someone PLEASE help

[AKA]

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

 

[dougie201]

Hi Lollie.
Thats not very good about your van, i cant see you getting anywhere with the couple who sold you the caravan as they will just say you bought the van sold as seen. I would have left alone when they told me it hadnt been serviced for 8 years. All i can suggest is that you go to your nearest dealer they might take the van of you if you were buying a replacement from them, but because of the excessive damp cant see them giving you much for it sorry! As you say you wont be able to sell it on unless someone looks on it as a project but yet again you wont get much money back on it.
Have you had a price on how much it would cost to repair?
Sorry i cant be much more of a help.
Dougie....

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Lollie
What a sad tale.
A bit late for you but nevertheless a good lesson for others . Do not buy a caravan without doing a damp test first. Not serviced since 2003? Oh dear all the alarm bells are ringing, walk away.
I doubt very much the sellers will want to return your money. How was their advert worded?
Did they say things about the caravan that were untrue?
As for the damp , does the inside smell musty?
There is a possibility all is not yet lost. Consult a good caravan bodyshop or mobile engineer and ask them to locate and reseal the failed sealant. They can then test the timber structure and see if it has rotted or if it is possible to slowly fully dry out. Without seeing it you will appreciate it is hard to reach any definitive conclusion.

Best of luck.

 

[RegandPat]

Stick it on ebay but say has some damp and hope for the best...

 

[Damian]

The Dictionary gives the following explanation of the word "Immaculate":
–adjective
1.
free from spot or stain; spotlessly clean: immaculate linen.
2.
free from moral blemish or impurity; pure; undefiled.
3.
free from fault or flaw; free from errors: an immaculate text.
EXPAND

4.
Biology . having no spots or colored marks; unicolor

As the van you purchased is not "Immaculate" in as much as it fails on at least point 3 (Free from fault or flaw) and if you get a non response from the sellers, I would go to the small claims court and lodge a claim for the cost of the van as it is not as described.

I have seen this kind of thing so often and only wish people would get a pre purchase inspection by a mobile engineer BEFORE buying.
It would cost around £60 but, as in this case, save you £4000 on a damp van.

NEVER believe eveything a seller tells you until you have proven what they say is actually true.
The number of times I have heard "But they said everything was working", when in fact everything is NOT working.

 

[Surfer]

If they stated immaculate and you then foudndamp the advert has been misleading and you can claim your money back. In addiotn, they coudl be prosecuted. Your first point of call should beTrading Standards for further advice. See http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_world/consumer_affairs/buying_goods_your_rights.htm#buying_goods_from_a_private_seller

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Lollie,

You paint a sad tail, and I'm afrraid that it may be an expensive lesson.

Although secondhand private sales do not have the full protection of the Sale of Goods Act, in so far that goods are sold as seen, if the goods were missdescribed, then an offence may have been committed.

In your opening post, you used the word 'imaculate' as if it had been in the advertisment. If within a reasonably short time you discoverd it riddled with damp, then I personally consider the desciption to be a missrepresentation of the facts.

On that basis I think you may have a case to sue the sellers for a full refund.

DO seek advice from teh CAB or Trading standards, or use a solicitor.

 

[prjohns]

Unfortunatly you may have no chance of claiming money back.
1) The sellers did say that it had not been service since 2003, liabiity has now switched to you.
2) The seller has to be aware that the caravan was damp at time of purchase for liability to shift back to seller. This you need to prove without any doubt.

 

[forestgump]

bet its a bailey ?

 

[Robtel]

bet its a bailey ?

I'm going to use my psychic powers here and say it's a Bailey Ranger 510/4 2001 model !!!!
Wish I could do it with the lottery numbers.

Don't think the make of the caravan has any significance in this case. Any caravan which hasn't been serviced for that length of time would be prone to a multitude of problems. Hope Lollie manages to get something sorted.
Robert

 

[forestgump]

servecing dont help damp the make is a problem that is not new to this forum the vancan be serviced it will not stop damp as on all the forums this is not a new problem (unless a damp test is done and damp sorted) there are many bailey owners out ther that diss agree but it dose seem a common thing

 

[Damian]

Quote" the make is a problem that is not new to this forum "

It does not matter which of the mainstream UK manufacturers you think of, they all suffer from damp , some worse than others, mainly caused by the piece work regime in place at the asembly lines.

However, on forums you only ever hear of the problem vans which in fact are in th eminority when the total numbers of vans sold by the makers is taken into consideration.
I am sure you wil find many very satisfied owners of all makes of van out in the real world.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

it is a bailey ranger 510 2001

bet its a bailey ?

