a quick question

[confusedhuman]

Jurisdiction

Texas

Sold an individual a car. Title was clear in my name. He was aware the vehicle was not running. I was informed by a mechanic the distributor was needing to be replaced. I informed the buyer of that, and offered to help repair. After holding the vehicle for three months the day of sale happened. I signed the title, he signed the title. For the past couple of days I have been working on the vehicle to replace the distributor. Now the buyer is saying that if it doesn't run he just wants to hand me back the title and wants his money back. It was a cash deal.

 

[adjusterjack]

Sold an individual a car. Title was clear in my name. He was aware the vehicle was not running. I was informed by a mechanic the distributor was needing to be replaced. I informed the buyer of that, and offered to help repair.

Now you know why that was in incredibly bad idea.

You've given him a guarantee that the car will run right and you can bet he'll be back hassling you at every turn.

After holding the vehicle for three months the day of sale happened. I signed the title, he signed the title. For the past couple of days I have been working on the vehicle to replace the distributor. Now the buyer is saying that if it doesn't run he just wants to hand me back the title and wants his money back. It was a cash deal.

But not an "as is" cash deal.

You guaranteed the repair of the distributor.

Do whatever it takes to get it fixed so he can drive it out of there. You can't stall him for very long.

If you can't produce, in the next day or two, the running car that you guaranteed, then you would be wise to just rescind the deal and give him a refund.

Then don't ever make this kind of bonehead mistake again.

 

[Betty3]

Let's hope that it runs after you replace the distributor. You told him you would repair the vehicle. I don't blame him for wanting his money back if it doesn't run.

 

[C-Note]

Sold an individual a car. Title was clear in my name. He was aware the vehicle was not running. I was informed by a mechanic the distributor was needing to be replaced. I informed the buyer of that, and offered to help repair. After holding the vehicle for three months the day of sale happened. I signed the title, he signed the title. For the past couple of days I have been working on the vehicle to replace the distributor. Now the buyer is saying that if it doesn't run he just wants to hand me back the title and wants his money back. It was a cash deal.

So, did you offer to help repair the vehicle to the extent that it would run again or did you offer to repair/replace the distributor? If the buyer bought the car based on you replacing the distributor and it still won't run afterwards, he may not have cause to return the car. If you, in any way made the offer to repair the car so that it would run, in the deal to sell the car, and it doesn't run, you should take the car back.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

It's actually a question mark as to what the deal was between used car buyer and seller. Title has changed hands and legally the buyer is the owner of the vehicle. The OP is trying to say that he agreed to "help" the buyer with the replacement of the distributor and that there was no guarantee that the car would run or that the part would be replaced. He just offered to help with the replacement. I doubt that anyone would believe that this was story but who knows? The buyer paid in advance for the car and I don't know why anyone would do that without first seeing the car actually running. I wonder what the buyer would say. If it was as the seller states (where the repair of the car was not a condition of sale) the buyer would actually be stuck with the car. The transfer of car's title might support that position.

The takeaway for me is that if you are ever doing a deal - especially for a used car which you want to sell "AS IS" - you are best served with some type of paper agreement which has the signature of the buyer on it with all essential terms about the sale of the vehicle. While AS IS may be implied in many circumstances, it's not so clear in the context of used cars, especially when there are other circumstances (such as we have here) as well as the possibility of applicable state laws and lemon laws.