Any Caveats to Caveat Emptor?

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fangs

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I sold a 10 yr old BMW privately last month. The new Owner has been in touch reporting engine problems and wants her money back. The car was sold in good faith and did not have these problems when I sold it. From previous threads I'm pretty sure I'm covered by Caveat Emptor, however the new owner received legal advice (or so they say) saying that this is not necessarily the case if the engine or gearbox packs-in within a certain time. She's threatening to bring it to court.

Any truth to her assertion? Just want to know where I stand legally aside from any other considerations.
 
If you are not a garage owner, a dealer or holding yourself out to be an expert in cars in some way then I don't think she has much of a case.
 
I don't think there's any comeback if it was a genuine private sale, providing the vehicle wasn't misrepresented. The buyer should have satisfied themselves as to the condition of the car at the time.

I don't buy the legal advice story BTW.

SSE
 
Here is the particular legislation that applies: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1980/en/act/pub/0016/sec0013.html

Look in particular at section (2). Your minimum legal obligation is limited to the car not being a danger to the public. It is imaginable that you could have increased your obligation by making claims about the condition of the vehicle, but nothing you say in your post suggests that to me.
 
If there is no chance you are a dealer (sell any other cars recently ?) then there is no comeback.
 
If it is a private sale then no come back unless the buyer gets you to write the condition of the vehicle on a receipt or you wrote Sold as Seen.

With a 10 year old you have to understand things will go wrong and you probably had an item of what was failing.

Like my car is 10 year and the brakes are not great. I would say that to the buyer but I could only tell them that the engine has never let me down.
 
Kluivert said:
... With a 10 year old you have to understand things will go wrong and you probably had an item of what was failing.
Click to expand...

That's not a legal point. It's a commonsense point that any buyer should bear in mind.

Like my car is 10 year and the brakes are not great. I would say that to the buyer but I could only tell them that the engine has never let me down.
Click to expand...

You could put yourself in difficulty if you sold a car with bad brakes. See the link I furnished above. If you let a buyer drive off in a car with dodgy brakes, you are putting the buyer and other members of the public in danger.
 
Thanks for the replies. Have contacted a solicitor and been told exactly above. I did not expressly say sold as seen but before the deal was done I fessed up to all the obvious defects, none of them safety related - scratches and the like. Neither did I offer any guarantees, merely that the car never gave me a days trouble - which is true. The buyer brought a friend, left a large deposit with me and took the car for a 15 min test drive. They were more than happy to take the car off my hands that evening and I didn't hear a peep for 3 weeks.

I'll let you know if it comes to solicitors trading letters and where the chips fall.

You wouldn't mind, before solicitors were mentioned I prob would have contributed to a repair out of a sense of fairness.
 
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