Looking for some advice

[Jono]

Hi. Not sure if I’m posting this in the right place or not, but I’m just looking for a bit of advice / others opinions.

So, we are fairly new to caravanning still (this will be our third season). We have just traded in our caravan to get a better suited layout for us.

Just under 2 weeks ago we picked up our 2013 Bailey gt65 up from a dealer local to us. All looked great, work that needed doing upon original inspection seemed to be done, happy days (we thought)

We got the caravan home had a flick through the paperwork and found a damp report that was just over 1 year old showing 99% damp to the bathroom. 50% to the door and across towards the seats. We got straight back onto the dealer as we weren’t supplied with a recent damp report as they don’t give you one with the caravan. They assured us any damp has been sorted.

I had my suspicions so borrowed a damp meter… the bathroom has been sorted and I’ve lifted the vinyl in that area to check the repair. But the other areas are still reading similar to the old damp report. We went to the dealer as they are local and asked for a damp report from when we purchased it. They showed a damp report which was all low (nothing over 15%). I explained I’ve checked myself and that report can’t be true. They looked shocked and agreed to take the van back in for further investigation.

So we have dropped the van back off with them today for them to check the damp and report back.. along with a list of issues that weren’t sorted before the van was picked up.

We are now a bit stuck on what to do, we fully understand a 10 year old van will have some damp, but surely we shouldn’t been made aware of this and it should of reflected in the price.

I don’t 100% trust the dealership now after finding old reports, been given false reports and don’t fully trust the quality of their work. So we are in 2 minds of wether to let them repair or ask for a full refund and take our money elsewhere.

What would others advice / opinions be?

sorry for the long post.

 

[Hutch]

I will just be short on this, whilst other caravans at 10 years have damp. others have Not. My Coachman at 10 years old has never had above 15 % damp.

 

[woodsieboy]

Wait and see what they say, I suspect that whatever they say, you are never going to be happy with the van , it will always cause you to have lingering doubts, perhaps ask them to cancel the deal and get your original van back and start again from square one,also a 10 year old van does not have to have damp especially if you are buying from a reputable dealer, damp up to 20% is usually regarded as no cause for concern, Good Luck with whatever you deceide to do and keep us updated how you get on.

 

[Mr Plodd]

I would be thinking in terms of a full refund!

 

[Jono]

We are torn because it’s taken a while to find a van that we like within our budget.

We are thinking if it’s repaired right then what’s the harm?

But then on the other hand thinking we would have been stuck with all these issues had I not found a previous damp report. So what else could we find later down the line?

 

[borderbilly]

Ask yourself, what would i have done if it was a private sale? Least the dealer is going to sort it out.

 

[otherclive]

I have a friend who bought a motorhome from a long established dealership and damp appeared. It went back twice for repairs but it still developed further damp in the repaired areas. It’s now had a £10k repair and subject to civil court action.

I’m afraid I would be rejecting the caravan under the CRA 2015 and move on. Read up on your rights under CRA2015.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Jono, i'm sorry to read of your experience, and I hope it can get fully sorted to your satisfaction. If a damp problem has been properly sorted then it can be functionally better than new, but sadly it will always a fact that it has had a significant damp problem.

As for being told about it before you bought it, it's not as straightforward as you might think:

The law expects the goods to match the seller's description, that includes the content of any advertisements, brochures or verbal descriptions the seller gives. It is up to the buyer to ask any relevant questions not covered in the adverts etc. If you ask a dealer or trader a question about the goods, they are obliged to answer it as accurately as possible. This is summed up as Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware.

If the seller had not made any statements about the caravan's damp status in any adverts etc, or during your discussions with him (or her) and you had not asked the question before you agreed to purchase, then legally the seller has not broken their obligation even if they knew about the problem they are not obliged to volunteer the information.

Most caravan forums will have had more than their fair share of reported damp problems, so we are generally more alert to the problem. When viewing caravans and especially second hand caravans it is essential to ask "Has the caravan had any damp problems?" that question forces the seller to respond, and if they do lie then you have a legal comeback on them.

It should of course be noted that there may be questions you ask that the seller honestly does not know the answer to, in which case they should say so.