Sorry Gumpy but you're not going to get many betting against you

 

[Parksy]

Hi Lollie
It's a shame that you didn't join this forum before you parted with £4400 for a damp 2001 Bailey Ranger 510 which is shown in the Caravan Price Guide as being worth £3650 if it had been in good condition and serviced regularly because we could have given you advice on what to look out for.
I see that you mentioned that you have contacted the people who sold the caravan to you, what was their response?
The dealer or repairer has told you that it is not economically viable to repair the caravan and from a caravan dealers point of view that's probably quite true.
You are not a caravan dealer and have spent £4400 of your hard earned cash so obviously you want to see a return in terms of caravan holidays for your money.
Caravans affected with damp are repairable, first of all the caravan will need to be re-sealed with mastic to stop any further water ingress.
The next step is to identify the worst affected areas and attempt a repair, how are your diy skills?
Several of our members have carried out effective damp repairs to their caravans and Practical Caravan Magazine editor Nigel Donnelly is presently touring Croatia in a 1986 Sprite Alpine on which he had to tackle a diy damp repair
Click Here for details of the repair.
Ideally the people who sold the caravan to you will make some recompense, you might be able to pursue a legal solution if they don't but this will depend on several factors, the exact wording of the advert being one of them.
In the event that you can't get your money back your best course of action will be to learn from this experience and try to make the best of the caravan.
Ask on this forum for further advice about damp repairs, parts, wallboard etc and hopefully you will be able to salvage something from this.

 

[Surfer]

Under NO circumstances should you attempt to do any repair until you have consulted CAB and had a second opinion on the state of the caravan. The onus is on the previous owner to prove that they were not aware of any damp issues, not the other way around.
We have recently gone through this process with Trading Standards and feel we are qualified to offer advice on this aspect. You stand a very good chance of getting your money back if this was pursued through the small claims court especially if the advert said immaculate as thsi in itself is very misleading. Don't walk away from this issue. Fight it and you will get plenty of help on this and other forums.
For further and maybe better qualified advice log onto http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/index.php

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

lollie hasn't been seen since making this post. Strange

 

[Rita1]

She/He has posted else where on this subject and not been back or have they and not liked the answers

 

[AKA]

Hi
Let me apologies for not being on

, 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.

 

[AKA]

Ok another wee update i have found the local CAB office and thankfully it isnt in Inverness as i feared so I should be able to get there tomorrow if no response from sellers tonight, also I came across the law of "common decency" at the DTI again it works on things like the wording of a advert being misleading and inacurate.
unfortunalty the advert is no longer on gumtree although we have its "address location" the advert had been removed

 

[Parksy]

Hi Lollie
I sincerely hope that you will make a full recovery from the surgery, your health is much more important than any caravan and although you feel let down and disillusioned right now you are not the first person who has made a mistake when buying a caravan.
Try to take stock, by all means pursue every legal avenue that is open to you and in the meantime do some research about tackling the damp problem or explore your options as far as trading up is concerned.
I'd estimate that many of the used caravans on the private sale market at the moment are affected by some degree of damp, at least you are now fully aware of the problem and can work on your next step.
You won't necessarily have to buy a new caravan if you don't get your money back and decide to cut your losses but a purchase from a dealership might be a safer bet on a used model because of the protection of the sale of goods act applicable to a commercial transaction as opposed to a private sale.
Take advice from those on this forum who have been successful in similar cases, if the vendors don't respond within a reasonable time frame then ask the advice of your local trading standards bureaux, the citizens advice bureaux or a solicitor.

 

[AKA]

Hi Parksy

Thanks, for everything,. The ammount of caravans we viewed, between private sellers appearing on ebay with mulitple vans & mobile numbers, and ones in dealerships that had visible damp and moulds to things like toilets missing, and so many dings when they were only a couple of years old. We really thought we had found the best of the lot out there, all in all we found the process so tiring and became very disolutioned with the second hand market, made worse i think because it seems to be "damned if you do damned if you dont" with second hand vans, there would seem very little legal protection for second hand vanners in comparision to purchasing a second hand car.
I still have some faith in this couple to do the right thing,and would certainly never pass the problem on, I think at best they were very naive non vanners and we were far far too trusting..
I hope to be back later with a more positive update,if I do speak to them later I intend to establish a time frame,to get matters sorted out.otherwise the van gets damper and we end up with no holidays what so ever, and that was our first time away as a family since i had my wee boy too and wee just loved being amongst true vanners and the fact they encourage him to run free to and from the vans for wee visits and kept there eye out for him too, it was so friendly and relaxing amongst like minded folk, we just want to get back out there.

lollie

 

[Surfer]

Can't you approach Gumtree and asked for a copy of the advert citing the reasons.

 

[AKA]

Hi surfer
yep I was thinking along these lines as we have all the dates written down, and can prove we have had no use of the van apart from that one wkend. chasing up the advert is my next goal, as long as they still have a hard copy even though it was removed,fingers crossed
lollie

 

[AKA]

no reply again on phone tonight or by email, am i being ignored, well im going to CAB tomorrow if they want to start playing silly sods they have chosen the right person, as im flaming sore and tired and not being ripped off.

 

[Parksy]

Is there a possibility that this couple may be on holiday?
Please let us know what the CAB advise you to do, it might help others in similar situations