Cafe boss wins case and her costs
The sales rep from RTA didn’t impress cafe owner Elaine Arathoon and husband David.
“There was no sign of a camera or tape measure, she never even walked round the place to inspect it,” said David.
“As soon as she obtained a signature, she left.”
The resulting sales description was full of mistakes, including a made-up reference to a “valuable inventory of equipment”.
Elaine and David told RTA: “Sorry, we are cancelling the agreement within the 14-day cooling off period.”
But RTA director Paul O’Reilly insisted that they had to pay £1,500 or: “We have no alternative but to take legal action against you for breach of contract.”
This is standard RTA practice, despite a judge last year branding those contracts “wholly one-sided”.
But when it came to the crunch, the company withdrew its claim at Chester county court after Circuit Judge Derek Halbert warned that it was likely to lose the case because its witness, the sales rep, was not in court.
He awarded 62-year-old Elaine £190 in costs. Outside court she told how RTA had first contacted her after she put the cafe, called Poppies, in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, on the market for £20,000.
“We are delighted that RTA withdrew, but it would have been nice to put our case in court about their incompetence, audacity, and the way they treat people,” she said. “We simply wanted to clear our debts by selling the cafe, we didn’t want to go through all this.
“It’s been dreadful.”