However in your case if you do have damp readings over 80% I would sincerely hope the dealer responds with your best interests in mind. But I do suggest you keep records of your communications with the dealer about the problem, I recommended you communicate in writing (Emails will do) becasue IF he doesn't take responsibility you may need to pursue an action under the Consumer Rights Act, and all the evidence may be useful.

I also recommend you read up about the CRA, as you have very important protection under the CRA especially with such a recent purchase.

Good luck.

 

[Buckman]

Strongly suggest that you get a full refund. If they have missed obvious damp, what else have they missed?

 

[Beachball]

If you only had the caravan a few weeks i would be asking for total refund good luck

 

[Dustydog]

Don’t let your heart rule! Get a full refund and your old van back. Plenty of others out there.
However , playing devil’s advocate, most water ingress caught early doesn’t result in too much damage. Sadly 99% of caravans will spring a leak sometime . Usually the fix isn’t too expensive , Clive’s friends excepted

 

[otherclive]

Don’t let your heart rule! Get a full refund and your old van back. Plenty of others out there.
However , playing devil’s advocate, most water ingress caught early doesn’t result in too much damage. Sadly 99% of caravans will spring a leak sometime . Usually the fix isn’t too expensive , Clive’s friends excepted

Dusty is spot on. Unfortunately my friend let heart rule head and did not follow CRA2015 procedure as advised. Too trusting of dealership. Now it’s a drawn out civil claim over his £10k bill to correct the motorhome.

As Dusty says damp can strike anytime anywhere. That’s why I had my own damp meter and often had six monthly AWS checks in between annual service. Caught early it’s not a big deal.

 

[Buckman]

Don’t let your heart rule! Get a full refund and your old van back. Plenty of others out there.
However , playing devil’s advocate, most water ingress caught early doesn’t result in too much damage. Sadly 99% of caravans will spring a leak sometime . Usually the fix isn’t too expensive , Clive’s friends excepted

In their first post they mention a damp report over a year old stating 99% damp. Probably means that there was a severe leak that is over a year old?

 

[Dustydog]

In their first post they mention a damp report over a year old stating 99% damp. Probably means that there was a severe leak that is over a year old?

Correct thanks. A year on a lot of damage could have arisen. However to get a 99% reading you’d have to almost place the meter pins in pure water! Is it that bad??

 

[ProfJohnL]

In their first post they mention a damp report over a year old stating 99% damp. Probably means that there was a severe leak that is over a year old?

That report only came to light after the caravan had been purchased, so the seller may not have actually broken the law., But their subsequent comment about all damp problems have been sorted, would seem to be wrong, becasue the problem area is still affected.

I do agree there has to be a big question mark about the quality of any work the seller may ( or may not) have had done before offering it for sale, and I do think the buyer should be looking for a full refund.

The OP should urgently look into the the CRA.

 

[Buckman]

That report only came to light after the caravan had been purchased, so the seller may not have actually broken the law., But their subsequent comment about all damp problems have been sorted, would seem to be wrong, because the problem area is still affected.

I do agree there has to be a big question mark about the quality of any work the seller may ( or may not) have had done before offering it for sale, and I do think the buyer should be looking for a full refund.

The OP should urgently look into the the CRA.

I noted that they asked for a damp report from the dealer which showed 15%, but their own readings indicated a much higher reading. At that point they had the caravan in their possession for two weeks.

It does seem fairly obvious that the damp was there prior to purchase (CRA 2015 S9) so I would think they have a good chance of rejecting the caravan for a full refund. Then of course there are other issues that the OP has also mentioned to the dealer.

It does seem more and more like the dealer only gave the caravan a cursory glance hoping that the OP would not notice anything as OP is fairly new to caravans. In light of this I agree that their best course of action would be to get a full refund and find another respectable dealership.

 

[GaryB]

OK, we all have different views on things, this is mine. I'm convinced that a lot of "dry" caravans are actually hiding damp that simply hasn't become severe enough to be detected yet, so giving up a caravan with "known" damp could potentially be replaced with one with worse/undisclosed/unseen damp.

 

[Buckman]

OK, we all have different views on things, this is mine. I'm convinced that a lot of "dry" caravans are actually hiding damp that simply hasn't become severe enough to be detected yet, so giving up a caravan with "known" damp could potentially be replaced with one with worse/undisclosed/unseen damp.

