters ring donedeal ads. Here is a guy who actually agreed to a price and left a deposit. Just because you had lots of calls doesn't mean anyone else would have taken it.

Bettyboop

EPM wrote: »

I had something similar happen me recently. I kept the €200 I took. Cost me time and diesel so I told them straight out no one else would see the car until sale. They couldn't get the money together so not my problem.

Now, if they had given more than that I would have returned some. How much was deposit?

€300 with a balance of €700

TestTransmission

Bettyboop wrote: »

.Now got a call from buyer saying he forgot the babys pram and it might not fit in the boot

What's the car?

Hogzy

Take your expenses out of it. Such as cost of the fuel to meet him and the cost of the advert that you took down that you will have to repost. Thats only fair. You're not legally obliged to return one cent of it though.

Bettyboop

Well hung wrote: »

Give it back, if it was the other way around you'd want it back. By the sounds of it you will have no problem selling the car.

So I turned away potential buyers for nothing and stood in rain for nothing too?
Plus removed my ad that I just put up for €3 as well?And have to start the whole process again:mad:

Bettyboop

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Tell him to come back and trial the pram in the boot,I fit a huge pram into a hatch civic so it shouldnt be a problem,although you should return the deposit if it doesnt fit as you seem to have enough interest in the car just readvertise and say that buyer backed out due to boot space for pram.

cant try pram as its in Croatia for the next week with his wife
so what am I supposed to do?Wait another week and lose more potential buyers while we wait his wife's return
and if the pram don't fit ?Another week and I cant purchase a car till he decides?

tallaghtmick

Bettyboop wrote: »

So I turned away potential buyers for nothing and stood in rain for nothing too?
Plus removed my ad that I just put up for €3 as well?And have to start the whole process again:mad:

This stuff happens im afraid just remember its a person with a baby and probably cant afford to lose that money.

EPM

Bettyboop wrote: »

€300 with a balance of €700

On a low value car I'd give that big a percentage back.

Bettyboop

Bettyboop wrote: »

€300 with a balance of €700

You got 8 calls and want to keep a €300 deposit on a €1000 car, and you reckon the €3 add is a deciding factor. Unreal.

At least give them back €200.

€100 more than covers you for standing in the rain for an hour (why you didn't sit in the car is beyond me)

tallaghtmick

Bettyboop wrote: »

cant try pram as its in Croatia for the next week with his wife

Hmmm thats a strange one alright,I would give back half then.

CarMe

Give back 297 if the three euro means that much to you. You've had a lot of interest you said yourself, it would just be greedy to keep it!!

Hogzy

CarMe wrote: »

it would just be greedy to keep it!!

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Hmmm thats a strange one alright,I would give back half then.

RoverJames wrote: »

You got 8 calls and want to keep a €300 deposit on a €1000 car, and you reckon the €3 add is a deciding factor. Unreal.

tallaghtmick wrote: »

This stuff happens im afraid just remember its a person with a baby and probably cant afford to lose that money.

I dont really get why people are shocked that OP is considering keeping the deposit.
If i put money down on a car and then changed my mind i wouldnt expect the deposit back. The purchaser should have had all his particulars in order and should have been a little more informed before being stupid enough to put down a €300 deposit on a €1000 car. He has paid 30% of the purchase price and wasted valuable time. Plus the OP has turned down other offers.

OP i would keep the money until the car is sold. Then return the deposit minus your costs. That will teach him to waste your time and others. People cant go entering contracts and then backing out because they have been careless. Thats not how the world works. Its immaterial whether he has a child or not. Most people have children.

Hogzy

Hogzy wrote: »

......... Plus the OP has turned down other offers.

.............

Did they

Bettyboop

CarMe wrote: »

Give back 297 if the three euro means that much to you. You've had a lot of interest you said yourself, it would just be greedy to keep it!!

