IANAL, but that doesn't sound enforceable to me.

`IANAL`?

What part do you think isn't enforceable?

I don't want this to turn into just about my situation, so apologies if it appears that way.

Below is the actual wording on the contract I signed...so as you can see the best outcome would be a return of £1000.00 of my deposit, the worst...er...well who knows!

Regards

Mike.

 

Cancellation / Withdrawal

If you fail to take and pay for the vehicle within 21 days of notification that the vehicle is ready for delivery, we will treat the contract as cancelled. In the event of cancellation, we will refund any deposit made by you but we reserve the right to retain a proportion of the deposit against expenses to be incurred by us in finding another buyer for the vehicle.

In the event that you wish to withdraw for some other reason, we will be entitled to retain a proportion of your deposit until we have found another buyer for the vehicle.

We will display the vehicle for sale at out premises, we may also advertise it as being for sale and if not sold within a reasonable period we may arrange for it to be sold at auction. Following its sale, we will calculate our actual losses and the costs we have incurred in reselling the vehicle. An itemised account will be sent to you with any balance due within 7 days of the date the vehicle is resold. Copies of any receipts will be provided if you request them.

I don't want this to turn into just about my situation, so apologies if it appears that way.

Below is the actual wording on the contract I signed...so as you can see the best outcome would be a return of £1000.00 of my deposit, the worst...er...well who knows!

Regards

Mike.

Cancellation / Withdrawal

If you fail to take and pay for the vehicle within 21 days of notification that the vehicle is ready for delivery, we will treat the contract as cancelled. In the event of cancellation, we will refund any deposit made by you but we reserve the right to retain a proportion of the deposit against expenses to be incurred by us in finding another buyer for the vehicle.

In the event that you wish to withdraw for some other reason, we will be entitled to retain a proportion of your deposit until we have found another buyer for the vehicle.

We will display the vehicle for sale at out premises, we may also advertise it as being for sale and if not sold within a reasonable period we may arrange for it to be sold at auction. Following its sale, we will calculate our actual losses and the costs we have incurred in reselling the vehicle. An itemised account will be sent to you with any balance due within 7 days of the date the vehicle is resold. Copies of any receipts will be provided if you request them.

Best case scenario should be your deposit - all of it (demand proof of this £500 fee for ordering a car?!), worst case scenario is losing £1500, I.e. All of your deposit. And NOTHING FURTHER.

Let me stress again mate, you owe them nothing else. Your deposit of £1500 may be gone... But nothing else.

Thanks for your input, `Dilz`. 

The £500.00 fee is what they call a `Detag` fee for cancelling the car after its been accepted by the factory. Its imposed by Skoda on the ordering dealership.

I am at risk of paying it under the `costs incurred by the dealership in reselling the car` clause.

You're more than welcome. I just personally had to go through the potential of cancelling my order too so was very thorough in researching it and didn't like the idea of you being forced to pay more than your deposit Mike!

Rest assured, worst case is only going to be losing £1500 and not a penny more.

You're more than welcome. I just personally had to go through the potential of cancelling my order too so was very thorough in researching it and didn't like the idea of you being forced to pay more than your deposit Mike!

Rest assured, worst case is only going to be losing £1500 and not a penny more.

I do hope you're right.

I'll try to let you know how it all pans out.

Regards

Mike.

I am not so sure with vehicle purchases. At the moment you pay a deposit and sign the order form then you have contracted to purchase. If you then cancel you are in breach of contract and the seller will have the right to recover any losses they may suffer. If you look carefully at the contracts we have all signed at some point you will see that your only course for cancellation without costs is usually around time delays beyond the estimated deleivery date at the time of order. Even that is not universally common especially when dealing thru brokers!

 

The seller has a duty to mitigate any losses to the best of their ability but nonetheless have that right to reclaim any from you as the defaultor. Many vehicle purchase contracts have a clause that outlines how they attempt to mitigate as you have shown in your posts.

 

So, I would suggest you get some legal advice to confirm your liability. Especially as it appears that they could have cancelled the order (and maybe still can?) at a cost of £500 at the time you wanted to cancel. Maybe the legal advice would agree that you should write to the dealer asking why when the car hasn't yet been built they did not cancel the order with the factory to limit any loss to the alleged £500 cancellation charge. That would seem to be a mitigation measure they could have taken and haven't. 

 

Sorry to say, however, that you are liable to cover any reasonable losses they incur as a result of your breach of the contract. I am no lawyer but am pretty certain that is where you are  :(

Sorry to say, however, that you are liable to cover any reasonable losses they incur as a result of your breach of the contract. I am no lawyer but am pretty certain that is where you are  :(

 

That was my initial thought too, but with the clear mention in the clause of 'proportion of your deposit' and that they would itemise the costs in selling the vehicle and send Mike the balance (if any left over from his £1500 deposit) after a successful sale of the car, it makes sense that it is only his Deposit at risk. There is no mention of a way to, or mechanism generally that comes to mind, enforce Mike to pay anything further. It's simply them taking control of his deposit and telling him how they will, if at all, pay it back on cancellation/withdrawal. Sort of like a glorified explanation of why it is simply 'non-refundable' in other dealerships, like mine.

