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I am Steve lombard living in Velddrif on the West Coast. i

 
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  • Answered by:WCLawyer
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Customer Question

I am Steve lombard living in Velddrif on the West Coast. i bought a vehicle from a salesman working at a reputed dealership in Vredenburg on the 24/05/12
he came to my workplace and showed me a vehicle with a quotation on the dealerships letterhead and I filled in a offer to purchace form.
he took the relavant docs to the bank and informed me they need a deposit to do the transaction. i gave him R15000.00 cash and he issued me with a receipt with the dealerships brandname
after many delays including bom scares at my work place and the dealership i became frustrated and phoned his manager on the 22/06/12 to find out where the vehicle was that i purchased
He did not know anything about this deal and the salesman admitted that my deposit was applied for his personal use.
on the same day the manager promised to speak to to certain people and they would see that i get a vehicle
i visited him the lfollowing Monday and told me the dealership finance dept will contact me to do the neccecary paper work for the vehicle
I phoned a week later and he told me to make a case against the salesman who has
subsequently been arrested.
canIi lodge a criminal complaint against the dealership?

 

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Province: western cape

Submitted: 343 days and 20 hours ago.
Category: South Africa Law
Value: R 485
Status: CLOSED
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Expert:  WCLawyer replied343 days and 19 hours ago.

Good day.

1. When it goes to crime, it is a natural person type thing. In other words, the person who commits the crime is the one that is going to be charged with the crime and it makes sense, since it would firstly be impossible to send a business to jail and it would not be fair if, for instance, the cleaner is sent to jail for something one sales person did. So, the criminal charge will go against the criminal, not against the business.

2. You can, however, lay a civil claim against the company for the return of your money under the law of damages and the principle of vicarious liability. The latter merely means that employees are, under certain circumstances, responsible for the actions of their employees.

3. You have two options here:

(a) You can either go to an attorney and start legal proceedings against the business through the Magistrates Court for the full R 15 000. Chances are that they will pay on demand from an attorney, but if they do not, then this is going to be quite an expensive excersize. You will get some of your legal cost back, but not all. Typically, about two thirds would be claimable.

(b) You can write off R 3000 of your claim and use the Small Claims Court.

This is the cheapest and quickest way to collect a sum of under R 12 000. Nobody is allowed to use lawyers and the whole process will cost you about R 100.

The Small Claims Court is usually located at your local Magistrates Court and you should ask to speak to the Clerk of the Small Claims Court. They will assist you in issuing a letter of demand and then later a summons.

You will have to represent yourself on a date that will be given to you by the Clerk of the Court, however, this is normally after hours, which means that you do not need to take off work.

If you are satisfied with the quality of my service, please rate me between okay service and excellent service in order for me to get paid for my work. If not, please choose to reply to expert and put your further questions for my consideration.

Customer replied343 days and 19 hours ago.

is it possible to take him on his promise, because the dealership is hyundai with omnicar their holding co.which is also the holding co. of daitshu and the vehicle is a 4x4 daitsy terrios.i want them to give me a vehicle with no deposit and i will pay the rest of the finances

Accepted Answer

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Expert:  WCLawyer replied343 days and 19 hours ago.

It is possible to hold them to that and ask them to utilize the R 15 000 towards the deposit or the sale price, but I suggest you rather try and negotiate that as supposed to try and enforce it through legal action. If they are not willing to do that, rather try and get your money back, as that will be cheaper and easier to litigate on and then use that towards a deposit on a new vehicle at another dealership.

The choice, however, would remain yours on what you want to enforce through legal action.

Expert TypeAttorney
Category: South Africa Law
Pos. Feedback: 98.0 %
Accepts: 6831
Answered: 7/10/2012

Experience: L.LB, Civil and criminal litigation, contracts, labour and family law

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