Sold a boat. need advice

[Kdugas]

To start from the begining.. 6 months ago I bought a 08 Cajun Speacial. It had a 04 Yahama 115 outboard motor. Now I dont know much about boats and bought this one from a friend. I took it out a few times and never had any problems. Yesterday I sold the boat for financial Reasons. The man came to my house and looked over the boat. He started it up and it ran fine. He didn't want to take it out on the water but wanted to buy it. Now today I get a call and he says the motor is messed up. Says he took it to his friend machanic and 2 cylinders are messed up. This is not something we were aware of. We had never had any issues. Now he wants his money back or he says he will sue me. The bill of sale has in bold capital letters AS IS NO WARRANTY. I do feel bad and want to help him somehow but I sold the boat because we needed the money. My question is can he sue me over this and win? We had no knowledge of anything being wrong. When he was at our house we told him we didnt know how many hours were on the motor and had never had any problems with it...

 

[alldodge]

First need to remember this is the USA and anyone can sue anyone for anything. A person can make something up and sue another. The point is they may sue, but does not mean they will win. All court fillings are at their cost

You sold it AS IS so no judge that I know of will let it go anywhere

The guy might be for real and has issues, but you sold in good faith and he did not want to try it out

It can also be a scam, where he has another motor of same type which is bad and has done a swap. Since you know nothing about a motor, he might just get away with it if you fall for the scam. Remember serial numbers and parts can be swapped

 

[82rude]

Tell buddy to take a hike.

 

[Kdugas]

Thank yall for responding. This has been very frustrating

 

[82rude]

Once that boat left your yard how do you know what he did with it?Could of loaded it up with bad gas,might of taken it home and hooked up muffs and reved the hell out of it and destroyed it that way .Or as ive seen tons of times ran it without water period.

 

[tpenfield]

It’s now his boat and your money. Keep it that way. . .

 

[Scott Danforth]

The bill of sale has in bold capital letters AS IS NO WARRANTY.

if he signed the BOS, then he does not have a leg to stand on. keep your money, tell the guy to pound sand.

 

[briangcc]

To echo everyone else, he owns it, his problem. No telling what happened between the time it left your property and it went to his "mechanic".

To me, you represented the boat as best as possible and it's his fault for not taking it for a test ride.

 

[Leardriver]

Suing someone isn't necessarily about winning, it can be about financially ruining someone, or getting them to settle.

Now, when I sell something, I stand behind it. It is my way of trying to do things better than have been done to me. Not for months, but if something breaks in a week or two, or the first time they use it, I'm going to help solve the problem with my wallet. I have lots of money, I can't buy more honor.

 

[alldodge]

Humm going down that road
Someone buys an OB and they run it dry, it overheats, and they get their money back, because all that was said is it over heated the first time used

That said we are only hearing one side of the story

 

[Leardriver]

Exactly. I would want to do some investigating.

 

[Silvertip]

I may have told this story before but here goes. First, I agree with "investigate" the circumstances as it can help in court. Here is my similar story. Sold a boat to my neighbors boss. Just a 60hp runabout - nothing special. A couple months later my neighbor asks if there was something wrong with the transom on that boat? My response was why do you ask? Well he says -- transom busted! And? Well my boss thinks you should pay to have it repaired. Not a chance. You knew the boat and have been on it several times. About a month passes and my neighbor shows up with the repaired boat. Look what a nice job the shop did repairing it. Cool. I peered over the side to see the engine laying in the boat. My eyes are immediately drawn to the prop as I suspected something was up. I asked who was driving the boat when this happened? Bosses son was the answer. My reply was that the son did not tell Dad the true story. Why do you say that? My response was look at the damned prop -- it's folded over and didn't even resemble a prop. Case closed. Don't know what he hit or at what speed but in this case I had uncovered the truth. Admit nothing and let them dig their own hole.

 

[ButchGood]

Once that boat left your yard how do you know what he did with it?Could of loaded it up with bad gas,might of taken it home and hooked up muffs and reved the hell out of it and destroyed it that way .Or as ive seen tons of times ran it without water period.

Running it without water was the first thing I thought.

 

[roffey]

I would love to hear the outcome of the deal and more specifically what is wrong with the motor that would cause the new owner to want his money back. I am assuming low compression maybe? Price of boat sold would be good information along with has the new owner taken it out on the water and was it a marine shop who looked at it? questions questions and more questions,

 

[alldodge]

Were going down a rabbit hole but;

We can discuss honor, integrity and other, but it still comes down to the understanding of the two people in the transaction. A straight up transaction where person (P) 1 says to P2, this is as-is and had full disclosure, yet P2 would not do due diligence, then the deal is done. no one held anything back, all was in the open, and stuff just happens

I would feel bad, and may feel bad enough to try and make the things eiser, but under no obligation to do so. Has nothing to do with money, just sometimes stuff happens. Same thing might have happened if P2 spent two days testing prior to buying.

My brother in law was getting a divorce and came to me with stuff he didn't want, said keep it, it yours. I say I'll just keep in for you until your ready. He says (yada, yada) I don't want it and never want it back, 3 times. What happens 6 years later, hey I would like my stuff back :facepalm: So not getting into all the stuff, but I gave him back the stuff, along with some improvements, and I didn't even get a thanks. He is an engineer for Honda jet and just a self absorbed cheap piece of crud.

 

[roffey]

If you had the money and it was not needed that's one story, if you got the cash for the boat as the OP said he needed the cash due to financial difficulties he has likely spent some it or has put it to use else where and is no longer available. You said it AllDodge , buyer did not do due diligence and seller was willing to do water test. My feeling is once the boat left the driveway the deal was done.

Take it to Judge Judy, and tell me when the episode goes to air, lol. Ive made my ruling, NEXT!!

 

[madsonp]

I would suggest you talk to the individual about taking it to a different mechanic to look it over and determine what happened, it the mechanic determines it was run dry or over rev'ed for example, that would put the blame on the individual. You never know, after suggesting this to him, he might realize it would potentially expose his lies (if that were the case) and just give up on pursuing it any further.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I would suggest you talk to the individual about taking it to a different mechanic to look it over and determine what happened, it the mechanic determines it was run dry or over rev'ed for example, that would put the blame on the individual. You never know, after suggesting this to him, he might realize it would potentially expose his lies (if that were the case) and just give up on pursuing it any further.

Why, Bill of Sale was As Is, no warranty. Any inquirery would be an admission of guilt. So what is the point?

 

[tpenfield]

In terms of hearing out the buyer, you might want to see what he has to say, but that's about it.

As 'we' understand it, he bought the boat "As Is, No Warranty" (which is typical for a private sale) and the next day 'his mechanic friend' says 2 cylinders are "messed up".

I am not sure what "messed up" means from a technical perspective?

Not sure what prompted the buyer to bring the boat to a mechanic?

In the 1-day, it is not certain what the buyer may have done to the boat/motor that would cause it to be "messed up".

As the others have stated, technically "As Is, No Warranty", puts the burden on the buyer to have done diligence. He accepted the boat as is. So, even if something was wrong, he accepted it.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Time to call Judge Judy? I would, a free trip to L.A. And she will shame the guy for millions to see. AS IS is exactly that. I wouldn't lose any sleep over the guys threats. All he could do is hope you are someone that would cave and he gets his money back. No way, no how. Enjoy the New Year.