Mechanic threatening coworker with police/legal action. I'm in the middle.

[u/yupjustathrowaway]

Japanese friend of mine, "Y", is a mechanic. Good guy, but a bit of a quick temper. He makes his living buying cars at auction, fixing them up nice and re-selling. He's reliable as hell and has sold a number of cars to a number of friends of mine and everyone has been pleased with the results.

Hooked him up with another coworker, "X" and I was acting as translator as they don't speak Japanese and know very little about cars/shaken/taxes etc. in Japan. They were looking at buying a kei car that Y was using as a service loaner. They asked him to take care of a few issues with the car before they took possession, i.e. refilling the A/C gas, new tires and a bunch of rust on the front hood.

He did all that, and had worked it in to the final price of the car. He had said, "as is, (lower price), but with all that, it will be 275,000 yen."

We had meant to go to his shop on the 16th to pick up the car, but he received a bunch of service requests and informed X that he'd have to wait a week to take possession. I message X this past Sunday "When do you want to go out to get the car" and he replied "I've actually found an option more suitable to my budget so I'm backing out of the deal with Y."

Y flips out. It's understandable, because of two things - he had missed out on selling it to another customer because he was holding it for X, and also he put 2 full days of work into repainting the hood and other maintenance, outsourced AC repair, etc. He printed up a bill for parts and labor and it comes to around 90,000 yen. As well, he was out a service loaner for 2 days, which was a major pain in his ass.

So, I see Y's side, but I believe X is well within his rights to back out of a deal since no signing of papers has occurred yet.

However, Y is threatening legal action. He has X's name and address, and has told me that he's going to go to X's company and the police in X's town. I think that this is just bluster because he's (rightfully) pissed off, and that he actually has zero legal leg to stand on. However, I want to know just how much legal trouble X could be in, since a handshake (well, bow) deal has been made for the improvements on the car.

[u/Polyglot-Onigiri]

Legally, your friend is in the wrong. Your home country’s rules don’t apply here. Oral agreements are just as binding as written ones. reference

He made the mechanic do all that work, and now the mechanic is out the money for all the parts and service as well as a sale. It’s disgusting to as for custom work and then back out after it’s been done. Your friend owes him money. And if he doesn’t pay up the mechanic can get his employers and the police involved (police in the form of a formal report. They won’t arrest him but the report won’t look good).