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My father in law bought an Elddis caravan brand new which was delivered in November 2017. This was from a dealer in Essex. His intention was to keep the caravan at our house in the north of Scotland, where it has been since January 2018.
In the first few few months of use there were a number of problems. I fixed these myself as it is a six hour round trip to the nearest caravan service place and 500 miles to the supplying dealer, and they were easy enough to sort.
The oven has control did not work as it had not been properly fixed to the rear of the oven frame - the oven has to be removed from the cabinet to fix this.
The sink waste pipe came loose leading to a which resulted in loads of water leaking. Again, I fixed and secured this.
A couple of doors have have fallen off inside and catches have failed, again I have been able to fix these.
The Whale underfloor heater failed in January this year.
I took the caravan for a service in spring this year. I was not aware of the requirement to have it serviced within 12 months but I accept that that is within the warranty terms and accept it is our fault that was missed.
At the service the authorised service centre found water ingress and damp at the front window. They also advised they could not fix the fan in the heater so it would need to be replaced.
Elddis have declined to fix these faults under warranty which they have cancelled in its entirety due to the late service.
My father in law has appealed this to the dealer who referred him to Elddis, who have today essentially told him that’s its tough, the warranty is cancelled and that’s that.
Do we have any recourse under the legislation, outside of the wine cancelled warranty, to get the dealer to resolve this? As I say, we accept that we were late getting it serviced, but that delay if a few months is not the cause of the heater failure, water ingress not any of the other faults I have fixed myself as the pragmatic option. These faults (with the exception of the heater fan) must have been present at the point of delivery to have manifested themselves so soon. If we can show that on the balance of probabilities that this is the case is there not some means of recourse under legislation?
Not unreasonable to expect them to build a £20k caravan properly, and for it to work properly for at least a few years is it?
I'd have said yes, but I suspect that there's a much longer answer.
A letter to Practical Caravan or equivalent might provoke a more positive response from Elddis.
Yes. [I]If[/I] you can do that. There's loads on MSE/Which etc about this. Basically you have 6 years in which you can claim goods aren't "Satisfactory quality" but after the first 6 months the onus is on you to prove it. The warranty they offer is effectively irrelevant as it's on top of, not instead of, your basic consumer rights.If we can show that on the balance of probabilities that this is the case is there not some means of recourse under legislation?
It's the dealer you should be talking to, as far as the law's concerned. Not sure how you escalate it if they deny all responsibility though.
Initially the dealer were sympathetic but advised, probably correctly, that since it was Elddis that had cancelled the warranty it would be worth writing to them and setting out the situation to see if they would reinstate it. Now they’ve said no it’s between us and the dealer. I guess if they won’t help it’s time for a decision on whether to bother trying to pursue it through the courts ultimately.
The warranty is between you and the manufacturer, but that's largely at their discretion. I don't think you'll get anywhere with that except as a gesture of good will on their part (which doesn't sound likely).
The consumer rights act applies to the retailer, so if you can successfully argue the faults were present at the time of sale it's on them to repair or replace.
Yeah, that’s my understanding, cheers.
Member of the caravan club? If so get them on it, write letters emails etc, or which?
Now they’ve said no it’s between us and the dealer.
"Just so we're clear, could you please confirm in writing that you are refusing to honour my statutory rights?"
^ if the dealer refuses to do so, now that the manufacturer has cancelled the warranty due to not meeting the terms (which it appears to be able to do).