The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Horse Trailer is not what the man said it was

6K views 16 replies 13 participants last post by  Indyhorse 
#1 ·
After months of searching for a horse trailer I found one on Craigslist. After emailing the guy and talking with him on the phone he said that the horse trailer was hual ready. After looking at the trailer at his house I decided to purchase it. When I got it home and upon further inspection this horse trailer had rotten wood boards, the grooves in the metal frame for which the boards were held had rusted so bad they crumbled. I am not sure how this man thought this trailer was hual ready but it is not safe. I contacted him and told him what I had found and he said oh well too bad. So I have saved the emails and taken pictures of everything and I don't know if I have a case or not but I would like to take him to small claims court. I am not sure if GA lemon laws apply to horse trailers or not. Does anyone have any advise for me?
 
#2 ·
sorry for your misfortune
sounds like you got took, buying a used vehicle...
I doubt you have recourse?

now about rotten boards
my used trailor had some rot....
I bought a 3/4 inch piece of pressure treated plywood
and cut it to fit snugly in the floor.
It might not be the perfect fit, but it spans
the bad areas, and will give me a few more years use out
of a cheap used trailor
Good luck!
 
#3 ·
Well I know you are not supposed to use plywood as it does not let the water\urine run off and can make the flooring deteriorate faster. I don't have a problem replacing the wood planks. My problem was the guy said the trailer had minimal surface rust when that is not the fact. The trailer bottom is almost rusted completely off. There would be no support for any floor in that trailer. Also in his email he stated the floor were in good condition but I couldn't see htem at his house because the floor mats he had in there were nailed down with like 20 nails. When I got it home and pulled up all the nails the floor boards were rotten at the ends where the tongue meets the groove. If anything then I will have to have the whole bottom frame replaced and I am not quite sure how much that will cost.
 
#4 ·
Its pressure treated, so that it can handle moisture.
How much did you pay for this trailor?

if you have an email stating the floor is in good shape, and you can proove otherwise
then yes, you probably have a small claims case you can file. But that does not guarantee you will get your money, only a judgement in your favor...

The guy should be ashamed!
Horse trailor traders! Never trust em!
 
#12 ·
I paid 700 for it and I know that isn't a lot but to me it is. but yes I have saved all of his emails.
Ist of all a 700.00 trailer wouldn't get much. 2nd road worthy is different to different people, 3rd why did you wait until after you bought it to inspect it? It is an as is sale and you should have done your research before purchasing it. Sounds like these defects were obvious and not hidden
 
#6 ·
I have a feeling that you will find basically its "buyer beware"... I hate to say it, but you should have pulled the mats up before you bought it, if there was too much rust, then it was there when you bought it. I looked at many many trailers before we found ours and many times, even though the sellers said "the floors are great, very little rust, good shape" when we looked at the trailers , they were no where close to being what the seller said and we walked.
Even if you saved emails, he can say" in my opinion the floors are fine, etc and she did buy the trailer after seeing it. Unless you have something in your state that is called "buyers remorse" and can return something within a few days for a return of your money, then I am afraid you are stuck with the trailer.
 
#7 ·
yeah one of my friends said that it might be located under the GA lemon laws. I am trying to locate it on the internet. If not my friend does a lot of welding and said he will come by tomorrow and take a look at it. I may just have to replace everything and start from scratch.
 
#8 ·
How would it be covered under a lemon law? You had the opportunity to inspect the trailer prior to purchase and did not do so adequately. Therefore that is YOUR misfortune and you likely will not be covered under any lemon law.
 
#10 ·
I'm fairly certain that since you went and saw the trailer and decided to buy it anyway you won't have any legal leg to stand on. Regardless of how he presented the trailer through emails, you went out and saw it yourself and gave it a green light so to speak so I think you'd be wasting your time and money trying to take him to court.
 
#14 ·
"To qualify under the Georgia Lemon Law or the federal Lemon Law, you must generally have a product that suffered multiple repair attempts under the manufacturer's factory warranty"

Took me about 5 seconds on Google to find this re: Ga lemon law. It would NOT appear that your trailer purchase would qualify at all, and take it from me-lemon laws are EXTREMELY difficult to enforce. I ended up in court with GM about a car once......but I won.

I agree that I doubt you have any legal recourse at all. Unfortunately, this looks like another case of "Let the buyer beware." Sorry.
 
#16 ·
Sorry OP, but I have to agree with the majority here.

You went and looked at the trailer and had every chance to say, 'No thanks, I don't think it'll suit me.'

Instead, you bought it. Now that you've taken it home and discovered it has issues, you're out of luck.

You can't expect much from a $700.00 trailer. I paid $1,400.00 for mine when it was 22 y/o. I bought it from a dealer as a used vehicle, and even from them didn't get much of a warranty. Why would you expect a warranty or buy-back clause from a private owner?

The trailer is yours. Either put money into it to make it safe to haul horses, or scrap it. Either way, it's your headache now.
 
#17 ·
I'm not sure about lemon laws, but from what Franknbeans posted above, it sounds similar to house sales disclosures - as in, you would have to prove the seller KNOWINGLY sold you a defective trailer. Meaning he knew the trailer had a rotted floor, had had the floor inspected and gotten quotes to fix it, and then elected not to have the work done and tried to sell it without disclosing the damages. Extremely hard to prove unless you have documentation.

That being said, I would say in general you can't get a used trailer for 700 bucks and expect NOT to have to put some work into it. If it were in better shape it wouldn't be selling for 700 bucks. You didn't get taken, you got what you paid for.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top