Negligent Mechanical Work on a Bike Purchased on Craigslist
My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: Washington
I just bought a bike on craigslist. I know it's an as-is thing but the guy had the engine apart and never said anything, no big deal, but when I had the bike for 2 days it broke down on the side of the freeway. I missed a day of work due to this. On inspection I saw that the cam chain tensioner had come completely off so it was obvious he just never got the bolts tight from the get go. I confronted him about it and he's denying it. However I have a few threds on an online forum where he specifically stated that he had the bike apart so he's obviously lying. Now if something just broke two days later, yeah that sucks and it's not his fault. It was purchased as-is and I get that. However this failed due to negligence on his part not getting the botls tight and now the engine has to come apart to fix it. Is there anything I can do to recoup the funds legally?
Re: Negligent Mechanical Work on a Bike Purchased on Craigslist
You can sue him and try to convince the court that despite buying the motorcycle "as is", the seller committed fraud by representing that he had never taken the engine apart. The thing is, he may claim that he told you that.
Re: Negligent Mechanical Work on a Bike Purchased on Craigslist
I have all our texts of him claiming he didn't touch the bike, and I have all the threads on the online forum showing him talking about doing all the work. Now he's claiming it was his friends bike he was talking about on the forum but nowhere does he mention that.
If he lied about it after the sale does it matter? Or if I can prove he said that it just all of a sudden started backfireing on decell, yet I found out it started that after he worked on it and he did tell me about the backfireing but lied about the cause prior to the sale would that work? He's appearing to be willing to help pay for some but I have yet to see any money. So I want to see what my options are if it comes to that.