Buying Private

[Foxycow]

Hi all this is my first entry on Motorhome Fun although I've been watching free for a while (Scottish). My question is, I'm buying my second MH privately having bought the first from a dealer, is there any way of putting some protection in place prior to buying, regarding faults, money back and consumer protection?

 

[Figaro]

Not certain on Scottish law but I'd doubt you get much protection.
Just do your due diligence, get it checked over carefully, check for damp, make sure your know of any faults.
In England to any seller has a duty to inform you of any known faults but that can be difficult to enforce I suspect and there will be plenty who don't inform sellers.
Also never hand over cash without seeing it.
You can usually get a feel for whether the sellers are genuine during viewing, ask lots of questions and be suspicious if you get vague answers and seller doesn't know his vehicle.
Bank transfer at time of collection is usually best payment method, but some banks have a maximum daily limit on transfers so you may need to speak to your bank beforehand.
Good luck

 

[Foxycow]

Thanks Figaro Is bank transfer immediate?

 

[Crazylegs]

Thanks Figaro Is bank transfer immediate?

Not necessarily, we sold a car to a lady who had pre warned her bank about the likely transaction, it took six hours for the money to arrive in our account. During the many calls to both banks we were told bank transfers can take up to 24 hours.

 

[tacr2man]

IIRC it can be immediate if done by "fastpay"

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[Crazylegs]

IIRC it can be immediate if done by "fastpay"

In theory yes, we run a small company and transfer payments to suppliers and staff via fast pay, these regular payments are normally instant. Chuck an unusual transaction into the mix and the bank may decide to have a check to be sure all is well.

 

[BusyBuilder]

When I bought mine it took numerous calls and about 4 hours for the transfer.

 

[Carolyn and Kev]

Not sure if this helps but the guys who bought our last motorhome paid us via the banking app NW. The money was in the account within 15 mins and was confirmed by the bank with an email to us within two minutes of the last payment going in. We received a sum total of £46k
I would say it worked ok for us .
We have just purchased a "New to us" motorhome and that too was paid for by our NW account via the app. We asked for the sum to be checked first and to make sure the account it was going in to ..was legitimate. This was a check carried out by the bank by paying in a token amount to check if the account was good. Once that was done ..we were allowed to make four 10k payments and one 7k
Payment was received and confirmed within 20 minutes by the two banks confirming with emails.
Warranty and back up is a totally different thing. Remember....a dealer will charge you that extra 6/10 k to act as back up (Warranty) . Some they can win and the monies paid by the client is all profit. Some they will obviously lose and then they have to fork out to rectify the problems they then have.
You can always pay for an insurance warranty like MB and G. That will cover any possible faults but again..it all comes down to the age of the truck that you may buy?

Hopefully you will sort something soon.

Regards Kev

 

[IRHP]

Same rules apply as buying a car privately. It's buyer beware. No come back whatsoever if you find problems after purchase. You can check service history, hab check etc for any previous problems. On the other hand it should be cheaper than an equivalent van at a dealer.

 

[Parrot Face]

There is always a risk and a gamble with private sales. However when you view some sad threads on here where members have been screwed by dealers. I've bought two motorhomes privately and in both cases it was about having a number of lengthy conversations face to face with them and assessing whether they were 'genuine'. To me the seller is studied as much as the vehicle.