refund of deposit

[jldjld120749]

I agreed to purchase a used vehicle and left a deposit of �2000. I changed my mind and cancelled the order. There is nothing in the sales invoice I was given to state any terms regarding the deposit. I have been waiting for a month to see if they refund me. Am I entitled to have it back?

[saxy_jag]

A friend at work has just had the exact same problem, only he paid his deposit of �500 via his Barclaycard. Neither he nor the car salesman signed anything. He changed his mind that night and called the sales people the following morning. The car sales people insist that they told my friend the deposit was non-returnable, which he disputes. When he contacted his trade union legal services, they said he has no case, because the verbal agreement he entered into is still binding.

I think he's about take it up with the credit card company to see what they can do.

[buildersmate]

Why not try talking to trading standards? I suspect that you entered into a contract, one that you have now cancelled. If you are successful in claiming any money back it will be less any costs the company will claim in reselling the car to someone else.

[yummymummy]

As you are the one that broke the contract by cancelling, you are the one technically in the wrong. Saying that, the garage would only be able to keep a reasonable amount to cover out of pocket expenses or costs incurred by you cancelling. Depending on how long it has been between agreeing and cancelling and what the garage have done in this time, you could argue (probably quite succesfully) that keeping �2000 is unreasonable.

Most people don't realise there is no automatic cancellation period with the majority of sales in shops/garages etc.

[Catso]

Strictly speaking, no. A deposit is part of your undertaking the contract to purchase. It's sort of paying the vendor not to contiue trying to sell the car - he might have had another buyer interested, and had to turn them down.

As others have said, you have now broken that contract.

Having said that, �2000 is a lot of money and I think you should try to negotiate it down. If they won't budge, it is within their rights, but they're being rather unreasonable.