Sold car. Problem. Buyer wants me to pay for it

Del2005

I agree with the others, don't meet with the buyer and don't pay any money. Would they come back looking for money if they got a puncture. The buyer has a rather large cheek TBH. When you buy privately you've no comeback, thats why the cars are generally cheaper. Don't meet and if they call back asking for money say you'll call the Gardai and report then as a stalker:D

Chiron

I agree with most of the posts here. OP has no obligation legal or moral to the buyer. Dont meet up as its much easier to manipulate you or make you feel guilty in person.

Tell him to speak to a solicitor if he has a problem.

iknorr

cheers for the advice all. (there too many post to reply to each one individually)
Plan at the moment so is wait for another call from him. Explain im not legally obligated to pay him anything. Tell him its just bad luck, and if he wants to go further to contact his solicitor. I just need to contact my solicitor to be 100% on the legalities.

iknorr

Uuuh Patsy wrote:

I know the Ford Zetec Timing Belt is warrantied to 50-60k miles or some such. Is there any similar arrnagement with your make. Sorry if I missed car make in previous post

i cant remember exactly but i know there was another 35k left b4 i the recommended timing belt change.

The good news bus has come to town!!!!

I have been in contact with a lad who had a similar situation. He sold a golf. 1 month later the engine siezed up. he was taken to court. The buyer was told the car was sold in good faith and was not under warrenty from the seller. So he had no claim.

TwoShedsJackson

iknorr wrote:

cheers for the advice all. (there too many post to reply to each one individually)
Plan at the moment so is wait for another call from him. Explain im not legally obligated to pay him anything. Tell him its just bad luck, and if he wants to go further to contact his solicitor. I just need to contact my solicitor to be 100% on the legalities.

Don't mention solicitors, there's no need to be putting ideas in his head or threatening to escalate it to legal claims etc. (which is how he would probably perceive it).

Just say car was sold as seen etc. and that you're not liable for anything thereafter, which is true anyway. Stand your ground but be polite about it, and you'll likely never hear anything more about it.

If you do hear legal threats etc. then respond to that as and when, but don't jump the gun.

iknorr

thats not a bad idea at all.

antodeco

Did the buyer get a mechanic to look at it? If you buy a second hand house and then the fridge stops working, does the original owner pay for it? I doubt it. Its just bad luck for the buyer! On terms of being moral, if you sold it in good faith and assumed everything was fine with it, I wouldnt feel too guilty. You were not responsible for it snapping. Anyways, who knows what he was doing to the car in the mean time...

bonkey

Taken from here:

Second-hand goods

These must also be of merchantable quality but the standards are lower. If you buy something through a private sale, your rights are greatly diminished. Goods do not have to be of merchantable quality, they merely have to be owned by the seller and fit their description. It is up to you to check out the goods before buying.

From this, it would appear that the purchaser is SOL. The car was in working order when sold, had had passed its NCT as claimed. Ergo, it met its sale description, unless you had something really weird in there...

dave2pvd

You know, it is just plain old bad luck; like others have said.

You'll have plenty of it during the course of your life! He's receiving part of his portion right now. He'll get over it in time.

I too would be one of the more compassionate about something like this, had I been negligent in some way. You have not been negligent.

Don't pay any money - legally, that might be construed as an admission of negligence on your part.

Was it a VW? 1.8T or 2.0T?

drdre

Its the buyers problem.He should have got it checked by a mechanic.Dont waste your time listening to him.

seamus

In this case, you're better off giving nothing than giving *something*. If this guy was bull-headed enough to go to court, it could well be argued that becuase you provided part of the cost of the repairs, you implicitly accepted liability for the fault and could be ordered to pay full costs.

OK, so it's worst-case, but it's a possibility. Sympathise with his bad luck and tell him that you're going to have no further dealings with him.

As said above, don't mention "legal" or "solicitor" unless he does. I know a lot of people who simply close their ears and pull a freak out as soon as they hear the "S" word.

~~SKYHIGH~~

Report back, would be interesting to see how the new owner has responded..

bazz26

I doubt something like would even be entertained in a court of law. Any decent solicitor worth his wage would know their client's position regarding the law and "Caveat Emptor".

kdevitt

bazz26 wrote:

I doubt something like would even be entertained in a court of law. Any decent solicitor worth his wage would know their client's position regarding the law and "Caveat Emptor".

My missus' law company got the full purchase price back on an Alfa which was sold which a dodgy engine - there was enough evidence though to show the seller knew there was a problem though.

iknorr

dave2pvd wrote:

You know, it is just plain old bad luck; like others have said.

You'll have plenty of it during the course of your life! He's receiving part of his portion right now. He'll get over it in time.

I too would be one of the more compassionate about something like this, had I been negligent in some way. You have not been negligent.

Don't pay any money - legally, that might be construed as an admission of negligence on your part.

