To expect them still to pay?

[BananaLeaf]

Last year we emigrated to another country. It was always the plan to sell our 12 year old car when we left. A while before we left SILs car was written off and she asked about buying ours as they are maxed out doing a huge renovation on their house and couldn’t afford to borrow any more for the sort of car they would want.

I told her the price I wanted and didn’t hear back. I had a bad feeling about dealing with family anyway so I messaged and said I think I’ll just get rid of it as I would hate anything to go wrong with it after we left.

She said she please don’t get rid of it could she please have it...but couldn't pay for it right now. I said no problem take your time to pay for it, trusting that would happen regardless.

Anyway 6 months later she messages DH and says it’s failed MOT and will cost almost the agreed cost of the car to fix it. Long story short she has now sold it on and made an executive decision to pay us about 60% of the original amount, justifying it by saying in her opinion we never would have got original amount anyway.

It’s not just the money, I feel completely let down and taken advantage of. I would never do that to someone. If I agreed to pay for something I would pay it no matter what, especially if it was family. If I had known we would still be held responsible for the state of the car after they took possession I never would have sold it to them!

I could have sold it to someone else and got the full cash amount straight away. I knew it was a mistake but felt under pressure to go ahead with it as they had limited options and I was happy to do her a favour, but now we are out of pocket.

Obviously it is bad that the car didn’t pass mot but I had raised that as a concern and it was their decision to proceed so the assumption was that they would take on the risk. Tbh I would have said to pay a reduced amount anyway after hearing about the MOT, but the unilateral decision not pay the loan in full is really disappointing.

AIBU to think they should still pay the agreed price or at least offer?

[CaptainJaneway12]

"sil the reason we didn't want to sell it to you in the first place is because we were concerned it could cause problems down the line, as it has. If we had stuck to our plan and sold it elsewhere we would have got the full amount up front and had no comeback. As it is we have allowed you to postpone payment, and now that the car has failed it's mot we are additionally out of pocket by a further 40 per cent of what we could have made. Additionally you telling us after the fact means we are powerless to make any other sale or arrangement. We don't want to fall out over this, however you owe us the full amount as agreed and we are disappointed that you would attempt to alter this given we expressed reservations to you initially about the arrangement and were generous enough to allow you to pay us at a later date. "

[DowntonCrabby]

She’s a massive CF.

I’m sure you’ve learned a valuable lesson about trusting your judgement. I’d write off the experience and be glad you live xxx miles away from them now.

[Pinkyyy]

So just to clarify- she sold it for 60% of what she'd agreed to pay you, then gave you all the money? Or did she sell it for more and keep some for herself?

[BananaLeaf]

Gave us all the money

[Pinkyyy]

Ah i see. Well in that case she has sold something that she doesn't yet own. I'd tell her to go and get the car back and I'd sell it myself. It probably only failed the MOT on something minor. She had no right to sell it when she hadn't paid for it.

[Bringbackthestripes]

So she has been driving around in a free car for 6 months and now it’s failed it’s MOT she flogged it and has offered you a lesser amount CF!

This 60%- was that the full amount she sold it for or has she screwed you over there too and pocketed some cash herself?

And she has the nerve to have the hump with you & DH BONKERS!

[2birds1stone]

I dont understand if she only gave you 60% of what she sold or if she only got 60%of what she was gonna pay.

I assume as there was a loan she has been paying you some money?

She should be giving you all the money she sold it for. There is no guarantee you would have got what you asked for, especially with only 6 months guarantee and possible problems.

If what she sold it for was ALOT lower, even taking into account what they may have already paid you back then they should be giving you a little extra for having the car for 6 months on top of the sale money.

Technically it was not her car to sell as she was paying you a loan

If you get something on finance and sell it before the finance is finished you still have to pay off the finance

[Bringbackthestripes]

Ahh I see the update re 60%

[BlessedFox]

So she sold the car without your permission?

YANBU and she is a thief.

[waytooyoungforthis]

She’s gone in a hump because she knows she is a CF and wants to try and get away with keeping the lot

[notatwork]

She bought the car at the agreed price at the point you transferred ownership.

The deferral of payment was effectively an interest free loan to her which she still needs to pay back in full.

[BlackCatSleeping]

It's a 12-year-old car.

