Thread: Florida Attorney

Wondering if there is an Attorney who is a Crappie.com member that might be able to help me out a bit? I didn't see an off topic to stick this in.

I recently bought a boat off ebay from a guy in Melbourne Florida. The boat was advertised as a 1998 and that everything works great! After driving 1,200 miles one way to pick up the boat and pay the balance owed, I find out from the title that it is actually a 1992 boat. The seller then said it was the motor that was a '98. I inspected the underside of the boat and found a couple of damaged areas that someone had attempted to repair. I also found a larger area missing material about 7"x 3/4" near the transom that needed repair. After bringing this to the sellers attention, I told him that it looked as if I wasted a trip. He said he could drop $500 off the balance owed.
He also told me that he was working for his Father that day and had taken off long enough to meet me. I wanted to go launch the boat for a test run. He put a set of cups with a water hose connected to the motor and started it. It sounded as if it was alright. Before I made the trip to Florida, I asked him via text message if the compression on the cylinders had been checked and he text back to me that they were 125lbs across the board. I have that text from him still in my phone. Everything else with the boat seemed ok so I took him up on his offer to drop the 5 bills off the balance and gave him $3,300 cash (neither of us could break a $100) towards the $3,250 balance for the boat after taking off the $500. Since neither of us had change, he sent my paypal account $50 for the change.
I picked the boat up on February 2. The first time I launched it wasn't until another week. The boats motor seriously lacked power when put under a load. I assumed it could be the carburetors and bought kits and rebuilt both the next Saturday. On Sunday, February 17th, I took it out again and the motor still had a severe lack of power. Then next day I bought a compression tester and checked all 4 cyclinders. They read 99, 96, 91 and 89 lbs of compression. I have a good friend that is a Master Tech on Marine Motors and told him what the readings were and he said that they were too weak for the motor to preform properly and that the Powerhead would have to be rebuilt. I also noticed a leaking seal on the tilt/trim unit which I had been told that there were no problems with the tilt/trim.

I never expected to get something "Like new", but I at least expected it to be as advertised. I think the fact the boat was sold as a 1998 and was not disclosed to me until I drive 1,200 miles and discover it myself when looking at the title is blatantly wrong and misleading. I also feel that my asking about the compression and having documentation from his text message to me stating that the motor had 125lbs in each cylinder before I made the trip to Florida is also misleading.

I contacted the seller and his Father who was also involved in the sale of the boat and let them both know of the issues I was having and said I thought they owed me at least enough for the parts. ($750-$1,000 roughly) I feel the boat and trailer are worth around $2,500 and I have an email from the sellers Father stating that if I wanted a new boat I should spend $25,000 like they are. My response was that I did not expect it to be new, but at least expected it to be as advertised, which it was not.

Both the Father and Son claim "I got a good deal" for the boat. I'd like to recoup a little cash to be spent towards the rebuild. My expenses just to go get the thing round trip were around $850.00. It would have been a game changer if I'd known about the proper year model and the issues prior to my purchase.

As for an Attorney in Florida, I'm curious to know if I have any options without costing me more than I've already spent.