Sold as Seen

I was recently reading about a private seller who had sold their car. The sales process was somewhat involved, as the eventual buyer drove and tested the car a number of times, both on his own and with a relative. A deal was eventually agreed, and the car was paid for and driven away.

A few months later, the seller received a lengthy letter from the buyer, explaining that they were now unhappy with the car and wanted to return it. The seller, a complete novice to selling cars, replied to the letter. There ensued a lengthy to and fro of correspondence, which caused no end of stress and ended acrimoniously.

Millions of used cars change hands every year in Britain, and most deals pass without further consequence. But troublesome deals are more common than you might think. Buyers insist that they have rights in private sales, a misconception compounded by some popular online auction sites, where site owners are incorrectly insisting that private sellers are subject to distance selling regulations.

The fact is, if you are a private seller, caveat emptor rules the day. It is up to the buyer to do their homework before agreeing to a sale. To ensure that the buyer is completely aware of this, private sellers should always draw up a receipt detailing their transaction. Nothing says “good luck with the car but never darken my door again” more than a receipt, signed and dated by both buyer and seller featuring the words: “sold as seen, tried, tested and approved”.

A receipt that can be retained by both parties as a record of the transaction might seem a no-brainer, but it is something countless private parties at all price points fail to produce; a friend selling his £30,000 sports car recently asked whether I thought he should write up a receipt. A receipt need not be an offensive document that will spoil the sale, it can just be a simple statement of the facts, which in this case would be:

I am the seller of this car. It is mine to sell and there is no outstanding finance on it. This is my address and this is my phone number. I am selling the car on this date for this amount of money, which has today been paid in full and in cash. The car is sold with no warranty expressed or implied and as seen, tried, tested and approved by the buyer. The buyer is this person of this address and I have been using this phone number to contact them. The car is leaving my ownership at this time today.

The information should be altered where appropriate. All the details should be written out in duplicate. Both copies should then be signed and dated by both parties, and buyer and seller should retain a copy each. Should there subsequently be any comeback over any of the terms and conditions of sale, it is very easy to refer to the hard evidence of the facts surrounding the deal.

For private sellers, a receipt is absolutely essential. Never let a vehicle leave your property without first obtaining a signed, timed and dated receipt which can be referred back to at any stage in the future.