Deposit?

Just a little story to prove that strange things happen when selling your van. We were heading down to Dorset from Kent to look at an A class motorhome as we wanted to upgrade our Elddis 155. The dealership had in principle offered a part exchange price for our van. This was a Sunday afternoon and were about to pass a motorhome dealership on route, we decided to pull in and have a mooch around the vans for sale. The dealership was supposed to be open but was shut, we wandered around anyway. We started talking to another couple also wandering around looking at Motorhomes. They asked us if we were selling our van and told them what we were about to do. I took him for a test drive, he offered the price I was offered by the dealership and accepted. He said he would pay in pound notes there and then! If we would drive it to their home. Declining their offer as we had still to empty our possessions and gaslow kit from the van. The next day I drove the van followed by my wife in the car to their home, where indeed we were paid in folding money all cosher. We never did buy an A class instead we bought an Auto Trail Tracker RB.
 
Lots of forged Bankers Drafts around.

Personally I would not accept a Bankers Draft as 1) forged ones around and 2) I wouldn't know how to check if it were genuine or not.

I agree.

Personally for such a large sale I'd be wanting to be in the buyers bank with them when any transaction was made, so that the bank can categorically state that the money will go through and is safe.
 
Won a few pounds on the Premium Bonds last month and decided to treat my Nephew to a brand new Motorhome for his Birthday (y)

The seller was perfectly happy to accept a Paypal transfer for the WHOLE amount!

Delivered this morning. If you want a photo of which one he got, got a piccy here


(Mr Bezos is very trusting) 🤡
 
paid for current m/home with cash went to look at it test drove it it all seemed right left someone sat in my lift over to see it ,done the deal and she said do you want to do bank transfer or cash if i drive you to the bank tommorow as banks where shut went to the car got a lidlss carrier bag walked back into house and counted it out on kitchen worktop she looked shocked
Good way of letting the wider world know you keep cash in your home silly boy young hipster. 😉😉
 
Won a few pounds on the Premium Bonds last month and decided to treat my Nephew to a brand new Motorhome for his Birthday (y)

The seller was perfectly happy to accept a Paypal transfer for the WHOLE amount!

Delivered this morning. If you want a photo of which one he got, got a piccy here


(Mr Bezos is very trusting) 🤡
That’s the kind we bought our grandson for Christmas!! He was over the moon with it
 
Won a few pounds on the Premium Bonds last month and decided to treat my Nephew to a brand new Motorhome for his Birthday (y)

The seller was perfectly happy to accept a Paypal transfer for the WHOLE amount!

Delivered this morning. If you want a photo of which one he got, got a piccy here


(Mr Bezos is very trusting) 🤡
Hmmm you got me there....after reading first few words..........my thoughts were ..must get some premium bonds........then the penny dropped when i read buying it for your nephew............im a bit slow today...eh
 
Hmmm you got me there....after reading first few words..........my thoughts were ..must get some premium bonds........then the penny dropped when i read buying it for your nephew............im a bit slow today...eh
Actually Premium Bonds DID pay for my own full sized Motorhome as well :D



But only by cashing them in, not the prize money (in fact, the prize money has dropped right off as got a lot less bonds now going in the monthly draws :( )
 
We have a wedge in PBs as well. I won 50 quid last month (normally its 25 here and there) much to Mrs GMJ's chagrin as she holds more in her name than I do in mine.

We also use them as holding dosh for when we need/want to upgrade the MH
 
Will probably buy a bunch more tomorrow (before the month ends* ) from Clarences sale to make small amends after the Motorhome withdrawl.



*Any bought only go in the draw after they have been owned a full calendar month - so buy some tomorrow - May 31st - and they will be in the July Draw. Buy them a day later - June 1st - and they won't be in the draw until August
 
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Won a few pounds on the Premium Bonds last month and decided to treat my Nephew to a brand new Motorhome for his Birthday (y)

The seller was perfectly happy to accept a Paypal transfer for the WHOLE amount!

Delivered this morning. If you want a photo of which one he got, got a piccy here


(Mr Bezos is very trusting) 🤡
Picture of one of those on our blog banner ... my best friends son had one. Sadly says he prefers tents.
 
What is sensible deposit to ask a.buyer for to secure our van?
Someone viewing tomorrow morning!
Going back to the original question, having just sold my Camper, what happened was the interested party did a £500 Deposit via Bank Transfer to reserve the van.
This was subject to a successful viewing and test drive. I stated in my for sale advert that a desposit was required and was refundable minus any costs incurred (so if paid via Paypal for example, the deposit would be returned minus the Paypal fees).
As a slight aside, I have looked into this area and there is no such thing legally as a non-refundable desposit. A seller can only retain what they have lost by when taking a deposit lost out on a subsequent sale - so if buyer A pays £500 for a £20k van and doesn't turn up, and Buyer B buys the van for £20k from the same advert, seller has not lost out and is legally obliged to return the £500 to buyer A even if they said it was non-refundable. Sellers terms do not trump the law.
Terms for the deposit was viewing to take place by the weekend. They actually clicked the "Buy it Now" button on eBay as well the evening they paid the deposit just to reiterate their interest!
Viewing Saturday Morning, test drive carried out by buyer. They took out insurance on the Camper before they came over in order to be able to drive the vehicle themselves (apparently there is an option to pay a small extra amount to allow a cancellation and get your premium back? not something I was aware of but handy for a buyer who is confident they are expecting to buy what they are coming to look at).
Saturday afternoon, deal was done and balance transferred. Money received instantly. They had previously been in touch with their bank to check about any transfer limits and pre-warned them that a fairly large transfer would be taking place. The bank logged that on their account in case of any 'fraud flags' coming up which often happens with atypical transfers.
Also some banks have quite a low transfer limit of just £10,000 a day - fine for just about anyone day to day, but not on the day you buy a motorhome!
This messed up a friend of mind who was selling his Autosleeper and the buyer could only do £10k transfers - leaving him over £30k short of the funds to pay for it :( Ended up in a not good or very friendly situation of the seller calling a taxi to send the buyer off to the Train Station to go back home a few hundred miles away! No sale and no doubt hurt feelings all round.

So that was my own run of events in the last few days anyway. All very straightforward.

What I also did was to delay doing the New Keeper Transfer for a day to allow the buyer to get home without worrying about tax (road tax is cancelled the instant the transfer is done, and the new buyer must get it taxed immediately, but sometimes that is not possible (I bought a T5 and after it was registered in my name the DVLA system would not let me tax it at all! I had to declare it as SORN first to 'reset' the tax and THEN tax it in the normal way))
 
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A bank transfer is the safest way to receive money.
New laws state once your bank has received it it's no longer reclaimable. Most banks will only do £20k while Lloyd's will do £25k. Or multiples of it.
 

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