So, let's say you asked her for 500 pounds, but it failed the MOT and she managed to sell it for 300 pounds and gave you the 300 pounds, but you still want her to pay the extra 200 pounds. But, she feels that it was overpriced at 500 pounds and only worth 300 pounds anyway, so it's fair.

It' sounds like she was broke and desperate at the time and probably still doesn't have any spare cash and needs to buy a car. If it was my brother, I'd have gladly given him the car. You sound a bit mean really. 🤷‍♀️

[HerRoyalNotness]

Had it been transferred to her name? She is a total CF.

Similar happened to us, we sold BIL our 3yo car for a bit less than market value on interest free loan when we moved as he was desperate for a car and couldn’t afford a loan etc.. he just decided to stop paying half way through and still owes us half the money. The car managed to get ‘stolen’ off his drive and burnt out. He didn’t give us any of the insurance money and had a big renewal of vows ‘wedding’ for his 10y anniversary instead. Will never help him again.

Learn your lesson from this and learn it well.

[BlackSatinDancer]

The SIL was driving the car around for 6 months before it failed its MOT. The OP expressed concerns about the MOT before selling it to her SIL and the selling price therefore reflected the condition of the vehicle at that time. It doesn't sound like the SIL was misled in any way.

Perfectly okay that SIL sold it on (as title to it is hers). However, she should pay the OP the original agreed selling price. If SIL sold for less then that is just down to condition of car and depreciation over time.

I'm afraid I would insist on receiving what I agreed to sell it to SIL for. Presumably there is something to show she agreed to this. Because she has been such a CF in deciding to give just 60% of the agreed price, I would respond by giving her written notice that I intended to go to the small claims court for the balance. Hopefully she will find the balance and pay up.

[BananaLeaf]

The car was transferred to her name so I wasn’t bothered what she did with it, as long as she paid us back. As we are not in the country it just wasn’t feasible to take it back but it was frustrating as the MOT amount was only based on what one garage said and probably could have been fixed for less elsewhere. It always passed previous MOT with no probs so it hadn’t been progressively failing or anything.

[NoSquirrels]

Well, yes, it’s shit. But lesson learned, eh? And presumably not a massive loss considering age of car and if the costs would be more than selling it?

I wouldn’t be happy, but I’d chalk it up to experience. You’ve got all the proceeds of the sale and you might not have got what you wanted for it 6 months ago and had to deal with timewasters at a stressful time when you were moving.

[SosigDog]

she feels that it was overpriced at 500 pounds and only worth 300 pounds anyway, so it's fair
Er no, that’s not fair. If she felt it was overpriced at 500 she was free not to buy it. You can’t buy something priced 500 then decide it isn’t worth that much and only pay 300.

[howabout]

Glad there's at least one person who thinks like me Blackcat

FWIW I do agree with others about creating CFery from these sorts of things which is why DH and I don't do financial wheeling and dealing with our siblings - even gifting can create power plays etc.

[BlackSatinDancer]

For those posters who say the car was not SIL's to sell, the OP must have signed over title to the car as otherwise the SIL would not have been able to sell it.

[CheshireChat]

You also can't use something for 6 months and then decide it's overpriced.

[Honeydukes92]

YANBU

Whilst she may not have made money from the sale, it’s rhe six months which she held onto it which have cost you the extra 40% of the value.

X want to sell a car in January for £3000 it has 6 months MOT left and no major issues so that is a reasonable amount.

A- Stranger asses the car- buys it and drives it away. Done.

B- DSil takes the car, doesn’t pay for it. Waits 6 months and then (when it fails it’s MOT) pays 60% of the ordinal value...after selling a car she doesn’t even own 🤔

People saying OP is BU baffle me!! Only on MN.

Tell you what, if we hard Brexit and house prices drop. Shall I sell my house for £150,000 and give that to the bank to clear my £220,000 mortgage??? 🤔 I’m sure they’ll accept my ‘well it’s only worth X now, as reasonable, right? 🙄😒’



DSil

[CheshireChat]

Also the OP might not have been able to afford to just gift the car to her SIL.

[LittleChristmasMouse]

SosigDog

I was just coming to post exactly that.

SIL agreed to the price. She can't now say that it was over priced. The original price might have been right. Obviously an MOT failure will be worth less but it hadn't failed the MOT when OP was selling it originally.

[BlackCatSleeping]

Yes, but it's family. Don't people help their family out sometimes?

The SIL handed over all the cash she sold it for, so it's not like she made a profit from it or anything. I don't really see the issue.