private car sale... any legal come back?

eirewhite

Hi all im in a bit of a bind. Im new here and wonder could someone clarify this for me.
I sold a car to a man recently. The car had tax nct and was in good condition while i had it. The buyer had two visits and ample time to examine and test drive the car before buying. Once he decided he was happy we did the usual haggle over money. He signed up the log book and away he went. (it might be worth noting he got the car at a good price... 400e below the price advertised)
we drove ahead of him on our way home from the meeting point where we sold the car( this was so he could find his way back to the motorway)
Once we got to a straight close to the motorway we pulled in and let him go on ahead. To our shock he drove the sh1t out of the car, over took 4 cars at a time on two seperate occasions and nearly got in two accidents in a matter of minutes. Later that night i noticed a load of missed calls on my phone. Worried that he had crashed on the way home i rang him be told me the fan belt had snapped on the car and he was stuck in a bnb for the night and i had to reimburse him. Politely i said the car was fine when i had it and that i felt he was driving very hard and that i wasnt accusing him of anything but who knows what he had done to the car when he left my sight.
Anyhow he began to tell me that i was legally obliged to stand over the car for seven days and he would persue the matter. I told him if he was not happy to go to the gardai and exolain to them he was doing 159kmph on an 80kmph road and the fan belt snapped and see what they say.

Whats the story here. Has he got any sort of case? Personally i have been on the recieving end of a similar situation myself a few years back and i didnt even ring the seller as i thought he would just tell me to get stuffed.

MagicMarker

No case whatsoever.

anthony4335

A fan belt would be considered wear and tear so would not be considered a defective item. As far as I know a buyer even in a private sale is protected against the sale of faulty goods unless stated in the sale the defect for 30 days. But a fan belt is a consumable and would not be covered.
So it is tough for the buyer. This is the trade off in buying private you do not get the same protection as from a garage, that is why they are cheaper.

corktina

the only grounds a buyer would have is if you didnt disclose something you knew wrong with the car....

sean1141

corktina wrote: »

the only grounds a buyer would have is if you didnt disclose something you knew wrong with the car....

And thats very hard to prove

torres3011

Timely thread.

I bought a car last week for 4.5k and i think there could be a major problem with the chassis.

Im not 100% sure but when i was giving the car another once over last night i noticed that a cross member was bent and even had a crack in it.

Im going to get a mechanic to look at it asap.

Whats the story do you think? If the car is a right off do i have any rights?

kildare.17hmr

anthony4335 wrote: »

As far as I know a buyer even in a private sale is protected against the sale of faulty goods unless stated in the sale the defect for 30 days

This is completley wrong. if you buiy a car from me and the engine falls out while you are reversing out of my garden its your problem. private sales = Buyer beware, unless the seller purpously mislead you or told you a loads of lies which as was said above is difficult (damn near impossible actually) to prove

sean1141

torres3011 wrote: »

Timely thread.

I bought a car last week for 4.5k and i think there could be a major problem with the chassis.

Im not 100% sure but when i was giving the car another once over last night i noticed that a cross member was bent and even had a crack in it.

Im going to get a mechanic to look at it asap.

Whats the story do you think? If the car is a right off do i have any rights?

Did you not spot it when you were inspecting the car before you bought it??


Buying private is a risk you take. If you looked over the car before buying and went ahead with the sale without seing it or saying it to the seller its your tough luck.

eirewhite

No i certainly didnt know ot was worn. I also said to the buyer if the fan belt was worn or about to go i would have thought it would make some noise or give some indication while driving. He agreed .. And then persued to tell me i was obliged to cover the cost of repair, a bnb for him and his son and the loss of work the following day for both of them!! I also pointed out that i had the car checked by a mechanic last week and a full diognostic scan and no belt faults of any sort were apparent. I also mentioned that had i knew the fan belt was about to go i certainly wouldnt be carrying my 1 year old child in it.

goz83

@OP

If you were driving ahead of the guy doing 80kph, how do you know he was doing 159kph and overtaking 4 cars at a time, near missing collisions?

It doesn't matter if he was driving hard, r like an old granny. As above, the fan belt is a consumable item and the buyer is stuck with it. If you knew there was a problem with the car and failed to disclose this to the buyer, then shame on you. I am assuming that you sold the car honestly though and I say tough cheese to the buyer. Of course he was p*****d off. He didn't even make it home :pac:

kildare.17hmr

tomkenny wrote: »

No i certainly didnt know ot was worn. I also said to the buyer if the fan belt was worn or about to go i would have thought it would make some noise or give some indication while driving. He agreed .. And then persued to tell me i was obliged to cover the cost of repair, a bnb for him and his son and the loss of work the following day for both of them!! I also pointed out that i had the car checked by a mechanic last week and a full diognostic scan and no belt faults of any sort were apparent. I also mentioned that had i knew the fan belt was about to go i certainly wouldnt be carrying my 1 year old child in it.

politly tell him to FCUK off if he rings again, i wouldnt even get into a conversation with him about it. a free pay as you go sim card goes along way to stopping hassel like this when selling a car privatly

goz83

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

politly tell him to FCUK off if he rings again, i wouldnt even get into a conversation with him about it. a free pay as you go sim card goes along way to stopping hassel like this when selling a car privatly

Yeah. All the dodgy sellers are doing this these days.

Personally, if I am selling, or buying a car, the sale must be done at the sellers address. Otherwise I would not go near the sale. Car park car sales are dodgy as hell and there is usually a reason for using them (and its not for convenient meeting). I might meet at a car park, but I would then insist the sale is completed at the selling address for everyones peace of mind.

