Bounced check on deposit and non-sale

[robyn]

I recently attempted to sell a motorcycle through the newspaper. I had a couple come look at the motorcycle and leave a $600 deposit in the form of a check. They said that the next day they would bring the rest of the money in cash and we would complete the sale. The next day I had ten calls on the ad and told all of them the bike was sold. But the couple never came back to complete the sale. I tried for four days to contact them by phone, leaving a message on their answering machine each time asking them to call me and let me know what was going on. After four days I left a message telling them if I did not hear from them by morning I was going to assume they still wanted the bike and I was going to cash the deposit check. Today I discovered that the check was written on a closed account. What can I do? I missed out on ten opportunities to sell the bike because I they agreed to purchase the bike that night. Now I still have the bike and no one to purchase it.

 

[Attorney_Replogle]

As I see it, you have a basic breach of contract matter here. It was an oral (verbal) contract. That is fine. The buyer broke the contract by not completing the purchase plus they gave you a check that was drawn on a closed account. The result is that 10 other potential buyers were turned away by the seller (you). Finally, the bike has still not been sold.

Your legal duty is to minimize your losses. The way you do that is to sell the bike as quickly as you can for as much as you can get. If you do sell it for the amount that the original buyer was to buy it at, then your loss on the entire transaction is really minimal. It would be the extra costs in placing ads for the bike, etc.

As to the check, I think that at most you might have a reason to sue them for attempted fraud. Yet your damages (how you were legally hurt) are minimal. You would have sold your bike by this time. That is the largest loss to you (the delayed sale).

The bottom line is that I personally don't see it as worth bothering about. If you do want to sell them, then you should take them to small claims court.

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Mark B. Replogle