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Hello but HELP

AKA

Jun 4, 2011
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i want to say hello because after months and months of reading magazines and trailing dealerships we bought what we thought was going to be our pride and joy, only right now are hearts are broken, i have pasted a copy of my post from general forum here if anyone can help im here and listening as their is very little help out there for caravan owners it would seem. And if anything else can i help prevent people making our mistake!!!!!!!!! because no mater how good it looks it probably isnt worth it unless you've a caravan engineer with you when buying second hand.

"we purchased an "immaculate" caravan vis gumtree from a nice local couple 8wks ago,they had never serviced it so it was last serviced in 2003,it is a bailey ranger 510 2001, we kept in contact and having waited to have towball fitted and such like have only had one weekend away in the van. we had the van booked in for a full service with a reg caravan engineer, to our absolute horror the right hand side of the van is showing up patches of excessive damp to a point that within the bathroom wardrobe the reading is 90%, now obviously this didnt happen over night, but we have now been told that it is unenconomical viable to repair it, we cant use it,sell it on,or trade it in. what the hell do we do, it cost us £4400 of money that we just dont have to throw about, we have contacted the couple to see if they will help out basical purchase the van back.

will someone PLEASE help"

Lollie
 
Aug 4, 2005
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Hi Lollie,
Really sorry to hear about your experience, you must be very disappointed and distressed by the whole thing. I'm sorry but I do not have the necessary knowledge to advise you exactly what to do. I have heard varying stories abiut buying items privately, some say it is a case of buyer beware with no rights at all but others will say buyers do still have certain rights whether buying privately or from a dealership. My best advice would be contact local citizen's advice and see if they can offer any consructive advice.
Good luck.
Robert
 
Apr 26, 2010
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Lollie
I am very sorry to hear about your situation lets hope the couple who sold it to you did not do so knowingly
I am no expert on the subject or the law but lets see what we can come up with.
1. If you purchased the caravan and the seller issued an invoice (marked sold as seen) then you dont have much recall in my opinion.
2. If it was not marked sold as seen then you could try through the small claims court for recovery of monies paid due to the caravan being unfit for purpose correctly stated (Not fit for the purpose for which it is intended Touring habbitation)
However even if you won your case if the couple have spent the money and do not have any funds to repay you the chances of getting your money back are slim.
3. What other alternative do you have well my thoughts are is that the figure of 90% damp does seeem very high and I would have thought that at such a high percentage their might be some visible signs of damp ( so the question is was the damp reading correct and maybe you should get a second independant reading)
4. Does the damp actually stop you from using the caravan and if not could you not use it until such time as you find the means of paying for the repairs and or such time as you have at least gained your monies worth of holidaying and caravan enjoyment.

The above are just my personal thoughts and I am sure somebody will come along later in th day with a greater indepth solution to your problem and if not a solution pherhaps better advise on a way forward

John
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hi Lollie, you must be feeling gutted. As you say, £4400 is a lot of money and it's horrible to feel cheated, but whilst checking out various avenues to claim your money back, I would also think along the lines of enjoying the 'van regardless. I agree with John:
"Does the damp actually stop you from using the caravan and if not could you not use it until such time as you find the means of paying for the repairs and or such time as you have at least gained your monies worth of holidaying and caravan enjoyment." Think of the cost of self-catering or B&B, esp if you have pets to put in catteries/kennels - you'd soon clock up £4000s worth. I'm not an expert, but since the manufacturers' damp warranties were only relatively recently increased to 6 years and now sometimes ten, it's a fair assumption that some damp is to be expected. Do you know exactly where the damp is showing? Maybe if it's in the bathroom, it's not as unbearable as near the bed? Did you notice anything nasty while you were away for the weekend? Has anyone actually told you you can't use it, or is that your own reaction?

Re claiming against the sellers, I'm not familiar with Gumtree, but how did you pay for the caravan? If you used PayPal, you may be able to make a complaint through them.

If you really can't cope with the damp, then trading in might be a more acceptable solution to you than fobbing the 'van off privately. After all, dealers take in caravans of all ages, some much older than 2001, and they do that in the knowledge that some damp is probably going to be present. Not sure how lenient they are in that department.

Was the service engineer you consulted at a main dealer or a man-with-a-van? Main dealer's tend to do that sucking thro their teeth thing that garages do when they've got bad news, and it's quite scary. Maybe if you talked to an independent engineer he could suggest some cheaper repairs or at least put off the day when the damp would take over.

Let us know how you get on.

Jenny
 
Mar 27, 2010
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Hi, I,m so sorry to hear your plight but surely the caravan can still be used, after all their are some quite older caravans still out there, and if you looked at the caravan first when you went to buy it, then it mustn,t have been noticeable or you would have seen the damp in the bathroom. We have a 08 swift and this year we had damp reported in our caravan bathroom but fortunately under the guarantee we had it repaired. How much would it cost to have it repaired. I would also get a couple of estimates from other caravan service people. I live in the Manchester area and can give you the number of a very, honest man to look at your caravan, we have used this man for several years and trust him .. If you live in my area then let me know and i,ll let you have his number. Hope you get it sorted out and enjoy your caravanning, please dont let this put you off.
 
Jul 1, 2009
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sorry sold as seen may the word but you may be able to get it sorted sorry but a lot of baileys seem this way i now theres a lot of bailey fans out there but this seems a bit of a norm if its to late you can do it your self .
 

Parksy

Moderator
Nov 12, 2009
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Hi Lollie
Welcome to the Practical Caravan forum, what a shame that your caravan buying experience has been so negative.
You have received several replies, some containing good advice, in the General section of the forum.
Damp caravans can sometimes be repaired to a good standard by someone reasonably competent at diy, I'm sure that you can seek advice from the forum on how to tackle the damp if you are unable to get your money back.
Good Luck and let us know how you get on.
 