That may be true, but I think in this case the caravan was diagnosed with severe damp over a year ago and would have required extensive work to rectify the issue. Obviously enough work was done to "cover up" the damp and the damp could be a lot worse than the OP even suspects.

Also we have the "other" issues that have been noticed by the OP so there are other concerns about the quality of work done and also the price paid for the caravan. Would you pay good money for a wet paper bag? The advice given above to reject the caravan is very sound.

 

[Jono]

I have no doubt the damp was there when we purchased, having found the old damp report dated a year ago. The dealer was obviously unaware that the previous owner left this paperwork behind. It was found on the service of the caravan and I’ve took the assumption the previous owner decided to sell / trade in rather than repair it.

It’s an alutech Bailey so I’ve been told the walls won’t get damp, not sure how much I believe this or is it a case of the structure just hides damp well on the walls?

All damp issues were found on the floor, so I suppose my question really is - will having the floor repaired de value the van at all? Or once repaired are we good to go?

I’m waiting to hear back from the dealer today, whatever they find I’m not going to let them just brush it over and accept just a repair. At the end of the day they sold it knowing it was there and with the floor feeling solid to touch they wouldn’t of expected us to know the demo was there until it got worse.

The biggest issue is they knew it was there (they done the report 1 year ago) then they tried to fob us off with a false report, until they were told I’d been round with a damp meter and can supply images to prove this. They now have the van back in to damp test again and see if they find any.

They knocked quite a lot of money off the van to bring it into our budget, which in hindsight makes me think they have just tried to get away with not repairing to cover some of their costs.

 

[Buckman]

I have no doubt the damp was there when we purchased, having found the old damp report dated a year ago. The dealer was obviously unaware that the previous owner left this paperwork behind. It was found on the service of the caravan and I’ve took the assumption the previous owner decided to sell / trade in rather than repair it.

They knocked quite a lot of money off the van to bring it into our budget, which in hindsight makes me think they have just tried to get away with not repairing to cover some of their costs.

Does seem to indicate that they were aware of the damp? Get a full refund and go to another dealer even if it takes you months to find another one that you like.

 

[GaryB]

It’s an alutech Bailey so I’ve been told the walls won’t get damp, not sure how much I believe this or is it a case of the structure just hides damp well on the walls?

The walls are GRP hence cannot absorb moisture, the floor however is plywood and can rot.

 

[otherclive]

If the repair to the floor is done properly it should no devalue the caravan. In fact done properly it could enhance its value. The question is “ do you trust the dealership to carry out a proper repair”? Under CRA 2015 they can be given the opportunity to repair, but you will then need to periodically check that it has worked. If not you can reject the caravan. My second observation is that some alutech were susceptible to damp floors especially in corners. I believe there’s a view that it is condensation, but I’m not sure I buy that one. . Whatever the root cause has Bailey issued technical guides on how to remove the root cause. If not it may occur again at some later date.

 

[Raywood]

I agree with the Prof's advice on the subject. I would be back at the dealers asking for my money back. This must be done within 30 days of the purchase though so do not miss this date.
If there is any problem with the dealer and you have paid any part of the purchase on a credit card or taken HP, the finance companies can also be pursued, so let them now.

 

[Buckman]

I agree with the Prof's advice on the subject. I would be back at the dealers asking for my money back. This must be done within 30 days of the purchase though so do not miss this date.
If there is any problem with the dealer and you have paid any part of the purchase on a credit card or taken HP, the finance companies can also be pursued, so let them now.

Not quite correct. You can reject an item outright several or more months later depending on circumstances. For instance you report a fault within the first 30 days and they take 6 weeks to rectify the issue, the time is suspended until the repair is done to the satisfaction of the buyer.

If a week later another issue is found, the buyer can still reject the unit and request a full refund the exception being motor vehicles. The unit will still be within the first 30 days.

We rejected ours at 11 months old and technically it was still within the first 30 days.

 

[Mr Plodd]

Isn't the 30 day rejection period only applicable to the purchase of new items rather than new?

Unless of course the fault is identified within the first 30 days, and raised with the seller, at which time the 30 day"clock" stops.