Do I have to give back deposit?

[barney47]

Hi all,

I sold a cheap car for £1300 on ebay last week and requested a £100 deposit with the balance being paid in cash on collection.

I gave a good description of the car and spoke to the guy over the phone, he turned up today after a 200 mile drive to collect the vehicle but then said he would pay £1000 for it as he thought it had a fault! I told him that he agreed to pay £1300 for it and if he does'nt he will not be taking it away, he left without the car expecting me to pay back his deposit into his bank account.

I have since relisted the car which cost me money let alone the 50 mile round trip to my works where the car is kept and the 3 hours out of my sunday!!

Do I legally have to refund the deposit? can he now take me to the small claims court to recover it? I feel he does not deserve the deposit back as he has caused me loads of hassle and he agreed to pay me the £1300 for the car which he failed to do.

Please help!!!!:beagle:

[shamen]

Re: Do I have to give back deposit?

An ebay auction is a legally binding contract. If he has won it at auction then he is obliged to take the car, unless the condition of the vehicle in the auction significantly differs from the condition he found it when he came to collect. If the condition of the car is pretty much as described in the auction, you can keep the deposit and actually take him to small claims for the remainder of the balance should you wish. A trick I have used in the past in this situation is to give the purchaser notice that 'storage' of the vehicle on the drive will cost an additional £50 per day that, along with pointing out the legally binding auction, seemed to get the car picked up quickly and the balance paid.

The key here is significantly. If, for example, there is body damage or major fault with the vehicle that you did not include in the auction listing, then he is entitled to walk away. He cant, on the other hand, walk away for something small like the cigarette lighter not working (unless the auction specifically stated 'all electrcis good' or similar.

What exactly was the fault he is reporting?

[shamen]

Re: Do I have to give back deposit?

Should also add - if he won with 'buy it now' its not technically an auction, its a sale. Whole different ball game.

So my original post only really applies to a true auction.

[barney47]

Re: Do I have to give back deposit?

He says there is a fault with the turbo but the car drives fine and the turbo works perfectly! I told him over the phone that the car had some dings and scrapes and he was fine with that as I was very accurate with the description.

The thing is he didnt press the buy now button as he told me he didnt have paypal so deposited the money (deposit) into my bank account, I then ended the listing so in theory it wasnt sold through ebay.

The thing is I dont want to get into an argument over the phone about the deposit if i dont have a leg to stand on!!

[shamen]

Re: Do I have to give back deposit?

The thing is he didnt press the buy now button as he told me he didnt have paypal so deposited the money (deposit) into my bank account, I then ended the listing so in theory it wasnt sold through ebay.

Then the protections of an auction do not apply as its a private sale. Soemone more knowledgable than me on private sales can perhaps answer this one, but my gut feeling is if he walks away without completing the sale then unless the deposit requirement was clearly marked 'non refundable' then its my understanding he can ask for the deposit back ih he backs out before the sale is complete.

In a private sale, the buyer can walk away at any point for any reason. He could have said 'I dont like the condition of the exhaust' and walked off. This is why I always let ebay auctions run to completion, without the 'buy it now' feature

[righty]

Re: Do I have to give back deposit?

If he doesn't have a pay pal account what on earth is he doing on ebay?????

[CleverClogs]

Re: Do I have to give back deposit?

From what I recall of contract law, whilst a seller may choose to return a deposit they are not obliged so to do, nor may a buyer insist that a deposit be returned unless there was so great a material defect in the contract or misrepresentation as to the quality of the goods or service to be sold as to strike at the heart of the contract.

This may become clearer if one looks at the matter in the following way: by accepting the deposit from the putative buyer, the seller has entered into a contract not to sell those goods to anyone else and to charge the buyer no more than the agreed price less the sum on money given as a deposit. Here, the seller has completely fulfilled that contract and, unless he can prove any misrepresentation on the seller's part, the so-called 'buyer' has no claim for the return of the deposit after he had repudiated the contract to purchase the motor-car.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Do I have to give back deposit?

If he doesn't have a pay pal account what on earth is he doing on ebay?????

Does PayPal operate with a Nigerian bank account?