Damp with our motorhome: repair and sell or sell immediately! (139 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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[Gerryp]

busbuddy yes sorry 630l. You might be right about the dinette but also the cupboards above the window are a bit squidgy.

scotzsue we are based in east London. Anyone who knows of repair specialists not a million miles away from London that would be amazing!

Terry no we definitely don't know where it's leaking from. Looks like someone else has tried to seal up up with sealant round the gaps in the past and hasn't worked.

lorger on closer inspection there's quite a lot of damp meter holes around the place where there's damp so I rather suspect it's been an issue a while and the last owners knew about it. We were in glorious Spain most of the year with pretty much 0 rain but as we know this September has not been kind weather wise...

 

[Terry]

Without seeing the van it’s very hard to say where it’s leaking from then. Waste of time doing anything inside until you find and seal the leaks.
Suggestions - check around all windows and roof lights
Side roof seals
Seals between bodywork and skirts
Floor /walls that sit on floor - your model was made with a new type of floor that acted like a sponge !
All are easy to do yourself.
If you’re not handy then I would suggest you advertise it pointing out the damp for £14999 to see if you get any takers. If you get any offers over 12 k I would bite the bullet and take the loss. Not what you want to hear but it could prove to be a money pit.

 

[lorger]

@orger on closer inspection there's quite a lot of damp meter holes around the place where there's damp so I rather suspect it's been an issue a while and the last owners knew about it. We were in glorious Spain most of the year with pretty much 0 rain but as we know this September has not been kind weather wise...

Did you not have an inspection before buying?

 

[Peter Clark]

I would get it fixed myself - if the price was right. Have used Sealfast and they will give you a pricing with a minimum to maximum range.

 

[Bessy765]

In 2019 we took our 2012 Elddis to a dealer to trade in against a new van. The new van was £80,000 plus. When they inspected ours stated it was badly affected with damp, showed us the videos, and knocked another three grand of the trade in price, and would cost thousand to repair and weeks to dry out. After we collected the new one our old van was for sale at an independent dealers for £10,000 more than we got. A friend rang uup and asked if he was to buy it when woud it be ready for collection he was told ten days.

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[busbuddy]

busbuddy yes sorry 630l. You might be right about the dinette but also the cupboards above the window are a bit squidgy.

Does it have the factory tv aerial above the first cupboard.....prone to leaking over time
Also remove inner heki frame to check wood for any water trails
A water leak from the skylight in the bathroom can track forward into the cupboards as well

 

[busbuddy]

your model was made with a new type of floor that acted like a sponge !

Not all of them had the 'special' flooring

 

[Terry]

Not all of them had the 'special' flooring

They changed the floor in 2005 and it took while 2007 for them to admit the fault existed. This went onto a damage limitation by Peter (who owned the company Swift ) campaign where he promised that anyone with a Swift would get the repair done. He was very successful with his promises and probably saved Swift from going bust. The first remedy was to seal the skirts to stop water running down the sides and soaking into the floor. This was done by dealers without letting the customer knowing why the skirts were being sealed at the service/Hab check Some customers had had enough of the bad services from dealers ( other matters )and simply didn’t have Hab checks done so some vans missed the sealing and later were going back to the factory for the floor replaced. This all came to a end when Peter sold Swift and I assume retired. The new owners simply said the vans out of warranty hence now owners getting problems.

 

[Krumpli]

Related story. I am trying to sell my motorhome and arranged a habitation check. The young men found various "damp" patches but nothing to worry about. However they found an area near the toilet that read 70%. I repeat, 70%.
So far two potential sales have been lost because of this.
I decided to invest in a moisture meter and found that it agreed with the various habitation check readings in the motorhome. However at the problem area near the toilet my meter read from 0% to 1.5%.
I have written over the habitation report that the readings are now as above, signed and dated the comment. Hopefully this will help us to sell the motorhome.
How they managed to get 70% is beyond me. Was it a ruse to encourage me to have a repair done?