Would the fact that you picked them up influence any legal proceedings? By this I mean whilst the ad was incorrect you collected them in person and had the opportunity to inspect them? I genuinely hope this is not the case as I too was stiffed on the FFOC boards a few years ago and just had to notch it up too experience after a year of trying to recover my hard earned cash.
Need some advice RE: a private sale
- Thread starter Invertigo
- Start date
It depends - did the OP rely on the description? The buyer is under no obligation to examine goods, but if he does then it may prejudice his claim if his examination ought to have revealed the problem.
A s.13 Sale of Goods Act claim as stated above may be your best bet - the case of Beale v Taylor [1967] could be useful authority. In that case the buyer came round to inspect a car being sold by the defendant that turned out to be two halves of cars (that had been in accidents) welded together. The claimant relied on the disc stating '1200' on the rear of the vehicle to make him think it was that particular (single) model of car. He sued successfully.
Failing a s.13 SGA claim you might be able to argue misrepresentation, again if you relied on the buyer's statement, to make the contract voidable at your choice.
It would be unreasonable to expect a buyer to go round with a measuring tape and check every minuscule detail, surely? The diameter of the circle of stud holes is 6mm larger than required. I don't know about you, but I can't discern a 6mm difference purely by sight of 2 items within a couple of feet of each other.
I relied on the size described being incorrect. The seller has already conceded that it was his mistake for not checking measurements properly.
the seller needs to stop being an idiot and just take them back.
He gets his wheels back and can sell them on to somebody who needs the PCD that the wheels are.
OP gets his money back. Everybodys a winner and the seller earns an expensive lesson (to the tune of the return carriage) to make sure of the description before you put it in an advert.
Quite so. If the size of the stud holes were a foot out, for example, it could be difficult to say it was truly a sale by description. 6mm is a different story. I think you would not have too much difficult persuading a court of your reliance (not that it should ever come to that).
There is no general requirement for customers to verify descriptions, as you say, with a tape measure or whatever else. You cannot very well measure something in OcUK's warehouse, for example, can you? Neither can you test an 'oven-proof' dish in Tesco to see if it is really oven-proof. You rely on the description being accurate.
The key point of s.13 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54/section/13) is that the sale is by description - s.13(1). It can still be so despite the goods being 'exposed for sale' and your selection of them - s.13(3).
As I said above, it depends on whether you relied on the description, which would it make it a 'sale by description'.
Obviously, do not place too much reliance on my or anyone else's advice either, since we are not in full possession of the facts (there are always further considerations, for example, whether you accepted the goods under s.35 - you need to tell the buyer you reject them before you do something inconsistent with his owning them, which it sounds like you have done), but hopefully making this iniquitous seller aware of your legal rights should spur him into action.