A used car sale over Facebook Marketplace took a sour turn when the buyer decided to sue the seller for thousands in repairs.
Gilles Decruyenaere purchased a user Mazda from Connor Sawatsky in 2023 and said that the car had mechanical issues that Sawatsky failed to disclose before selling it. Decruyenaere said that the problems meant the car was unfit to drive.
During the sale, Decruyenaere had test-driven the car and asked about issues related to the carâs air conditioning, which Sawatsky shared would need a recharge. According to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunalâs documents, Sawatsky also said the carâs brakes âhave life but may need to be bled.â
Decruyenaere bought the car for $2,500 on the day of the test drive and elected not to have it inspected by a mechanic beforehand. However, he took the vehicle to a mechanic a few days later and found that the air conditioner compressor and brakes needed replacing and that a new car battery was required.
He decided to sue for the cost of the repairs but limited his claim to the $2,500 purchase price.
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The court assessed his claim through three factors that could act as legal exceptions to the buyerâs beware principle: negligent misrepresentation, breach of warranty, and failure to disclose a known latent defect.
Decruyenaere was unsuccessful in proving negligent misrepresentation as the court noted Sawatsky had âexpressly statedâ that there were problems with the air conditioner and brakes. While the problems were more extensive than either party realized during the sale, the court highlighted that Sawatsky was not a mechanic and did not have the expertise to know the extent of the issues.
Since Sawatsky had alerted Decruyenaere about the issues, the same reasoning was used to dismiss the argument that the buyer had failed to disclose a known latent defect.
Unfortunately for Decruyenaere, the breach of warranty argument also failed. Sawatsky had been driving the car for over a year without any issues, and the court found that this was uncontested evidence that the car was roadworthy at the time of sale and reasonably durable despite its 16-year age and 225,000-kilometre mileage.
Decruyenaereâs claims for repairs were dismissed, as were Sawatsky’s claims for dispute-related expenses, in which he alleged that he missed work to participate in the dispute.