I'm accused of selling a lemon!?!?

[beavye]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Indiana
I sold a guy my boat last week. The boat has always run perfectly. Before the sale, we test drove the boat together and it ran great and sounded perfect. When I opened it wide open, the temp gage went up a little, I slowed down and all was fine. After pulling the boat out of the water, we found the cooling intake to be covered with zebra muscles. We were both confident that that was causing the temp problem. I told the buyer that if something else like the water pump were causing the boat to overheat, I would ‘help him out’. We wrote up a sales contract and he purchased the boat. The contract said nothing at all about me being liable to cover damages. He called me the next day and said that it needs a whole new engine. He described many problems with the engine. I talked to a mechanic and was told that there is no way the boat would have run if all those problems existed, the buyer is either lying or did damage himself. The buyer contends that he has witnesses that can say that he never started the boat after it left my sight.
The buyer wants to take me to small claims court to pay for a completely rebuilt engine ($2700). I know that things were fine when it left, and I there is nothing written or implied regarding a warranty in our contract. Am I liable? Doesn’t he accept condition after test driving it? Doesn’t ‘caveat emptor’ prevail?
Thanks so much.

 

[jpritchett81]

I told the buyer that if something else like the water pump were causing the boat to overheat, I would ‘help him out’.

Was that "help him out" part stated in the sales agreement or was this only a verbal agreement?

 

[john123456]

I told the buyer that if something else like the water pump were causing the boat to overheat, I would ‘help him out’. We wrote up a sales contract and he purchased the boat. The contract said nothing at all about me being liable to cover damages.

Hopefully, the buyer is savvy enough to discover this post and have it admitted as evidence.

 

[beavye]

the thing is - these problems DID NOT EXIST when i sold the boat!! I've been running the boat for almost 3 years and there were NEVER any problems!! I did not and would NOT intentionally try to sell something that had problems!!

 

[djohnson]

I don't think he has a case. It's a used boat, he bought it as is, nothing written about a warranty. Even given your statement, you just said if it was the water pump, not a completely new engine. If he had doubts he should have checked it out before purchasing.