VIC Contract of Sale - Transfer of Caravan Ownership?

Australia's #1 for Law
Join 150,000 Australians every month. Ask a question, respond to a question and better understand the law today!
FREE - Join Now

GAS75

Member
13 September 2017
1
0
1
Hello.

I recently saw for sale an on-site Caravan and annex located within a caravan park. The wife has been talking about it for a while, so we decided to drive to the park and have a look at the van ourselves. In short, we loved it and decided to make an offer.

I rang the seller initially and we negotiated a price, and I agreed to pay a deposit via bank transfer within the first couple of days, with the balance to be supplied via bank transfer again, just before we would collect the keys in a couple of weeks time, to give the owner time to remove any contents they wanted.

I followed this up with an SMS, stating the agreed price, deposit amount and balance amount, and the seller confirmed back, even congratulating me on the purchase. I also received confirmation when the deposit was received.

I then had phone call from the seller, explaining he was separated, and his ex was not happy to sell, and he was having second thoughts. The seller indicated in the end he was still happy to proceed, so I arranged transfer of the balance, once again I sent an SMS with the payment confirmation, and the seller responded back the he would confirm once final payment was received.

Unfortunately the van is not registered..as it just sits in the park, so there is no "transfer" paperwork to lock in an agreement. There is no paperwork from the park either regarding any transfer of ownership. Do I have enough detail to constitute a verbal contract to enforce the sale so the seller cannot back out at the last minute?

I am in the process of getting a basic "contract of sale" written up, hopefully the seller will sign it. It amazes me how often there is no paper trail when negotiating items of high value such as caravans, boats etc, you feel vulnerable until you get the keys in your hands.