Think I will ring him and tell him he can have his deposit back
don't need this mess.:mad:

Hogzy

RoverJames wrote: »

Did they

Well he said he received 8 phone calls and said the car was sold. So yeah he turned down potential buyers

Oral Surgeon

Give it back and move on

Gophur

Hogzy wrote: »

CarMe wrote: »

it would just be greedy to keep it!!

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Hmmm thats a strange one alright,I would give back half then.

RoverJames wrote: »

You got 8 calls and want to keep a €300 deposit on a €1000 car, and you reckon the €3 add is a deciding factor. Unreal.

tallaghtmick wrote: »

This stuff happens im afraid just remember its a person with a baby and probably cant afford to lose that money.

I dont really get why people are shocked that OP is considering keeping the deposit.
If i put money down on a car and then changed my mind i wouldnt expect the deposit back. The purchaser should have had all his particulars in order and should have been a little more informed before being stupid enough to put down a €300 deposit on a €1000 car. He has paid 30% of the purchase price and wasted valuable time. Plus the OP has turned down other offers.

OP i would keep the money until the car is sold. Then return the deposit minus your costs. That will teach him to waste your time and others. People cant go entering contracts and then backing out because they have been careless. Thats not how the world works. Its immaterial whether he has a child or not. Most people have children.

I cannot understand all those who seem to think a deposit is fully refundable.

This sounds like buyer's remorse. He rang the better half, she f-ked him out of it and now he wants out.

The idea, above, is a good one. Keep the deposit until the car is sold and take out any extra expenses or losses when done.

If you place a deposit you should do so on the knowledge it's not redundable.

biko

Do the right thing, you know what it is.

bucketybuck

Sounds like a lot of people don't actually understand the point of a deposit.

aN.Droid

Karma is a bitch. I would give back the deposit minus the re-advertising fee and a few quid for your time. say, 30 euro in total, 10%. Or do as has already been said and keep the deposit until the car is sold as you have turned away prospective buyers.

Hogzy

Hogzy wrote: »

Well he said he received 8 phone calls and said the car was sold. So yeah he turned down potential buyers

Oh right, I thought you said they turned down offers

tallaghtmick

Bettyboop wrote: »

Think I will ring him and tell him he can have his deposit back
don't need this mess.:mad:

Tell him he has to come see you though dont entertain him if he wants you to meet him halfway.

Atlantic Dawn

If you advertised it for X and the buyer offered X-Y for it and you still got lots of calls I would give him back his full deposit and seek X for the car again, you know it will sell easy at that price. If he offered X I would subtract €50 for expenses, tell him you turned down offers and you know will likely have the car another week before next depositor has full cash.

pm.

Bettyboop wrote: »

€300 with a balance of €700

If the car is going for 1k and he left you with 300 I would return the cash.... id say it took him a while to save up that

Seth Brundle

Looking at it from a different perspective, if someone is spending 1k on a car then money is tight. You don't have to but do the decent thing.
The car sounds like it will sell quite easily (based on the volume of calls) and you aren't going to be out of pocket by much and what else were you going to be doing given the crappy weather? Personally, if I was selling a car then I would want to spend as much time with her before we parted!

bucketybuck

bucketybuck wrote: »

Sounds like a lot of people don't actually understand the point of a deposit.

In fairness we all understand how a deposit works but many of us don't like profiting from others loss if there's no real need for it.

Solnskaya

keep the deposit. I've paid deposits on a few things, usually €200-€500, and if I've changed my mind, the deposit belongs to the seller. I also demand the reverse-if I'm selling and a deposit is lodged, thats mine regardless of wether they proceed or not. AAAwww, he has a baby...i've 3.They're common enough things to have. 1 hr on a 1k car ffs. Or else give it back. Why'd you bother with a deposit so? You could just as well have wasted your time for nothing.

fabsoul

no keep it,

EPM

Its a 1k car. I wouldn't stomach holding that big a deposit on it. Seems like the cars well priced and will sell. Keep €50 for your trouble. A 1k car buyer is most likely saved hard/values cars very little. When I kept my deposit I turned down a €17.5k offer. Small in the scheme of things and I drove Carlow to Cork for a viewing.

