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Is This Deposit Refundable?

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lrd97

Junior Member
My state is Idaho.

Hi,

I was selling a motorcycle on eBay and had a local buyer offer me cash for the bike. The offer was less that my eBay reserve but I decided to take the offer anyway. I ended the auction early after the buyer test rode the bike and promised to bring me $11,000 cash. He showed up to buy the bike but only brought $2500.00 cash. I wrote up a bill of sale and at the bottom wrote "$2500.00 deposit paid, bike and title to be delivered when remaining $8500.00 is paid". This was a Monday night... he promised to return Thursday.

He then left the country. I held on to the deposit and the bike. About 5-6 weeks later I received a voice mail from him stating that he didn't know a time frame when he would be back and to go ahead and sell the bike. I took the bike to a local car dealer and put it on consignment. (I figured if he came back he could still pay the $8500 and buy it). After almost two months of being on consignment I decided to put the bike back on eBay and it sold for $10,600.

He showed up about a week later and now wants $2100 of the $2500 back. (because it sold for $400.00 less) One concern is this... I was selling the bike to pay for landscaping my yard... it would have sold in the first place on eBay but I decided to let him buy it. Because of the 3+ months lost waiting for him to come home I had to finance the landscaping on a credit card and paid it off when the bike finally sold. I told him I thought $1500 was a fair refund but it would take awhile to get it. Now only 5 weeks after he returned he is threating to sue me for the $2100 (after agreeing that $1500 was a fair refund).

So my question is... how much, if any of this deposit will I be required to refund if we go to court? Again... the contract did not specify anything about the deposit being "refundable" or "non-refundable".
 



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