Help with a car i sold 3 mths ago
 

Please bare with me on this one. Any advice / help appreciated.

I have received a letter today from someone that bought my citreon xsara back in april.

They have been to the citizens advice bureau and apparently they have a claim against me.

They asked me when i was selling the car if it required any work to get it through the M.O.T which would be in July 07. I said that i had replaced the oil, oil filter, rear disc's and rear pads and that i could not see it failing any MOT.

So, they bought the car.

The letter today says that the car had been off the road since the 8th june requiring work... (water leek located to water pump) bare in mind here that it hasn't run out of MOT yet and all of the following things were faulty upon inspection by their own MOT qualified ** FRIEND **

The work they have had completed consists of the following........

rear near side caliper £111
rear off side caliper £111
rear brake pads £21
front brake pads £36
front brake discs £21
water pump £25
anti freeze £12
front side wheel bearing £21
strut top mount bearings £15
plate made up and welded to the off side sill

Fitting all of the above inc welding plate £150

total £523

They want reimbursed for this.!!!!

I spoke to my mate the owns a MOT and garage repair business, he has also pointed out to me that in order to replace the water pump the timing belt would have to be replaced... but theres no mention of that in the parts they want me to fork out for.!!

Their letter also states that the £523 does not have any VAT charged.. I wonder why that would be!!

I have 5 days to respond.... or else

Please give advice folks!
Rob

Well, I'm not a solicitor so I may be wrong... but I would say call their bluff.

All the things they have replaced and are asking you to reimburse them for are consumables... and since it is a second hand car they have been consumed and bought as seen. This is why the AA do inspections before the purchase of the car. They haven't got a leg to stand on IMO so go speak to a solicitor and get a letter of response drawn up. DO NOT respond yourself in case you say something wrong that their solicitor will tear you to shreds over.

Trying to pull a fast one on you. You will be paying for the services for life next!

Any private sale of a car is on a 'sold as seen' basis they have to prove that you knew it had parts that needed replacing which is impossible.If you told them about any imperfections prior to selling it and they were happy when they bought the car then you have nothing to worry about.

Tell em to fcuk off :thumb:

tell em to shove the letter up their arse fella, sold as seen is sold as seen, unless you have advertised it i.e mot july, which ran out in may, like i made the mistake of doin once. otherwise, use it as bog roll and post it back their calling ur bluff :D

your not liable, simple as...as long as your not a trader and you did not sell it with any garantees, in 3 months anything could happen to the car, your not in a position to say what would fail 3 months down the line, also its "buyer beware"
you did not "deceive" them its just bad luck for them, the list is no dramas anyway, im presuming its an old car?
tough it out mate, tell them you will see them in court.
im sure you will be fine as long as you did not state that it would go through an mot no problems in writing.

whats wrong with these people....its getting like america.

"I said that i had replaced the oil, oil filter, rear disc's and rear pads and that i could not see it failing any MOT."

Why would they want to change the rear pads and disc's after 3 months ?

NO i'm no trader, although in a private message on a local forum (where it was advertised) i did say that i don't expect it to have any problems come MOT time but then i'm no mechanic i only replaced the rear discs as i knew they were needing replaced as was the oil.

cheers for the replies so far folks

I don't think it matters what you said to them. They had to make the decision to buy the car on their own inspection. They can't prove you said anything.

in their letter it says that the o/s/r caliper was not adjusted correctly when the rear disc's were fitted by me and that this caused it to jam and ware out one side complete. Now, brake calipers don't have any adjustment they adjust them selves.

There's always more to a story than meets they eye and the buyer clearly feels that they have been conned.

As a point of law, if you did not mis-represent the vehicle or offer any guarantees then you have no worries.

If someone says to me that a car I want to buy will pass an MOT I tell them to prove it and put it through one.

A long, long time ago I sold a Motorbike which seized up when the buyers 'mate' had thrashed it up the Motorway 'to test it' - they came to me for money and they threatened legal action .... I said that I await the Summons with interest. Never heard another thing.

However, if your conscience is telling you that you stitched someone up then shame on you - give them their money and don't be a conman again.

Its a year 2000 2.0 hdi xsara...

Ask them to prove the work really need doing?

Any chance you could get to CAB about this and get a responding letter?

Hope you get it sorted, some cheeky gets about :(

Thanks for your input, always appreciate what you have to say.. PSlewis Rules!

i didn't con anyone and my conscious is very clear. If i wanted to con them i wouldn't have changed the disc's/pads oil etc prior to selling.

forget about it, private sale sold as seen, its a ****roen what did they expect,i hate winggers.

Yip absolutely no proof that any of this work actually needed done... or even was done..! as it was " all completed and checked by a MOT qualified friend "

Not a garage or proper engineers report in sight.

In that case - tell them to whistle dixie - also, tell them that pslewis thinks rob2006 Rules!!!! ;) :lol1:

:thumb:

Absolutely agree with this statement. Get down to your local CAB and explain it to them. These people are just trying it on. Is the letter you have received from the CAB or from them as individuals? If its from them, they almost certainly haven't even been to CAB.

Find out what to do before you write back/call/txt/whatever.

Sort your side out first and go from there :thumb:

Really, I wouldn't bother doing ANYTHING yet ...................

Its a letter directly from the folk that bought the car. It sates that they spoke to Susan in the C.A.B and she suggested they contact me first to seek reimbursement before taking it further.

Well normally I'd agree but the guy is posting on here and is clearly concerned.

I'd just get down there and let them put your mind at rest personally......

...... But they'll probably tell you to do nothing yet, as well, anyway :D

Pop down there tomorrow if you get a chance mate. It can't hurt and will make you sleep easy :thumb:

Caveat emptor

unless you are a dealer then you have no obligation at all, sold as seen.

don't even reply to their letter, don't enter into a battle with them, you have nothing to worry about.

that last statement is wrong, unless you missed a comma out.
a dealer has a responsibility under the sale of goods act (merchantable quality).

£150 Labour!?!?! :eek:

Tell me where this garage is...they are either very fast or charge £15 an hour :cuckoo:

the work was not carried out by a garage... it was completed by an MOT qualified friend.

I'd definately call their bluff. If they'd bought it from a garage then fair enough there would be some sort of guarentee on it but private sales are always sold as seen :thumb:

I also agree with pslewis about the MOT. If they wanted to know if it would pass the MOT, they should have put it through one before handed over the cash :D

Always write up a bill of sale when selling a car, include both party's details and state that it's 'sold as see' then there are no comebacks!!

Merv

was the letter hand deliverd, posted normally or recorded as if I was sending a letter like that I would expect it to be recorded or registered post for initial poof that you had it, if it wasn't you can just say it never arrived if needs be.

However I do think they are trying it on, sold as seen is just what it is, also if they found a problem and wanted it fixed as they thought it was covered by anything you said they should have approached you first before undertaking any work as you then have the right to prove or disprove the failing part, by doing it and trying to bill you otherwise has taken away your responsibility to repair even if you said you would.

5 days to respond or else what?

In the first instance I'd ignore it.

Then

If he gets funny I'd start to ask questions about the abilities of his MOT friend, I doubt if any court would consider something like this without a proper inspection report from a garage - bear in mind he's already told you that it was his friend, hardly an independent inspection report I'd suggest.

And then

If he persists, try to get the details of his MOT friend - so you can maybe verify his qualifications - then shop the **** to the taxman for doing a homer and not claiming the income to the taxman.