Distant selling rules for used car purchase

[Shab57]

Hi I would be really grateful for any legal advice. So I recently put down a deposit of £5000 on a car I liked online I’ve never seen it only pictures so I know it’s classed as a distant sale. It was supposed to be delivered last week but I changed my mind and notified them. They are now saying that the invoice generated before I paid the deposit clearly stated that the deposit was non refundable and that I still proceeded to pay and was made aware. They are refusing to give me any of my deposit back and say I have a few days to either pay the remaining balance or lose the car and my money. Can you please advice what I could possibly do and if I was to contact a solicitor would it be a contract law solicitor I would need as I have searched up that I am covered by the distance sale law according to my statutory right but would like to know from a legal professional thank you

You have 14 days to assert your rights under distant selling rules. And no they cannot keep your deposit.

the CAB on line have advise re this and usually template letters

Unless your deposit was more than £10k, you do not need a solicitor for this as it would be a small claim. If it ended up in court, you would not be able to reclaim any fees you had paid to your solicitor.

You are correct that you have up to 14 days after delivery to cancel. This right is set out in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. It doesn't matter what it said on their invoice. That cannot override your rights as a consumer.

Your next step is to send them a letter before action. Which? have a good template at Letter before small claims court claim - Which?. If they fail to return your deposit within 28 days, you can then start a claim against them. On the information you have posted, you will have no problem winning if it gets to court.

I’ve used Resolver twice sort out issues with companies. The process seemed to get everything sorted quite quickly. Wasn’t related to distance selling in my case but may be worth using as a first port of call it if the car company dig their heels in.

www.resolver.co.uk/rights-guides

Thank you so much for your replies I was feeling really disheartened as they keep putting pressure on me to pay the rest and take delivery of the car. I will now send them the letter and see what happens

@prh47bridge once I’ve sent a letter of I don’t get a response do I appoint a solicitor to take it to the small claims court or do I not need one?

You don't need a solicitor for this. Part of the idea of small claims is that you should do it yourself, without a solicitor.