Private Car sale buyer wants refund

[whoscoatsthatjacket2012]

I sold my old car recently privately via an advert on SM
Listed what work I'd had done and that it was recently serviced with a new MOT
The person who bought it said it has a fault and wants the money back.
I had no idea there was an issue and they tested the car before buying it.
They've now sent me a letter saying unless I give the money back they'll take me to court.
Should I reply to letter or ignore it and see what they do.

They are entitled to take you to court, but you have a simple defence. The car matched the description you gave and you did not misrepresent it in any way. As you are a private seller, you are not liable for any faults that appear after sale.

The court papers are genuine. Kind of expected it after the letter.
No ring door bell but letter sent in response to letter before action detailed the test drive and the fact the car was MOT'd about a month previous and also serviced.
Can do without this tbh
No matter will attach all evidence to the court claim online and see what happens

Did you actually attend your case. I thought small claims was all online now and you didn't need to attend or get a solicitor

How many second hand cars have you sold (or advertised) in the past 24 months? Is there any way that you could be considered a dealer? I believe it used to be selling 6 second hand cars a year. If so, then they could come after you, and you could also be in trouble with HMRC.

Not sold a car second hand for about 20 years always traded in for new ones at a dealer

Then you have absolutely nothing to worry about. But it is incredibly irritating for you.

I would turn up to court.

Because if one side doesn't follow a protocol or order by the judgr , its heavily frowned upon

The defendant in my case was late, he didn't sign his witness statement, he didn't date it , he sent his evidence late ,he marked his evidence with the wrong date by purpose.

All these things added to the case being honoured in our favour.

Do you have a service receipt ?

Can you get a witness statement from the person that serviced it ?

If so you are likely to win with all these bits in place.

You do not need a solicitor and should not use one. If you did, you would not be able to recover your legal costs from the other side.

You will need to attend the hearing.

Turn up to court. That way if anything is wrong with your paperwork, or the judge wishes to ask questions, you are there to get it sorted immediately. They won't pause the case to give you time to refile or whatever. There would also be that niggling feeling that if you didn't turn up the judgement would automatically be against you.

I thought the online bit was only for filing the paperwork instead of using the post etc. I thought you had to attend the final bit if you were fighting it. Good luck!

Btw you appear to have namechanged and your posts aren't showing as OPs. Ask MNHQ to change them for you (report the posts).

Ah yeah I'd name changed after original post
Forgot it would show up on the app as original poster sorry

Sold as seen. They do not have a case.

How's that?

To repeat, there is no such thing as sold as seen when buying a second-hand car (or, indeed, anything else). Even if a seller states that the car is sold as seen and gets the buyer to sign a document agreeing to this, the courts will disregard it.

Well if a court date is set, just go along. Bring the paperwork as outlined. The fact that you had it serviced, bring a copy of the ad you placed to sell it (so how was it described ) and just explain that you are not an expert in cars, so as far as youwere concerned it worked. And it worked when it was in your possession.

You are not expected to have professional representation at small claims, it's designed to be able to be done by non solicitors. You are definitely not expected to know about non visible faults when selling a vehicle if you are a non dealer/trader. So you will be fine

Thank you all.

I'm not very good as speaking in front of people I get tongue tied and forget words so this will be really hard.

Don't worry. It is a straightforward case. Unless the buyer can show that the car did not match the description or that you misrepresented it in some way they don't have a case.

Write it all down in advance and take it with you. You can basically read it out.

Just write it out as bullets and super factual.

• I bought the car in xxxx
• since I've owned it it was serviced annually, last service was xxxx
• I put it up for sale on xxx date, and the ad listing said " blah blah"
• the buyer came and viewed the car on xxth of whenever. They looked around the car/took for test drive/opened bonnet etc
• they did /did not ask me questions. They asked xxx, yyy and I answered as follows "blah blah"
• we agreed a price and they signed the invoice which stated sold as seen

You will be fine OP!

You can write the court and say someone will represent you .

I did so for my mother as the evidence was very intertwined and complex.

Don't fear.

May I ask what the buyer is complaining about in terms of fault of the car?

Didn't read full thread apologies op

This is best advice- bought as seen, buyers job to be aware etc. So sorry you're gojng through this op. Some people are ridiculous.

In court you only need to answer a question that is asked of you so do t worry about that part, have every written down

Good luck, I’m sure you’ll be fine. If a buyer wants guarantees they need to go to a dealer. Private sales are generally cheaper for a reason. You pay the price, you take the risk. Maybe the fault developed after he bought it. 🤷‍♀️. The fact it was recently serviced, etc is good for you.

Please do not mention sold as seen. There is no such thing. Trying to rely on it makes you look dodgy. It is the kind of trick pulled by dodgy dealers who sometimes masquerade as private sellers.

Small claims court, so OP will not be represented and will have to present her case herself. She won't just be answering questions.

This is correct. If you go to a dealer, you have the additional protection that the car must be of satisfactory quality. In the context of a second-hand car, that means it should be of a reasonable standard given its age, mileage, price, etc. With a private seller, the only requirement is that the car must match any description given and the seller must not misrepresent the car.