Avondale warranty

[Ian_5040577]

Bought my Avondale new in January this year, now with Avondale no longer in buiseness my dealer has offered me a three year warranty with an insurance company for £210.00. I have read the terms and conditions and it is the same as the Avondale warranty more or less. So my question is; Is this the best option open to me at present?

Thanks

Ian

 

[RogerL]

The dealer from whom you bought your Avondale is responsible under the Sale Of Goods Act - regardless of whether the original manufacturer is still in business.

As some SOGA provisions last up to six years, you need to get advice from your local Trading Standards.

Your dealer may simply be offloading his own responsibilities by getting you to pay for an insurance-based warranty.

 

[caravanoracle]

SOGA falls short on a lot of issues when you talk about caravans and a lot of dealers will do only the minimum required under SOGA when they are probably owed thousands by Avondale already, and probably not going to get.

i would be inclined to take the warranty, at least then you have the piece of mind you had before.

 

[Mark_5040992]

I purchased a new Osprey in February this year and have been thinking about an insurance based warranty myself.

I did speak to my dealer in early September (before PWC were appointed) and they said they would do their best to look after their Avondale customers. I am assuming that it will no more than they are liable for under SOGA. Now that it looks like the interested parties have pulled out I was planning to give them another call.

Can anyone give some examples of things that would only have been covered by the Avondale factory backed warranty and fall outside of SOGA?

I have to say that

 

[weejock]

Anything like a 6 year water ingress warranty.

The main loss may however be goodwill. When you look at a lot of posts it seem to be that a few dealers get manufacturers to pay for the parts if a van is say 4 years old. This certainly will not be happening with Avondale.

The other thing to bear in mind with the sale of goods act is the court may award you the value of the van. If however no one wants to buy an Avondale their value maybe very depressed and if a dealer has to buy it back from you at the current market value this could in some cases leave you worse off.

 

[ProfJohnL]

There are no maximums and minimums under SOGA. you either comply or you dont. So provided the dealer complies, the customer actually has nothing to complain about. The problem is that many dealers either do not know what they are actually liable for or deliberately try to evade their liabilities.

Whilst pursuing SOGA can be distressing, but it is the correct way, and perhaps dealers will begin to take their responsibilities more seriously if customer were more savay about their rights.

There is an important difference between warranty under SOGA and manufacturer and extended guarantees, and in the absence of the manufacturer, a purchased insurance based guarantee policy may be sensible choice. But it will depend on the details.

It is also worth pointing out that some manufactures use insurance based guarantees from new, so even though the manufacturer may have gone, the insurance company underwriting the guarantee may still be out there. The premium will of course have been paid so the policy should still be in force. The problem is identifying which manufactures use this scheme, and then convincing the insurance company that the caravan owner is the beneficiary.

I do not know if Avondale were party to this type of scheme.

 

[caravanoracle]

There are no maximums and minimums under SOGA. you either comply or you dont. So provided the dealer complies, the customer actually has nothing to complain about. The problem is that many dealers either do not know what they are actually liable for or deliberately try to evade their liabilities.

Whilst pursuing SOGA can be distressing, but it is the correct way, and perhaps dealers will begin to take their responsibilities more seriously if customer were more savay about their rights.

There is an important difference between warranty under SOGA and manufacturer and extended guarantees, and in the absence of the manufacturer, a purchased insurance based guarantee policy may be sensible choice. But it will depend on the details.

It is also worth pointing out that some manufactures use insurance based guarantees from new, so even though the manufacturer may have gone, the insurance company underwriting the guarantee may still be out there. The premium will of course have been paid so the policy should still be in force. The problem is identifying which manufactures use this scheme, and then convincing the insurance company that the caravan owner is the beneficiary.

I do not know if Avondale were party to this type of scheme.

avondales warranty was all in house with a 3year mechanical breakdown cover from day 1 and 5 years water ingress cover from day 1. a lot of dealers then sold an insurance backed warranty for 2 years mechanical cover to start at the end of avondales cover. so effectively the caravan then had a full 5 year warranty.

in my experience, a 4 year old caravan suffering water ingress problems would not be repaired under SOGA free of charge by a dealer. especially when most of avondale`s dealer will be substancially out of pocket already, being owed 10`s of thousands of pounds and possibly still with their stock on their forecourts. the whole situation may even put some dealers out of business!

in my opinion purchasing a warranty is the best way to go, especially if it costs a couple of hundred pounds to buy. when you consider how much it is to purchase a warranty on a washing machine,