 

Please do seek legal advise if you can @mandp as my legal knowledge is only as far as postgraduate level, but upon a reasonable construction of the meaning of that clause (albeit in isolation, of course), and through general practice for buying made-to-order vehicles, I'm quite confident that your deposit is your only risk.

Edited 12 January, 201610 yr by Dilz

I am not so sure with vehicle purchases. At the moment you pay a deposit and sign the order form then you have contracted to purchase. If you then cancel you are in breach of contract and the seller will have the right to recover any losses they may suffer. If you look carefully at the contracts we have all signed at some point you will see that your only course for cancellation without costs is usually around time delays beyond the estimated deleivery date at the time of order. Even that is not universally common especially when dealing thru brokers!

 

The seller has a duty to mitigate any losses to the best of their ability but nonetheless have that right to reclaim any from you as the defaultor. Many vehicle purchase contracts have a clause that outlines how they attempt to mitigate as you have shown in your posts.

 

So, I would suggest you get some legal advice to confirm your liability. Especially as it appears that they could have cancelled the order (and maybe still can?) at a cost of £500 at the time you wanted to cancel. Maybe the legal advice would agree that you should write to the dealer asking why when the car hasn't yet been built they did not cancel the order with the factory to limit any loss to the alleged £500 cancellation charge. That would seem to be a mitigation measure they could have taken and haven't. 

 

Sorry to say, however, that you are liable to cover any reasonable losses they incur as a result of your breach of the contract. I am no lawyer but am pretty certain that is where you are  :(

Thank you.

My understanding though is that as soon as the factory has received the order the order CANNOT be cancelled.

The £500.00 is something different and I'm hoping that it will be the maximum I have to pay...but I'm not confident of that.

You need to look at the terms you agreed to when you signed the order.

There is a cooling off period in some cases, if you ordered at a distance and contract was sent to you, I think you have 7 or 14 days to cancel with no penalty.

Is there a cancellation clause, what does it say ? If this clause states fee of X then that is payable, or forfeit Y deposit then that is what you agreed to do. Might be a sliding scale depending on time or build status.

Did you make the order conditional in any way (eg does it say something, or did you add in handwriting) along the lines of delivery to be by xx date. If conditions aren't met, contract isn't fulfilled fully.

If the contract cant be fulfilled then it will need to be unwound, either mutually (you both agree to end it, with each side walking away subject to X) or a one sided request which compensates the other party to value Y (which may be pre-defined in a cancellation clause)

There are a couple of other potential endings. Force majure (basically it cant happen due to outside events, eg civil unrest or flooding of factory etc) and a post delivery rejection (faulty that cant be rectified quickly) where you hand it back under consumer rights law.

Outside the contract is there some form of estimate that was used as an implied term (probably a delivery term), did dealer say (better evidence if it is written or on an email) that would be approx. zz weeks. If this misled you (and a reasonableness test would need to be applied, a 10% error would be ok, getting it wrong by 6 months wouldn't be reasonable) then would have a strong case to void the contract.

Can't be more specific without knowing the contract terms.

You need to look at the terms you agreed to when you signed the order.

There is a cooling off period in some cases, if you ordered at a distance and contract was sent to you, I think you have 7 or 14 days to cancel with no penalty.

Is there a cancellation clause, what does it say ? If this clause states fee of X then that is payable, or forfeit Y deposit then that is what you agreed to do. Might be a sliding scale depending on time or build status.

Did you make the order conditional in any way (eg does it say something, or did you add in handwriting) along the lines of delivery to be by xx date. If conditions aren't met, contract isn't fulfilled fully.

If the contract cant be fulfilled then it will need to be unwound, either mutually (you both agree to end it, with each side walking away subject to X) or a one sided request which compensates the other party to value Y (which may be pre-defined in a cancellation clause)

There are a couple of other potential endings. Force majure (basically it cant happen due to outside events, eg civil unrest or flooding of factory etc) and a post delivery rejection (faulty that cant be rectified quickly) where you hand it back under consumer rights law.

Outside the contract is there some form of estimate that was used as an implied term (probably a delivery term), did dealer say (better evidence if it is written or on an email) that would be approx. zz weeks. If this misled you (and a reasonableness test would need to be applied, a 10% error would be ok, getting it wrong by 6 months wouldn't be reasonable) then would have a strong case to void the contract.

Can't be more specific without knowing the contract terms.

Thank you, John. Sounds like you know what you're talking about.

This part of this thread started at `Hash 21` and the bit I signed when ordering is at `Hash 27`.

Thanks for your interest.

Regards

Mike.