You are probably right Clive, but I am not legally up with all the nuances of how such transactions, where a dealer is involved, pan out. The dealer is "selling" in the wider sense, so I can't see he can be totally immune to the legalities of "selling".
That's what I would use my free readily available legal advice to explore and thus better understand.
It is often suggested in this forum the CRA only applies to businesses. This isn't actually true. The way the legislation is written it refers to sellers and not specifically formal businesses. Consequently and in theory all the provisions of the act should apply to all private sales as well as retail sales.
The reality is somewhat more practical, and you are more likely to get full redress from a business becasue as a business they are deemed to have more focused experience on the products the sell and should be more able to describe a product accurately (even secondhand items) than a private seller might. So for caravans, things like the ability to find and recognise damp issues, the capability to sort out electrical and gas installations etc should be in the purview of a dealer more so than a private seller.
In the 1970's, One of my relatives decided to buy a lawn mower. He saw an advert for a private sale in the newspaper and he contacted the phone number to arrange to go and view the mower. He spoke to man who agreed he could come the following day, He would not be there but he would tell his wife to expect him.
When he arrived the lady of the house agreed there was a mower for sale and she pulled the mower out of the shed for him to see. It was the same make and models as described in the advert, and was in good but used condition. He thought the price was very reasonable. So he paid cash and brought it home.
A few hours later he received a phone call from a man who was very angry. He accused my relative of taking the wrong mower. It transpired that his ***** wife had pulled the wrong **** mower out of the shed and it should have been an identical but much older one he had put in the *****garage. He told my relative to return the ******mower. However because of the mans rude approach and other unmentionable things he called his own wife whilst on the phone, my relative was reluctant and stood firm on the deal he had struck. The man finished the call by the man saying he'd be *****contacting his solicitor.
A few days later my relative received a solicitors letter asking for the mower to be returned so it can be replaced with one the man had intended to be sold. My relative contacted his own solicitor, who said the matter falls under what constituted the sale of goods act of the time , and in his opinion the sale was conducted correctly within the terms of the act and legally there was no need to accede to the request.
He cited :
The goods were publicly advertised and identified at an address. The lady at the address had the same surname name and address as on the original purchase bills from a local garden shop, so that was evidence of title to sell.
She had access to all the keys to get the mower out of the shed where it was kept, and there was no other mower in sight. The goods exactly matched the description for both make and model and the fact it was used.
The price being asked seemed fair less than the models of the same age in the shops, so the contract was agreed and completed as title passed to my relative.
A copy was duly sent to the man, and no more was heard.
We always speculate what condition the older mower was actually in and whether my relative would have bought it? We also wondered what the relationship between the couple was like afterwards?
The point is the relevant law applied to this private sale, just as much as if it had been a trader involved. It was in fact this case that alerted me to the consumer rights and how it all actually works.