AKA

Jun 4, 2011
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Hi Guys
This reply also appears in the general forum,where i also aplogies for not being on yesterday..
Also I just noted it was Erica that offered the number of a independant engineer in manchester area,thank you for that

"Hi
Let me apologies for not being on
smiley-sealed.gif
, first off all the answers were ALL gratefully recieved and we are looking into a couple of suggestions for when if we have exhausted trying to get our monies back.I had hoped to here from the couple yesterday but to no avail, having tried 3 times to phone i have left an email,asking for a resolution so we can all move on,again i hope to here something this evening.
our next opption i think may be to try a trade in but i would still like to recoup the difference loss.(plus we need to buy a new van not exactly a road newbies want to go down,but is this the only way for piece of mind?)
after that maybe a carpenter. not easy where we live, I think it was Rita Erica that offered the independant engineer chap in manchesters number which is very kind and generous,unfortunatly to make things more difficult we are in the rural highlands.Half the reason of getting the van was so that we could have adventures that were on our doorstep.
The van was inspected and serviced by an indepandant engineer 80miles from our home, He has no gainful reason for not stating the truth as he isnt a big enough establishment to take on this work,far to entailed for him, so i rekon he was spot on.

And the true I promise, reason i wasnt on and why the orginal post appeared so late was because i just had major surgery on Wednesday just as all of this kicked off, so my sleep pattern is still shot.and still on a lot of painmeds,i got home friday lunchtime, and i must admit all this crap with the van is really really getting me down. I wake up and its like "there" breathing down my neck, i wont even go out into it, and it was my pride and joy, i feel so flaming cheated.

but you have been the most helpful people as i would expect at Practicle caravan,hence I came to you,
Sincere if a little late Thanks to you all...

Ps the reason the is also in intro, was i didnt want to offend by not introducing myself too."
Top
 
Apr 28, 2011
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Hi Lollie,
I have just been reading about your damp problem, you say that you have had one weekend away in it and that you took it to be serviced. Did you have the weekend away first or the service?, I had a problem of a similar nature it turned out to be the shower tap leaking at the back of the shower making the panels damp, new tap fitted cured it. It could also be that the van was not properly drained off for the winter resulting in a split pipe. Have the water system pressure tested. If it drops pressure then you have a leak, simple as that.Dry the van out with a cold air blower not warm air, warm air could warp any damp panels. Last thing try to find the advert that was on Gum Tree to see how the van was advertised, did it say no damp etc? Hope this helps in some way, things may not be as bad as you think.
Good luck, Ernie
 
Jun 11, 2012
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Hi Loolie.
I have been following your thread and must say how sorry I am to follow this story.
I realise what you say about the engineer testing for damp and his findings, rightly so you have no reason to doubt him but for your own satisfaction and peace of mind for the future as well for the sake of a few quid buy your own damp tester and check yourself.
Other solutions on here as above dry the van out properly and see where you are then, this being a cheap way out and if it works ok you have your caravan and not lost £ 4.0000
Sir Roger.
 

AKA

Jun 4, 2011
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Hi Ernie
We have kinda exhausted our avenues now, apart from appearing on there doorstep and demanding our monies and to tell you the truth im beginning to wonder if they would even be there, i just found myself wondering "how on earth can someone do this to another person," let alone take on there situation and yet still ride roughshod over them.. our mail has been returned undelivered, no phone calls or emails replied too, all was pally wally before there was problem.

However unfortunate and as crazy as life ever is, we have to move on so we are trying to trade in at the moment and it is finding the right van again that is proving the hardest thing once again..we have to keep the weight under 1500mtplm as much as possible,but without becoming ridiculous as Puc people we aint. we need at least 3 berth, and i do like a bathroom for our son, we dont need to always use the shower for ourselves, because we tend to be in very good sites with excellent facilitates because of my health.situation

The Damp seems to be from shot seals on the left hand of the van as the right hand side is absolutely fine!! the damp is in the wardrobe which is the opposite side from the shower and away from all the taps, and all the pipes are in-tacked, so im as sure as i can its the top left back seal, but it is too much for us to tackle on our own. Now had my health been better and i was stronger and not crippled with AS at 40(ankylosing spondylitis) I would strip the seal off no problem and repair it my self, as i dont have the patience for the OH to do it, but I am a trained engineer.
Gumtree havent been of any help they said they had a back log of customer service requests to get through and that was ages after i first contacted them and i still havent heard a peep out of them.

I think this one will eventually go down to a very painful life experience in "how not ever to treat others" and to be relentless when spending our hard earned cash, if it means I come across as a hard faced so and so when im looking for the right van and deal then thats how its going to have to be, and of course "learning to walk away".

thanks for coming in on this, i just wish i had come on here before that van purchase.

lollie x
 

AKA

Jun 4, 2011
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Hi Sir Rodger
Wouldnt you know that is the only van that we hadnt tested with a meter, we were half way there when we realised we didnt have it, but apart from that we were far too trusting, but never ever again. we are going to put a decent dehumiderfier in it for a week see how it goes.,but seems a bit pointless in our relentless rain when i am certain its the top left back seal thats away!

I know for sure they werent real vanners bacause the amount of people that have got really upset on our behalves, only goes to prove that a decent true vanner just wouldnt do this..
lollie x
 
Aug 1, 2007
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Lollie
Heat and ventalation might be better at drying out Unless you shut all windows and block all air vents dehumidefier will be drying the air as it enters
 

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