 

[caravanoracle]

avondales warranty was all in house with a 3year mechanical breakdown cover from day 1 and 5 years water ingress cover from day 1. a lot of dealers then sold an insurance backed warranty for 2 years mechanical cover to start at the end of avondales cover. so effectively the caravan then had a full 5 year warranty.

in my experience, a 4 year old caravan suffering water ingress problems would not be repaired under SOGA free of charge by a dealer. especially when most of avondale`s dealer will be substancially out of pocket already, being owed 10`s of thousands of pounds and possibly still with their stock on their forecourts. the whole situation may even put some dealers out of business!

in my opinion purchasing a warranty is the best way to go, especially if it costs a couple of hundred pounds to buy. when you consider how much it is to purchase a warranty on a washing machine,

 

[Chrisbee]

As most manufactures give a water ingress guarantee for 6 years it is reasonable to assume they would not expect a caravan to leak in that time. This therefore could be taken as an industry standard. Would this not mean that under the SOGA a court would use the same time frame? "Reasonable quality" would surely mean an item costing

 

[Ian_5040577]

I am going to take the three year warranty, the SOGA is so vague and I couldnt be bothered with all the hassle if there was a problem with my van.

I dont think

 

[caravanoracle]

As most manufactures give a water ingress guarantee for 6 years it is reasonable to assume they would not expect a caravan to leak in that time. This therefore could be taken as an industry standard. Would this not mean that under the SOGA a court would use the same time frame? "Reasonable quality" would surely mean an item costing

 

[Chrisbee]

it is NOT a guarantee, it is a warranty. a guarantee says there wont be a problem, but a warranty says if there is a problem it will be covered.

You are of course correct but surely the principle remains the same i.e. the manufacturer does not expect the van to leak.

 

[Mark_5040992]

Ian,

I am going to phone my dealer tomorrow and discuss some warranty cover with them. Just out of interest which insurer/policy have you been offered for

 

[Ian_5040577]

The company the policy is with is,

MB&G Insurance services.

Ian

 

[RogerL]

Before you jump out the frying pan into the fire, find out who owns MB&G Insurance Services. There's still a lot of grief to come in the financial sector in the aftermath of the credit crunch.

 

[caravanoracle]

well i know they are underwritten by AXA Insurance.

for more info on the company go to their website

http://www.mbginsurance.co.uk/

 

[Mark_5040992]

Ian,

I thought it was probably MB&G, I think their policies are used by most of the main dealers.

By pure coincidence I happen to work for the AXA group and I think we are financially sound...

I will go for an MB&G policy.

Thanks,

Mark.

 

[jimhale]

Ian

We have a two year old Eagle and our supplying Dealer has offered us a 2 year policy with MB&G for

 

[Mark_5040992]

I spoke to my dealer earlier today and they said not to do anything just yet... they are still in communication with the administrators about the future of Avondale and how it impacts existing customers. They advised that they would be writing to all of their customers with Avondale caravans under warranty as soon as the situation was clarified.

They are trying to determine if the Avondale factory backed warranty was underwritten by someone else (as John L has pointed out already in this thread). In this case someone could still be liable for the Avondale warranty scheme irrespective of what happens to Avondale.

Mark.

 

[caravanoracle]

the administrators have written to dealers and said there is NO warranty im affraid. the avondale warranty was run by avondale and not underwritten by a third party.

 

[Geraldine_374382521]

the administrators have written to dealers and said there is NO warranty im affraid. the avondale warranty was run by avondale and not underwritten by a third party.

OUR ADVICE WAS TO GO BACK TO OUR DEALER BUT OUR DEALER HAS CEASED TRADING IN HIS ORIGINAL NAME WITH WHOM WE BOUGHT THE VAN AND HAS REOPENED UNDER A NEW NAME!No HOPE AND WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH OUR SHOWER!!!!!

 

[JULIE_374383105]

OUR ADVICE WAS TO GO BACK TO OUR DEALER BUT OUR DEALER HAS CEASED TRADING IN HIS ORIGINAL NAME WITH WHOM WE BOUGHT THE VAN AND HAS REOPENED UNDER A NEW NAME!No HOPE AND WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH OUR SHOWER!!!!!

We bought a new avondale fifteen months ago, at it's first service it was found to have a water leak.As this happened around the time Avondale stopped trading, we find ourselves with no warranty and a bill for