buyer pulls out of car sale do you keep deposit ?

[Box]

just question if your sold your car private to someone they pull out can you keep there deposit?

thanks

[ekcoupe]

yes u can

[CB7_OWNER]

personal preference

if you feel he wasted your time, wen you genuinely could have sold it, if you hadnt taken the deposit,, then keep it..

Just depends on you... i mean, does the dude look like he will cause trouble? if he inspected your car at your place. and knows where u live etc etc.. and u dont give the deposit backk.. he maybe get back at you.

[DLO01]

Depends on what the agreement was between you to. But generally 'yes' you do keep it.

[kcokla]

thats the general point of a deposit. - to hold something.

having said that, obviously there is discretion and general agreements that may of been made prior.

[Mr_will]

as above, depends very much on the agreement.

If it was me, in the absence of any specific arrangement, I'd refund it if I thought the buyer had a genuine reason and hadn't just been stupid/lazy/stuffed me around.

[beeza]

U know what's fair and what's not.

It comes down to the deal,how it was etc.

Like if he gave U a $500 deposit,U wouldn't keep it BUT if he gave U a $500 deposit and kept U waiting for 6 months,take the $500 by all means!!

So,it depends on the deal.U know what's fair.

I gave someone $100 deposit,I stuffed him around because after a week I cancelled on him.What was fair was for me to offer/give him $50 of that and he refund the other $50.That is what would have been fair in that circumstance.

But he decided to keep it all which I thought wasn't very nice. :)

[burak213]

ill give it back cause i'm a nice guy and if that happened to me i would hope they give back my deposit

[kcokla]

U know what's fair and what's not.

It comes down to the deal,how it was etc.

Like if he gave U a $500 deposit,U wouldn't keep it BUT if he gave U a $500 deposit and kept U waiting for 6 months,take the $500 by all means!!

So,it depends on the deal.U know what's fair.

I gave someone $100 deposit,I stuffed him around because after a week I cancelled on him.What was fair was for me to offer/give him $50 of that and he refund the other $50.That is what would have been fair in that circumstance.

But he decided to keep it all which I thought wasn't very nice. :)

as much as i agree it ' wasnt very nice ' i think that was fair.
simply because thats what a deposit is for. Obviously in your situation beeza, it would of been great if he was kind to give u the lot back, or even $50 - but, thats a deposit!




keeping the deposit or returning it/some of it comes down to ones agreements and how much of a 'nice ' guy you are.

[beeza]

EXACTLY!!

'keeping the deposit or returning it/some of it comes down to ones agreements and how much of a 'nice ' guy you are.'

THAT is exactly my point.

I was nothing but honest.That's why I got pissed off,cause obviously all that nice guy stuff did not matter with this guy,the money ruled.That's cool,lesson learnt!

[dougie_504]

Personally whenever I am selling a car I write out a receipt that says something along the lines of:

"I, Andrew *******, have received a non-refundable deposit of $100 from ****** ****** for the purchase one Honda blahblahblah, with an outstanding sum of $**** to be paid upon acquisition of a RWC.

Signed
___________
Andrew ****** (seller)

Signed
___________
****** ****** (buyer)"

This basically means that they've agreed to buy the car once I get a RWC, so I take a non-refundable deposit of $100 and use it to pay for a RWC check, then deduct that $100 from the principal when I deliver the car in exchange for the remainder of the money.

If they pull out, then I haven't wasted $100 getting a RWC which will expire in 30 days and be useless if somebody doesn't buy it within that time.
If I haven't paid for the RWC check yet and I believe that the person is pulling out of the deal for a reason that arouses my compassion then I'll return it.
But I think if they've wasted my time or are just messing me about, or even if I've had to take a day off work going down maybe $200 to meet them and show them the car...then screw it - it was agreed as non-refundable.


So take that into consideration, but it's up to you.

[TheSaint]

^^^^^^ +1

whenever i am doing private deals with large items i do the same ... cant be too careful these days!

[zropts]

Lets say a deposit is what you get paid for when spending your own time advertising your parts or car same as salesmen getting paid for commission or hrly wage in the car yard. No-one pays you for the hard yards you go through for that so you deserve the right to own the deposit!

If they pull out, think of it as the deposit had already gone to the advertising fees, petrol for a test drive, hourly wage you think you deserve, car wash & vacuum, detailing, rwc, wasted time talking and showing your car when you could have been delivering pizzas, having sex, watching Top Gear or replying to some dude's pm on here... now thats priceless right!

[EK1.6LCIV]

I would return the deposit, as I consider it a holding amount, but it never gets mentioned on a car ad (pending deposit left, blah blah etc etc), but if someone else comes with cash ready, the earlier party would get their money back. First in best dressed society I live in.

Most people I've sold cars to have been very reasonable and well mannered, even the old Nissan I had was an easy sale

[Troy]

but if someone else comes with cash ready, the earlier party would get their money back. First in best dressed society I live in.

Defeats the purpose of the deposit in the first place then, sounds like you shouldn't accept a deposit in the first place?

[EK1.6LCIV]

first in best dressed, always the case, they'd get the money back, this is the real world

deposit is such an old term, trust me if someone gave you a deposit to try and 'find' the money, then mr smith comes with x amount in cash you'd take it lol

as a private seller of anything you're not obligated legally to hold a damn thing at the end of the day

I've only needed to leave deposits on items that require legally a cooling off period, otherwise a straight point of sale would be the case and it'd be an instant payment

[Troy]

It's happened to me before, a guy gave me $500 cash deposit for a car I was selling, another guy turned up next day and had the full cash ready if he liked it and he did. So I rang the original guy and told him what's up, another guy here ready to buy, do I hold it for him? He said hold it please, he will be in tonight with the money.

And he was, for the record. It's the whole point of a deposit, it's a holding deposit. It just doesn't make sense that you'd even accept a deposit if you're not going to hold it for them.

In my case the guy just needed some time to hit up the bank for withdrawing the money in cash. Not everyone just carries around a few grand ready to go when they are hunting for a car.

Just my opinion.

Oooh another case in point, when I picked up my current Accord from a yard, I'd talked him down and everything and I said yeah I'll take it, just give me two days to get the money from the bank. He had buyers rock up *with the full amount cash* and he told them no it was already being held for someone. I did not give him a deposit or any other personal details, I did not sign any forms or anything. So +1 to him in my opinion.

[EK1.6LCIV]

cars are something people should generally have cash for, sell a bike and 9/10 the buyer pays for it in cash 15k in 50 dollar notes lol (takes ages to count)

[Troy]

It depends on the sale amount I guess, I bought my first car for $200 and I paid it in cash but other than that I've always had a bank cheque drawn up. Everyone knows a bank cheque is good, and it's a lot easier to manage/secure than carrying all that cash around.

$15k in 50 notes! LOL Won't catch me counting it anytime soon!!! Straight to the bank to deposit it and they can double check it with their experienced hands and fancy machines.