Hi everyone .....i know this has been said a million times and everyone is probably sick if seeing the same question but i really need some help...
Here it goes.......
I brought a 2006 bailey pagent in june of this year from a man who had a couple of caravans on his drive. The advert said that it has a slight bit of damp in the front right hand corner and that it was dry just pack up and go he even gave us the board to fix it if we wanted to but was fine how it was.
So we bought it 3500 and took it home to fix the corner window...turns out that the whole front needed to be replaced.it wasn't dry and the window rail was not even screwed on at the end anyway done the work.went in there to give it's once a week going over got a bit dark out and took my torch out and got a quick look at the back wall by the bunk beds. It had all bubbles on the wall and ceiling...the ceiling he told me was in the layer on the wood?
Anyway further inspections there is damp all in the bathroom and down the corner on the bunk bed and pulled back the flooring under the bunk beds and the floor is black and can easily put your nail through the wood.....to add to the shock we moved the caravan down our drive (the bottom end has a big slope) only to see the join on the roof is buckled and has a 2 in gap in to the van!!! Any way I know the law is different for traders and private sellers but the man has 4 caravans on eBay a link page on Facebook to his caravan he's been selling aswell as gumtree so how can he not be a trader??? Where do I stand with it regarding getting it fixed?
You should have avoided that type of seller. Why would a private seller have several caravans?
Contact the citizens advice who can forward it to the trading standards.
You have his address so a letter to the tax man could also go down well. See if he declares his additional earnings.
You can try and ask for your money back, i can guess what his answer will be.
You could take him to the small claims court, but winning and getting your money back is 2 separate things.
Its unlikely to be worth repairing properly. Its a £3500 van and damp repairs could easily exceed that value.
Tbf £3500k is cheap for the caravan you describe. A quick look on ebay shows average price as around £6k so you knew it was a fixer upper. It does sound though that the caravan is scrap. It should be easy enough to prove seller is a dealer if he has several caravans advertised so for that reason he will be subject to consumer law.
If he will not refund then you will have to take some sort of action. What does the sales reciept say? If sold as seen then no longer applies to trader so you have a case. If reciept states sold as spares or repair then no case as that is dealer's get out for selling without warranty.
If you take action then he will state condition of caravan reflects cheap price. You could argue that if caravan is beyond repair then you were mislead. To take action you will have to pay for engineer's report as evidence.
All you can really do is take him to small claims court. Get an engineers report to state caravan is beyond economical reapair. No guarantee that you will win though but he has weakened his case by not stating caravan was was sold spares or repair but he could argue that as it was cat c which is major damage but repairable this was evidence that caravan was only suitable for spares/repair. Your only case is that caravan is beyond economical repair but this is arguable of course.
The easy way out of this is to put caravan on ebay. Do not make any claims as to it's condition just describe it as cat c. Then there can be no comeback from buyer. Consumer law does not apply to private sales. All private seller must not do is mislead. Provided you make no claims about condition of caravan then you have not mislead buyer.
See also he said that he's a private seller but he sells caravans lots of them all from he's house and a camp site and i know that the laws are different for private sellers and trader's....we have looked and cant find any company he actually owns..... but has a ebay site and a Facebook site which he sells from. I don't really want a refund as I absolutely love the caravan I just want him to fix it.
Quote: Originally posted by kittie ivy on 05/11/2017
Am I being unrealistic in thinking that he will.
I am a 1st time buyer and feel so stressed out over it all .
Yes you are. Sorry. He's not going to fix it. If you're lucky you might get your money back but I wouldn't hold your breath.
As OpenSauce says above your best bet is to flog it on, take the hit and learn the lesson.
If there is evidence that anybody who claims to be a private seller in fact sells caravans on a regular basis then by default he is a trader & subject to comsumer law. As pointed out though you are being unrealistic about repairs. Repairs take the expertise your seller will not possess & by the sound of it professional repairs would not be economicallly viable.
Quote: Originally posted by kittie ivy on 05/11/2017
See also he said that he's a private seller but he sells caravans lots of them all from he's house and a camp site and i know that the laws are different for private sellers and trader's....we have looked and cant find any company he actually owns..... but has a ebay site and a Facebook site which he sells from. I don't really want a refund as I absolutely love the caravan I just want him to fix it.
It doesn't matter whether he has a company or not, that is not a requirement to be considered a "trader". The fact that he advertises and has his own Ebay page and a Facebook page should provide enough evidence of that.
I would suggest taking screen shots of all his pages so you have evidence.
Being harsh, but I suspect your caravan is not repairable without it costing a lot of money.
I would suggest your next actions should be:
1/ Write by recorded delivery to the seller rejecting the caravan and asking for your money back within 21 days or you will instigate Court proceedings.
2/ Notify Trading Standards that he is running a business from his address, enclosing your evidence.
3/ Notify the Local Council that he is running a business from a private address, contrary to Planning rules. Include your evidence.
4/ Notify the local Tax Office that you think someone at a certain address (stated) is running a business and you suspect he is not declaring it. Include your evidence.
(The more people you tell the more trouble he will get in to!)
2, 3, and 4 will not name you as the source of their information.
Thanks for your feed back,that is what we was thinking of doing. I do appreciate this sort of reply as it gives me hope in thinking there is something we can do rather than there is nothing we can do which makes me feel so stupid for buying it in the first place and that we have paid all that money for a scrap caravan. Either way if we don't get any joy from the seller we will do the work ourself.
Thanks for everyone's feed back and thanks for the time you have taken to reply even if your answer has frightened the life out of me lol x
If he buys and sells then he is a trader, whether its a hobby or a bit of extra spending money it doesnt matter.
Even if he sells at a loss he is still a trader.
You have got virtually no chance of him fixing it properly.
It sounds like the repairs will cost more than the vans worth.
Google his contact details and see exactly how many caravam he has advertised and their prices.
Go back to him and politely ask for your money back seeing as he is really a trader, you have consumer rights.
If he says no then just hint that selling x number of vans is a trader and we will see what the tax man says about it. Im sure he will be interested in the xx number of vans you have sold.
You could take him to court to get your money back but will you win? And if you do he may still not payup.
Oh dear kittie ivy, what an awful thing to happen, but you won't be the first to be hoodwinked in this way, and you certainly won't be the last! So don't feel 'stupid'. It's a lot of money to spend to learn this lesson but if you're a first time buyer it's easy to miss signs of a 'bad 'van' in your enthusiasm to start caravanning! Personally I would go to the small claims court as I don't think you'll get any joy approaching the seller, although you must try that avenue first, politely, to ensure you have the sympathy of the court. I don't think it costs a huge amount for the court to send in the bailiffs and they could get your money back for you.
Next time you go looking, my lovely, go to a trader, and pay by credit card (not for the credit, but to give you some consumer protection). Try to find a trader that has good reviews.
Good luck! I do hope you manage to sort out this distressing situation.
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