PREPAYMENT IS NOT REFUNDABLE?

What to do if you are refused to return the prepayment, citing various reasons, will be explained by the example of the head of the Department for Consumer Protection of the Karaganda region, Kulagina Aliya Kazhikenovna.

 

«We were approached by a resident of the city who complained that the car dealership has not returned him an advance of 600 thousand tenge for a car for a long time, which he changed his mind about buying due to the fact that the prepayment was left almost six months ago, and the price of the car has grown during this time and is no longer affordable to the consumer.

 

In this case, the seller violated the consumer's rights to a refund for the goods not provided and the consumer's rights to a refund within the time limits set by the contract. Accordingly, the seller violated Article 7 «Consumer rights» and Article 24 «Obligations of the seller» of the Law «On Consumer Protection».

 

According to the seventh article, the consumer has the right to:

 

- free conclusion of contracts for the purchase of goods, performance of works and provision of services.

 

- education in the field of consumer protection and improvement of legal literacy of consumers in matters of protection of their rights and legitimate interests

 

- free choice of goods (works, services)

 

- exchange or return of goods of both proper and improper quality

 

- protection of rights and legitimate interests

 

- exercise of other rights provided for by this Law and other laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

 

 

 Also, by virtue of article twenty-fourth, the seller is obliged to:

 

- to provide a free choice of goods

 

- to ensure the exchange or return of goods of both proper and improper quality

 

 

Since this contribution of 600 thousand tenge was not a deposit, then these funds can be qualified as a guarantee contribution. By virtue of paragraph 1 of Article 338-3 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a guarantee contribution is a monetary amount transferred by the payer of the guarantee contribution to the recipient of the guarantee contribution to ensure the fulfillment of the obligation to conclude a contract at auction or the performance of another obligation.

 

And according to paragraph 2 of Article 338-4 of the Civil Code, if the obligation secured by the guarantee contribution is not fulfilled due to the fault of the recipient of the guarantee contribution or the termination of this obligation by agreement of the parties or due to the impossibility of performance that occurred without their fault, the guarantee contribution is subject to refund.

 

An employee of the Department advised the citizen, according to Article 42-4 of the Law "On Consumer Protection", to apply with a letter of complaint to the car dealership to solve this problem in a pre-trial manner. Having sent a claim to the seller, the consumer indicated the claim that in case of non-return of funds within ten calendar days, he will apply to the Consumer Protection Department with a statement.

 

Also, in parallel, the consumer wrote a statement to the Department. A few days after submitting the application, the funds paid for the car were returned to the consumer, after which he withdrew the submitted application and thanked the Department staff for the consultation», - the head of the Department summed up.

 

We remind you that consumer rights are protected by the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On Consumer Rights Protection». We kindly ask sellers, performers and manufacturers to comply with the requirements of the Law.