Or selling for that matter....

[Freeley]

Hi all I was wondering what the protocol was for taking a deposit when selling a California?
Firstly how much would be considered sufficient? £2k?
And would you take the deposit as a firm commitment to buy, with it only being refundable if the van wasn't "as described" ie if the buyer turns up to look at it and just changes his mind would you be within your rights to keep the deposit bearing in mind the time the van has been off sale.
Cheers.


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[Max-Felix]

Hi all I was wondering what the protocol was for taking a deposit when selling a California?
Firstly how much would be considered sufficient? £2k?
And would you take the deposit as a firm commitment to buy, with it only being refundable if the van wasn't "as described" ie if the buyer turns up to look at it and just changes his mind would you be within your rights to keep the deposit bearing in mind the time the van has been off sale.
Cheers.


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Personally I would give no more than £500 if a deposit over the phone. And the price agreed on the phone and deposit would 100% be subject to return if the van was not as described when going to view. If you are a buyer through who is worried that the seller can sell very easily then you want to play down this aspect (ie if not as described).

If (and ideally) you are going to view first and you agree a deal face to face then a larger deposit may be applicable but again I would always keep this as low as possible. Certainly no more than £1000 cash or mobile transfer but £500 should be enough.

As a buyer I would, before shaking hands, insist that the van is taken off the market too.

Having said that I have bought or sold a vehicle about 15 times in the last three years and all have been a pleasure to conduct. Most people are perfectly reasonable and deals go smoothly.

 

[2into1]

I think it depends on the time gap between the offer and viewing, and then viewing to completion......

If I'm selling and someone wants to travel the length of the country to buy, then £500 bank transfer 'refundable if not as described' is plenty if they come next day or very soon. You are basically granting them first refusal and showing to them that they are not wasting a long and expensive trip.

If someone agrees to buy after viewing first, then a chunkier deposit is sensible, but I doubt any more than £1k could be justified. If it falls through, you are trying to compensate yourself for lost time and money in finding a new buyer.....it would be hard to justify to a court that a figure like £2k was reasonable, although as summer draws to a close, time is money.

 

[Gasgas]

How about first come first served no deposit.. sorts the job out pretty quickly.

 

[Jay586]

I sold my car on motors.com, guy came 4 hours up the road to view it and drove off with it once we'd agreed everything. Given that ownership and tax can be transferred immediately, I would rather do that than faff with deposits. I can see the argument for a deposit prior to viewing but it does rely on reasonableness and goodwill from both parties.

I suspect the deposit amount must also be "reasonable", as defined in law.

 

[Gasgas]

If it was the norm to take a car out of the market with a refundable deposit, then in theory you could put 3/4 deposits down say 2k in total, view 4 vehicles over a weekend buy one of them and cancel 3 leaving 3 disappointed owners who may have been able to sell to somebody else in the same period.

It is a much cleaner transaction and more incentive for the purchaser to view quickly, if you say no offence but it is in your interest to get to see the vehicle asap and no deposits just full payment. I know this may seem blunt or unreasonable but in my experience keeping it simple or Black and White as I would put it does removes any grey area

 

[Freeley]

Thanks for all the comments they're very helpful!
Slight deception on my part as I'm selling my T6 Transporter rather than my California but I haven't sold a vehicle properly for over 15 years, they've all gone to friends or family so I'm not really up to speed with how to go about it.
I've got a potential buyer through Gumtree who says he wants it and we've agreed a price but we're in a bit of a chain situation as the chap who's buying his can't give him a deposit until his is sold, my buyer has offered a deposit but not until he gets his.
Might all turn out to be a waste of time of course but wanted to check what the procedure was.
Thanks all.

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[2into1]

If it was the norm to take a car out of the market with a refundable deposit, then in theory you could put 3/4 deposits down say 2k in total, view 4 vehicles over a weekend buy one of them and cancel 3 leaving 3 disappointed owners who may have been able to sell too somebody else in the same period.

It is a much cleaner transaction and more incentive for the purchaser to view quickly, if you say no offence but it is in your interest to get to see the vehicle asap and no deposits just full payment. I know this may seem blunt or unreasonable but in my experience keeping it simple or Black and White as I would put it does removes any grey area

I don't think anyone was suggesting the deposit was refundable.
I personally would not set off on a 300 mile journey worrying that i may get a call to say it's sold when I'm just ten minutes away. And I wouldn't expect a buyer of my van to do so. I sold my t4 to a guy that flew up from Cornwall to Manchester, and I took a train up to Stirling to buy my t5. Both were after holding deposits which were only refundable if the vans weren't as described (all defects named / photographed).
Yep there is potential for things to get messy, but I think the three of us could sense we were dealing with straight forward blokes, and it all went swimmingly.

 

[amountainhigh]

On the flip side, are buyers agreeing a price including any negotiation (and then agreeing a deposit) over the phone BEFORE having seen the vehicle?

I’ve always had company cars so never bought second-hand before. With it seemingly being a sellers market and people placing deposits over the phone are buyers finding there is scope for negotiating over the price on private sales?

 

[Gasgas]

You suggested that the deposit was refundable in your first post ?

 

[Kevthegas]

Thanks for all the comments they're very helpful!
Slight deception on my part as I'm selling my T6 Transporter rather than my California but I haven't sold a vehicle properly for over 15 years, they've all gone to friends or family so I'm not really up to speed with how to go about it.
I've got a potential buyer through Gumtree who says he wants it and we've agreed a price but we're in a bit of a chain situation as the chap who's buying his can't give him a deposit until his is sold, my buyer has offered a deposit but not until he gets his.
Might all turn out to be a waste of time of course but wanted to check what the procedure was.
Thanks all.

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I sold my T5.1 Kombi a couple of weeks ago on Ebay within 12 hrs. I did a walk around of the van with the iphone sent him loads of videos, he paid me £600 by bank transfer and £26k direct to Vwfs before meeting me or seeing the van in the flesh. Easiest van sale I have ever done, the guy was a Traveller, but the nicest guy ever to deal with.

 

[Cumbrian_Cali]

When selling , how do you receive the final lump payment which is "safe" for both the seller and the buyer?

 

[andyinluton]

When selling , how do you receive the final lump payment which is "safe" for both the seller and the buyer?

I've just sold a £50k vehicle privately (not the cali) & I spoke to the finance co & bank first for a recommendation as to what to do.

We ended up with the car parked outside the bank, both went in, he filled in 2 CHAPS transfer forms, one for the finance co and one for the balance to me, I checked the forms to confirm the account numbers etc were correct. The cashier then confirmed to me that there was sufficient funds in the buyers account to cover the payments & took the forms to the backroom team to process.

We filled in the V5 handed over documents etc. Half an hour later the cashier confirmed that the transfer had been made & was irreversible, the buyers online banking showed the payment had left his account.
At that point I handed over the keys receipt etc and said goodbye.
The whole process was filmed on the banks cctv.

We couldn't think of a safer way that protected both of us. The only thing we did consider was me parking the car at his house where he could block it in & me not handing over keys V5 etc until funds had cleared.


I felt as comfortable as you can be considering the amount at risk. I am always a bit nervous in these situations having had in the past a dealer not settling the finance on a trade in car & also had a main dealers salesman pocketing a £5k cash deposit - he issued a receipt out of his own receipt book.