Caravan cracking

lazer-zxr

Hello.

July 2014, I bought an New Caravan from the dealer. Cost £18k.

Selling point of this Elddis caravan is "Strong, Light and Dry".

This comes with a 10 year water ingress waranty, offering long term peace of mind and reassurance through our extensive warranty cover.

http://www.elddis.co.uk/help-support/help-advice/warranty

All terms of the warranty are currently met, including reporting faults straight away, and annual inspection.

July 15, at annual service, it was found to have cracks at the rear of the body which would cause it to leak.

This was repaired under warranty.

Now September 15, it has cracks in the front of the body, and going for assessment today.

Where do I stand? I've lost confidence in this one particular van. I don't want to keep taking it back to be patched up at different parts for a couple of years, and then left with a problem caravan.

Can I get some compensation for my disappointment in this once in a lifetime purchase?

Can I reject it, considering they've already had the opportunity to fix it once?

Please help, thanks in advance for any assistance.

bod1467

Unfortunately after this length of time you're deemed to have "accepted" the goods. Under the Sale of Goods Act you are entitled to a remedy ... you can request a specific remedy but the seller can decline if this is disproportionately costly. What this basically means is ... the seller gets to choose.

He is choosing to repair.

That said, it sounds like you are enforcing the warranty. This is additional to your legal rights under SoGA, and so can include any reasonable conditions it likes.

cattermole

Oh dear as a Van owner myself this is an absolute nightmare scenario my sympathies are with you.

The Contract of Sale is between you and the Dealer you first purchased from, is the dealer local to you? Is it the same Dealer you purchased from that is doing the repair work or has done the repair work under warranty?.

I know a lot of people buy Vans at the big shows from Dealers miles away from their home, personally I think this is a mistake if anything really serious happens. Yes the warranty is with Elddis but if you want a complete replacement van then the dealer you first purchased from is responsible.

Have you sought any advice on the specialist Caravan forums?

So in a nutshell your original contract of Sale is with the Dealer you purchased from

The Warranty is a contract between you and Eldiss.

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=8&TopicID=237650

I agree with bod1467 after this length of time to get it replaced is going to be very difficult.

lazer-zxr

Hello,

thanks for the advice so far.

It is the dealer I purchased the van from, and only dealer the van has ever been to for work or service.

No other advice sought as of yet.

I just wondered what I could expect this afternoon when I go to the dealer for assessment, and anything I should bear in mind to ask.

I don't want to sound greedy, but I'm now not in a great position financially, and the enjoyment has been tainted by these faults, and so would like some form of compensation?

Obviously, this length of time has been dictated by the time taken to identify the problem.

Thanks for the replies so far.

bod1467

cattermole wrote: »

The Warranty is a contract between you and Eldiss.

Just to pick up on this .... that's not exactly correct - there is no contract between the buyer and the manufacturer, unless the item was bought direct from the manufacturer

The warranty forms part of the contract between the buyer and seller. The fact that the manufacturer may service the warranty is a separate issue and part of the conditions of the warranty.

cattermole

bod1467 wrote: »

Just to pick up on this .... that's not exactly correct - there is no contract between the buyer and the manufacturer, unless the item was bought direct from the manufacturer

The warranty forms part of the contract between the buyer and seller. The fact that the manufacturer may service the warranty is a separate issue and part of the conditions of the warranty.

Thanks for clarifying I'm still not totally clear on it to be honest, because you can go to any main dealer for warranty work to be done, it does not have to be the dealer you first bought it from.

OP the problem as I see it is, even if the van was in perfect condition with no faults after a year it's value has significantly dropped. So finding out what it's top book value would be without any faults might be worth doing, I think if it was me I would try and get the dealer to part exchange it at that value and not necessarily for another new van. Assuming it is in good condition apart from these major faults?

Because it appears to have such serious faults, getting rid of it in some way is the only way to resolve the ongoing worry. Financially though any part exchange is going to cost unless you can exchange for a similar van of the same age as the one you already have, even if you have to put some amount towards it, in the long run it might be worth it to get rid of this van. You don't necessarily need to part exchange for an Eldiss either if you feel unhappy with them.

bris

Your not entitled to compensation, this would be entirely at the discretion of the retailer.


What you are entitled to under SOGA is consequential losses if you can prove you have any, that's any costs you have had to pay because of the fault.


Consequential losses are only claimable if you are using the SOGA though and not the warranty. With the SOGA you have to prove the fault is inherent at time of purchase, this would need an independent report. As you are having no problems getting it repaired then you don't really need to go down the SOGA route.


Unfortunately your financial position doesn't make any difference to your rights.

cattermole

The thing is though, cracks like this in a Caravan are a sign of a major underlying fault. All Caravan owner's worst nightmare is water ingress, the damage it can do is vast.

Even one seal not done right can lead to major problems. We had this on one van and it cost £3000 to repair, all the side had to be stripped out. Thankfully we had taken out and paid for extended repair cover even though we bought it secondhand and only incurred a small excess charge. If this was my van I would be very stressed about it, cracks in the body are serious and if they were apparent from the offset, not good. Repairing doesn't seem to be curing the problem re-occurring elsewhere. Plus this will have massive implications for re-selling it in the future should the OP need to. The build of modern caravans and what the OP quote in his first paragraph is supposed to minimise this drastically. I know there have been some problems with the Eldiss new system of "strong, light & dry" as there have been with Bailey's similar system.

On our new van, we had a problem at service a high damp reading,not too high and it turned out to be one tiny bit of seal missing, thankfully it was rectified. Seals not right is one thing because it can be sorted if found early. The actual shell having cracks is far more serious.

I do think the idea of an Independent Report is a good one though. There are specialists out there that do this.

OP how did you get on this afternoon?