Only trouble I ever had was a couple of polish lads who bought a brand new quad from me for 1600 (half the value it was worth here, transported from Sweden). The guy called up and said the screws were coming loose on the casing/fairing every other journey. This was a road quad (sold here as a toy) and it was being used in fields by the owner. It had less than 20 kilometers on the clock when i sold it and i told the buyer that he would need to put thread glue onto most of the screws and bolts, because it had been assembled here by me and a pt mechanic. He wanted a refund 2 months after the sale and after clocking up 500 kilometers in a field. I laughed and hung up. Citizens information contacted me and I explained to them the details of the transaction. Once I said it was a private sale and I sold it honestly and was not willing to make any kind of refund, that was the end of it. That was about 2 years ago. I saw the quad about a month ago being driven in the field and its still in great nick. Some people are just chancers.

torres3011

sean1141 wrote: »

Did you not spot it when you were inspecting the car before you bought it??


Buying private is a risk you take. If you looked over the car before buying and went ahead with the sale without seing it or saying it to the seller its your tough luck.

Of course i didn't spot it before hand?

Panic over anyway, got some good advice in another thread that the damage is manageable and not a serious as i thought.

As for free paid sim card? Remind me never to buy a car from you. :eek:

torres3011

goz83 wrote: »

Yeah. All the dodgy sellers are doing this theses days.

kildare.17hmr

I sold an EVO 3 about 7 years ago and 2 months later the guy who bought it rings me looking for his money back because the head gasket went! this was after i met him at a trackday in mondello in the same bleedin car:rolleyes: threaths of guards, solicitors ect

I sold a silvia a few years ago and and weeks later i heard the young lad blew the engine doing rings one night, i saw the video, he feckin dogged it for ages! anyway his mother starts ringing me saying i have to pay for a new engine and if i did not i would be taken to court! this went on for weeks and i had to change my number for it to stop.

Nothing dishonest on my end when selling cars, i do it for a living, but when it comes to private sales i just dont want the bother or headach from a ****ing muppet who decides to wreck a car and then "knows his rights"

Drummerboy08

I do the whole pay as you go sim to protect myself rather than having the intention of ripping off someone.

As many dodgy sellers are there, there are plenty of dodgy buyers too.

Anan1

I know this is too late for the OP, but I always write out two receipts specifying that the car is sold as seen and tested and talk the buyer through this at the time of sale. It's a common misunderstanding, and easily enough avoided.

Francie Barrett

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

politly tell him to FCUK off if he rings again, i wouldnt even get into a conversation with him about it. a free pay as you go sim card goes along way to stopping hassel like this when selling a car privatly

That's the only way to go if you're selling stuff second hand, always keep a number for flogging stuff second hand. I go a bit further than that. When I am selling stuff and meeting the buyer, I will even meet outside a house that I know has been empty for awhile. Once the car is flogged, I power off the phone and have no worries. If the buyer returns to the house, he won't find me there :cool:

torres3011

Francie Barrett wrote: »

That's the only way to go if you're selling stuff second hand, always keep a number for flogging stuff second hand. I go a bit further than that. When I am selling stuff and meeting the buyer, I will even meet outside a house that I know has been empty for awhile. Once the car is flogged, I power off the phone and have no worries. If the buyer returns to the house, he won't find me there :cool:

Keeping it classy Francie

eirewhite

Thanks for all the replys my mind is a little more at ease. Just to clarify i pulled in and let the buyer go on ahead and then followed behind him... And when i spoke with him on the phone later i said u were driving the car pretty hard and he replied its a high powered car are you telling me 150kmph is going to damsge it? So i told him to tell the gaurds that story.
Also to clarify i sold the car in good faith from my parents house and gave him a lift out to the house from the nearest town in my girlfriends car with my child in the back and used my personal phone number.
Everything about the deal was honest and legit...
If he rings or persues it again i will be telling him to stop calling me or ill be going to the cops myself for herrasmenr

goz83

Francie Barrett wrote: »

That's the only way to go if you're selling stuff second hand, always keep a number for flogging stuff second hand. I go a bit further than that. When I am selling stuff and meeting the buyer, I will even meet outside a house that I know has been empty for awhile. Once the car is flogged, I power off the phone and have no worries. If the buyer returns to the house, he won't find me there :cool:

I know that trick too, which is generally why I go inside the house with the buyer. One time the door was open and the wife and kids were in the hallway/kitchen, so I was happy enough to buy in the garden. When you're handing over large sums of money, the least someone can do is sit you down in their kitchen so the transaction can be completed. I know of too many people that have been burned like this, my sister included.

goz83

tomkenny wrote: »

Thanks for all the replys my mind is a little more at ease. Just to clarify i pulled in and let the buyer go on ahead and then followed behind him... And when i spoke with him on the phone later i said u were driving the car pretty hard and he replied its a high powered car are you telling me 150kmph is going to damsge it? So i told him to tell the gaurds that story.
Also to clarify i sold the car in good faith from my parents house and gave him a lift out to the house from the nearest town in my girlfriends car with my child in the back and used my personal phone number.
Everything about the deal was honest and legit...
If he rings or persues it again i will be telling him to stop calling me or ill be going to the cops myself for herrasmenr

Sounds like an ass of a buyer and you are a genuine case. You did the right thing anyway.

wendell borton

i had a similar experiance when i sold my old car with new owner ringing me looking to be compensated eventually i just stoped answering his calls.

You have done nothing wrong so just ignore this chancer.