Was it a VW? 1.8T or 2.0T?

no it was a toyota celica 2.0l

iknorr

kdevitt wrote:

My missus' law company got the full purchase price back on an Alfa which was sold which a dodgy engine - there was enough evidence though to show the seller knew there was a problem though.

thats the difference though. No evidence of a problem.

dave2pvd

iknorr wrote:

no it was a toyota celica 2.0l

<one eyebrow raised>

That's a surprise.

Eager to hear how your conversation went.

DaDa

seamus wrote:

In this case, you're better off giving nothing than giving *something*. If this guy was bull-headed enough to go to court, it could well be argued that becuase you provided part of the cost of the repairs, you implicitly accepted liability for the fault and could be ordered to pay full costs.

OK, so it's worst-case, but it's a possibility. Sympathise with his bad luck and tell him that you're going to have no further dealings with him.

As said above, don't mention "legal" or "solicitor" unless he does. I know a lot of people who simply close their ears and pull a freak out as soon as they hear the "S" word.

Agree 100% with Seamus

cantdecide

I've never known the word 'solicitor' to strike anything but comtempt in anyone-

It is bad luck but there's no need to antagonise the poor fella- he is wrong to do so but he feels cheated. Don't be a douche, iknorr, don't pay out but keep the stiff upper lip and leave the threats out, even if he gets hot under the collar.

If there is evidence of the cambelt being done available- surely the best thing to do is pass on the info to the seller. Surely the garage/ part manufacturer has to be someway responsible. He will feel like you are trying to help even though it's not your problem...

Captain Slow IRL

Caveat emptor

He might not be telling the whole truth - coulda revved the b@lls out of the engine before it snapped.

I was in a similiar situation last year; sold my civic and the next day the girl rang me to tell me the engine light was on. I kept in contact with her (out of curiousity) and it turned out to be the ckp sensor wire (my fault after replacing timing belt and not securing wire back to timing cover) It only cost 40 to repair at a main dealer in Galway, and she let it slide, but I'm sure if it was more we would have been in an akward situation!

Supercell

Handing over cash could be considered to admitting liability, I'd think long and hard before doing that if I were you (well not really..I wouldn't give him a penny, his hard luck to be honest).

cancan

I've never heard of a timing belt in a celica snapping prematurely, esp 35k prematurely.

Where was this car sourced, and was there a FSH to verify the mileage?

It didn't come from japan by any chance?

tippbhoy

land9 wrote:

Caveat emptor

He might not be telling the whole truth - coulda revved the b@lls out of the engine before it snapped.

I was in a similiar situation last year; sold my civic and the next day the girl rang me to tell me the engine light was on. I kept in contact with her (out of curiousity) and it turned out to be the ckp sensor wire (my fault after replacing timing belt and not securing wire back to timing cover) It only cost 40 to repair at a main dealer in Galway, and she let it slide, but I'm sure if it was more we would have been in an akward situation!

Agreed, the person could have drove the crap out of it for the 2 weeks. My mate sold a very old mondeo to a young lad who snapped the timing belt the first day he got it. Fair enough it was old but the lad clearly pushed the old betsie beyond her norm.

Even if they didn't drive hard it's bad luck as you sold it in good faith. Buyer beware in the private market. Cancel the meeting and point out the fact that if they bought it from a dealer they would have got a warranty but probably paid the difference to fix it anyway.

iknorr

cancan wrote:

I've never heard of a timing belt in a celica snapping prematurely, esp 35k prematurely.

Where was this car sourced, and was there a FSH to verify the mileage?

It didn't come from japan by any chance?

yeah its a jap. iv had it for over a year. Whats an FSH???

oleras

iknorr wrote:

yeah its a jap. iv had it for over a year. Whats an FSH???

FSH= Full Service History

Signpost

first thing you do with a new old car (especially if its one with a speed reputation) is get timing belt done. If it was "apparently" done the day before id still re do it. As for giving him money no come back. If it happened with 48 hrs id feel some remorse, 2 weeks later no chance.

louie

That's the down side of buying privately, the reason is always recomended to have a mechanic checking the car.
When the car lefy your house it was driving perfectly. As someone said above, it could be that the new owner has a big foot and push it to the limit showing off to his friends.
How is that your fault?

dave2pvd

Just a word to the wise: timing belts experience their largest tensile loads at start-up. That's when they tend to snap/strip. In some cases, the belt is fine, but the tensioner may decide to stop tensioning, which has been VW's problem on the 20V engines.

cancan

iknorr wrote:

yeah its a jap. iv had it for over a year. Whats an FSH???

Well, Jap cars have a habit of loosing their service history and 1000's of miles on the ship from the far east. Bless our honest importers.

If a toyota breaks a timing belt 35K before it was supposed to, you can virtually guarentee that the car was clocked.

I would guess for this to happen, 30-50k miles was clocked off that car.

Look on the bright side, he is only looking for timing belt money. Both buyers should have done more homework.

warthog_76

when you meeting him? looking forward to getting an update