Bettyboop

pm. wrote: »

If the car is going for 1k and he left you with 300 I would return the cash.... id say it took him a while to save up that

emm no he had a 2011 car and lets just say a high ranking job

Random

whats the point in a ****ing deposit if youre gonna give it back?
tell him if you sell the car then youll refund him the deposit minus your costs. tell him otherwise tough ****.

EPM

Bettyboop wrote: »

emm no he had a 2011 car and lets just say a high ranking job

The word had makes you point null and void. Otherwise you're trolling.

Bettyboop

Hogzy wrote: »

I dont really get why people are shocked that OP is considering keeping the deposit.
If i put money down on a car and then changed my mind i wouldnt expect the deposit back. The purchaser should have had all his particulars in order and should have been a little more informed before being stupid enough to put down a €300 deposit on a €1000 car. He has paid 30% of the purchase price and wasted valuable time. Plus the OP has turned down other offers.

OP i would keep the money until the car is sold. Then return the deposit minus your costs. That will teach him to waste your time and others. People cant go entering contracts and then backing out because they have been careless. Thats not how the world works. Its immaterial whether he has a child or not. Most people have children.

Totally agree however


I rang him and told him to collect his money
I sent texts to those interested to say it was sold
I aint going to now say its not,they will think I am the one wasting their time.
Will re advertise it,it was a wasted day but will never take a deposit again:mad:Thanks for all the replies

Raiser

Return deposit - minus a small deduction for your cost of advertising/readvertising and also time wasted.

- Reading your posts I couldn't help feeling like you 'saw your chance at profit' here...... Do you really think you're cute, interesting and special enough to be worth €300 an hour - wet or dry weather?

The world would be far less shítty if more people conducted themselves with a little more decency.

fabsoul

Random wrote: »

whats the point in a ****ing deposit if youre gonna give it back?
tell him if you sell the car then youll refund him the deposit minus your costs. tell him otherwise tough ****.

+1 here

Bettyboop

EPM wrote: »

The word had makes you point null and void. Otherwise you're trolling.

I aint a troll just stating a fact

Nonoperational

I'd give it back to be honest. I'd feel pretty bad keeping 30% of the value of the car even if they guy changed his mind. If he was sound about it I wouldn't be happy with myself keeping it. If you had 8 calls etc you'll sell it no problem. €3 and a drop of rain... well that's a call you'd have to make yourself. It'd pretty obvious the general consensus is that people would give it back.

-Corkie-

If you had so much intrest readvertise the car and put 50 quid on to the price and give the deposit back. End of.

Bettyboop

Raiser wrote: »

Return deposit - minus a small deduction for your cost of advertising/readvertising and also time wasted.

- Reading your posts I couldn't help feeling like you 'saw your chance at profit' here...... Do you really think you're cute, interesting and special enough to be worth €300 an hour - wet or dry weather?

The world would be far less shítty if more people conducted themselves with a little more decency.

I was to take deposit and he would pay the rest in 2 weeks time maybe 7 days, he wasn't sure when his wife was returning from Croatia with new pram.
But I was doing him a favour for holding it for that long imo
Never said I was keeping the whole deposit anyway and if I did I was within my rights I even asked to get a link to the pram so as I could get dimensions and see if it would fit,rang him and told him it would now he don't want car or his wife don't want it .I am a decent person and any deposits I gave though they were few I never sought my money back.:mad:
btw he is coming for his money tomorrow which will be returned in full
and as I said before will never accept deposits again
ps he said if he didn't take car I could keep deposit
should have said that earlier
that's what I was posting about should I keep deposit?

Stinicker

You don't have to return the guys deposit, however considering he seemed to be a fair lad who was going to buy the car only for this issue re: the pram and must have a young kid I'd give it back to him tbh. Don't remove adverts or the like again until you have the money in hand, you should have told any others interested to call me back next week as I've a deposit taken.

Money is pretty tight by alot of people and a guy with young kids buying a €1k car isn't probably the richest man in the world so if it was me I'd give him back the money.

