Damp with our motorhome: repair and sell or sell immediately! (73 Viewers)

[Gerryp]

Hi everyone,

Seeking some help on a tough decision about our motorhome. We bought her 18 months ago for £19.5k. She's a Swift Sundance 630u, 2005, done 80,000 miles (10,000 with us). She's generally in good nick, everything works, passed MOT in July, no rust etc. although some cracks in the bathroom meaning that floor needs replacing. We are now seeking to sell her as we want to get a smaller van we can get a parking permit for in London. BUT....

We've had a couple of brokers come see it who've identified some serious damp: in the back corners and nearby floor, the right back side, and the right side of the dinette. Some of it is visible and we've seen the meter reads so they're not lying. Hard to tell how bad the damage is until it's opened up but estimates from the brokers are could be £6k. Always the chance it could be more.

So the decision... One of the brokers offered us £7k for it the other £8k. They fully accept that includes the several k for what they will need to make from profit for the sale. Before we realised the issues we had it on for £17k with occasional but fairly limited interest for a few weeks. The thought of taking a £11.5k write down is pretty galling but seems like we were probably sold a turkey. We are trying to decide do we take the offer on the table and just move on with our lives, or do we try and take it to get it repaired ourselves and sell it on in the spring, hoping to get considerably more than the 8k net. Or would it be hard to shift a van that's had damp repair anyway?

I don't have photos of the damp ATM but I guess it's fair to say the cost of repair is likely to be high and probably unknown until it's opened up...

What are people's thoughts based on experiences of damp repair? Is it realistic that we'd be opening ourselves up to a potentially limitless repair bill and we should cut and run? Or is the broker taking us for a ride and it's worth trying and we'd probably end up much better off?

Thanks everyone.

 

[The Wino]

The thing you don't mention is whether you are able or inclined to do any of the work yourself. When you say an £11.5k write down presumably you mean on the price you paid. I think the calculation you need is to think of there were no damp what would be a realistic expectation of what you would actually get by the sound of it the £17 k you were asking less a bit of discount say £15 to £16 k. Then look at the cost of repairs and the £8k offer doesn't sound that bad.
It's a decision only you can make but I think I'd be taking it to a motorhome repairer for an independent quote before deciding. If you can do the work yourself it's a different calculation.

 

[The Wino]

Hi everyone,

Seeking some help on a tough decision about our motorhome. We bought her 18 months ago for £19.5k. She's a Swift Sundance 630u, 2005, done 80,000 miles (10,000 with us). She's generally in good nick, everything works, passed MOT in July, no rust etc. although some cracks in the bathroom meaning that floor needs replacing. We are now seeking to sell her as we want to get a smaller van we can get a parking permit for in London. BUT....

We've had a couple of brokers come see it who've identified some serious damp: in the back corners and nearby floor, the right back side, and the right side of the dinette. Some of it is visible and we've seen the meter reads so they're not lying. Hard to tell how bad the damage is until it's opened up but estimates from the brokers are could be £6k. Always the chance it could be more.

So the decision... One of the brokers offered us £7k for it the other £8k. They fully accept that includes the several k for what they will need to make from profit for the sale. Before we realised the issues we had it on for £17k with occasional but fairly limited interest for a few weeks. The thought of taking a £11.5k write down is pretty galling but seems like we were probably sold a turkey. We are trying to decide do we take the offer on the table and just move on with our lives, or do we try and take it to get it repaired ourselves and sell it on in the spring, hoping to get considerably more than the 8k net. Or would it be hard to shift a van that's had damp repair anyway?

I don't have photos of the damp ATM but I guess it's fair to say the cost of repair is likely to be high and probably unknown until it's opened up...

What are people's thoughts based on experiences of damp repair? Is it realistic that we'd be opening ourselves up to a potentially limitless repair bill and we should cut and run? Or is the broker taking us for a ride and it's worth trying and we'd probably end up much better off?

Thanks everyone.

Forgot to say how sorry I am to hear of your problems it's not that unusual a tale with older motorhomes don't beat yourself up for having got the problem.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

I think you will find that the older swifts especially the sundance range were very prone to rotting floors and a lot were repaired under warranty. It's well known in the trade.but 6k is a lot to lose. Most vans of 2005 era tend to go to auctions.
You would probably get a better price though if you traded it in.

 

[maison]

We had an old Sundance when we returned from caravan ing to motorhoming. It had the same problem due to a design flaw in that model for a few years.

We had both rear corners of the floor and the front corners, just behind the cab, replaced under the second hand warranty we had. We kept it for two years after that without problems and had no reduction in price when we traded it in for a new motorhome as the known problem had been dealt with.

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[Simon Meadwell]

Get a quote off a repair specialist yourselves the brokers are probably over egging the pudding. We have a small damp area in our moho roof it is going to A and E leisure Northwich 2.5k ish.

 

[scotzsue]

Wondering where you are based there is a good guy near us. Honest and sensible about needs and prices

 

[lorger]

If it didn’t have any damp when you bought it 18months ago then surely it can’t be rotten already, is it possibly just wet on the surface? I’d get an independent quotation.

 

[Terry]

More to the point do you know where it’s leaking from and if you do have you sealed it

 

[busbuddy]

swift 630u that's a typo surely...not heard of that one

if it was one of the damp floor swifts of that era I would expect it to be a soggy holey mouldy mess by now unless it's been repaired before or stored in a heated garage

bathroom floor...do you mean the Tupperware shower tray or the wood underneath, a new shower tray is buyable for a few hundred

if it's a 630l or g then the dinette damp is usually caused by a leaky dinette window as that's where the water runs off the roof and the window gets opened trapping the crap in the top seal causing a leak

if you look under the van it's easy to spot a factory 'repair' on the floor because of that eras dodgy floor design so you can access what you are dealing with

as to value/ resale that's a personal thing......how much do you want to throw at it to get a decent return some times you have to pull your big boy pants on and chalk it up to life experience


Oh forgot to say...I have a 2003 630g

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