OldmanMondeo

Bettyboop wrote: »

Think I will ring him and tell him he can have his deposit back
don't need this mess.:mad:

Best bet, you could do without the hassle and it could be bad luck. But explain to the guy that you did receive a lot of calls after and it has cost you some money, they might be willing to give you a small bit of compensation. Be the better person.

Solnskaya

Bettyboop wrote: »

emm no he had a 2011 car and lets just say a high ranking job

Betty, he put down a deposit. If he now doesn't want it, the deposit is yours for the inconvenience. That's how the world works. You pretty much know yourself that you should let him go feck himself and keep the deposit for the grief.

wee truck big driver

had asimilar situation once. fella came out put deposit down. came back next day trying to pick faults. wife was with him and obviously had given him orders. siad he wasnt taking it i said ok no problem.he then asked for his money back. well i can tell you after i stopped laughing and realised he wasnt joking. i told him the meaning of a deposit and if he didnt polite leave he would be getting something that had no monetary value.this is what is known as a timewaster and you are well within your rights to make him pay for that. i would thats how people learn stuff

unkel

Some strong sentiments on the subject here! Legally the seller is in the right to hang on to the deposit. But in the real world I guess most of us feel it totally depends on the situation what we would / should do. These two posts by EPM are a good example:

EPM wrote: »

I had something similar happen me recently. I kept the €200 I took.

EPM wrote: »

Its a 1k car. I wouldn't stomach holding that big a deposit on it. Seems like the cars well priced and will sell. Keep €50 for your trouble.

I took a €100 deposit on a €2k car a few months ago. I made it perfectly clear to the seller that if, for whatever reason, he would not go ahead with buying the car, he would not get his money back. I also told him that I would mark all my ads as sold straight away and tell people ringing up that the car was sold. But of course he bought the car and paid the balance when he said he would.

In case of the OP, I dunno. We really shouldn't jump to any conclusions here, we don't know enough about the case / haven't experienced it ourselves.

If something like that happened to me and I thought they were a chancer, having spotted a slightly better value car after they put the deposit down, I'd keep it. If I thought they made an honest mistake (and let's face it - it would be a typical male mistake not to take into account that the buggy would have to fit into the boot ) and would be very hard done by if they lost the deposit, I'd give it back to them. And having a car for sale that is getting a lot of interest would make the decision easier. A lot easier

Bettyboop

Solnskaya wrote: »

Betty, he put down a deposit. If he now doesn't want it, the deposit is yours for the inconvenience. That's how the world works. You pretty much know yourself that you should let him go feck himself and keep the deposit for the grief.

Thanks for your support
but am returning deposit not worth it bad karma:D
Just the inconvenience of it all waiting in for him, telling others it was sold
standing in Rain while he went for a test drive after test drive
I mean I am a grandmother:DHe said his wife was tall and it might not be big enough for her and I agreed it probably wasn't then he asked about baby seat
told him it was only possible for really one seat.He had ample opportunity to change his mind let him hear another buyer on phone so he didnt have to agree to buy it never pushed him into 1st time I ever received a deposit for a car but it will be my last:)

Cicero

OP...I see from one of your posts that you are handing back the deposit to save on "hassle"

Maybe next time, with the potential buyer, decide (a) why you are demanding a deposit and (b) the conditions of that deposit

Sounds like you asked for one without thinking it all through...personally, I think you're entitled so some compensation for all of your efforts and refusals of sales... but can appreciate you just want the car sold for a fair price with as little problems as possible...:)

Never actually heard of private car sellers asking for a deposit before....I've only experienced full price payments either buying or selling....would be interested in knowing how widespread that practice is if anyone cares to comment.?

Seth Brundle

Bettyboop wrote: »

Thanks for your support
but am returning deposit not worth it bad karma:D

Good honourable decision on your behalf and as Earl would confirm, you will get good karma for it. Do the lotto next week!

You obviously were within your rights to hold onto it but you are showing a level of decency that has been missing from this country for far too long.
Well done.