Insurance Claim Rejection
We sustained a crack to the large double glazed top front window on our 2015 Swift 480. I thought it was impact damage as did the Swift approved service centre who inspected it. The estimate for repairs was over £4k as it is a full front end replacement believe it or not. Insurance company have now rejected the claim saying that it is a design fault and fairly common on Swift Caravans. Swift Group simply say not our problem, any design fault would have shown itself way before now and your warranty is up anyway. I'm not too happy at shelling out over £4k as I believe either the insurance company or Swift Group should be coughing up. Any one else experienced this problem? I'm trying the Financial Ombudsman route. Any advice most appreciated.
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Do you have written evidence from the insurance company saying it is a design fault? If so, the dealer you bought from is responsible because he sold you a caravan not fit for purpose.
I suggest you speak to CAMC’s legal team and seek advice.
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If it is a recognised design problem and classed as not fit for purpose then this over rules any warranty/guarantee period. The van in theory is covered for life.
Colin
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It's a well known fault. Swift have a travelling team who replace them, the window not the whole front end.
We had our 2015 Sterling Continental 570 front window replaced under warranty in early 2022, after it cracked in August 2021.
The £4k and complete front is OTT, so someones is pulling your plonker. Write jointly to your dealer MD and Swift MD, if no satisfaction Trading Standards or equivalent north of the border, then small claims court. Should bring requisite focus.
In the meantime drill a small hole at each end of the crack to stop it propagating, and cover with gorilla tape, as recommended by our dealer ( who are a professional enterprise, unlike a lot in the cowboy industry that is caravans ) until repaired.
Check the rear panel too as ours cracked and was replaced in 2022 also.
There is a common theme on these thrown together poor quality parts at a circus in Cottingham, that despite written assurances from on high, the quality continues its downward spiral.
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Many thanks for the helpful tips & comments.
I lost the will to live trying to speak to a person from the Swift Gp. All I could salvage was an email saying any design fault would have shown up in the vans first few years and "Sorry, your warranty has run out".
Dealer says "Sorry, insurance problem".
Insurance company says "Sorry, design fault claim rejected.
GOOD NEWS: Financial Ombudsman forwarded my evidence to the Lloyds Gp who are the over writers of the underwriters!! They tasked a different claims company to inspect the damage and report. The engineer who inspected left saying sorry it's a common design fault in Swifts of the 2015 era and he'd seen 20+ rejected claims in his time. Two days later he called me to say that his photos had revealed some micro cracks indicative of impact damage which is an insurable event. He also sourced another repair estimate of £1500 from another Swift Approved Dealer who rubbished the first Swift Approved Dealer's excessive quote.
All evidence has now gone back to the underwriters who I hope will approve the claim. Morals of the story: trust nobody, never give in to insurers or manufacturers, buy German and use CAMC Caravan Cover in future!!
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Thanks for the update. I hope you have a successful result.
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Great news all round hope all can enjoy the year ahead.
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Well done! The moral of the story is "to believe no one (especially those who are financially involved: dealers/manufacturers/insurers!) and get an independent Engineer report by any means possible".
Powerful expert evidence will hopefully start moving things in the right direction.
We have a similar experience. There are inherent defects on our Elddis van and we have been forced pay for an expert report on such defects as Elddis &the Dealer are shirking their responsibilities. The report is damning.
Due to what we have had to endure, I will never buy an Elddis again.
Indeed, one can ask why anyone would want to buy from a manufacturer (such as Elddis) that literally doesn't care about their customers?
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Our last caravan was an Elddis Crusader, and was a nightmare from start to finish, with cracked front panel and leaking everywhere. Traded it in five years ago for a new Knaus starclass that is built 100% better, but the sites are still full of new Elddis vans but not for us.
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We have heard similar stories, re Eldiss. On speaking to chap a couple of years ago and admiring his top of the range Buccaneer he advised us not to even think about it, he had had really bad issues with his caravan and Eldiss were the worst ever to deal with. Unfortunately it sounds as if Swift are following suit which is a shame, just seems to be the norm these days!
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Reading the comments about Elddis in this thread I bought an Affinity 482 new in 2013. From the word go it was a disaster. On our first outing a push fit pipe connection to the basin in the washroom failed and flooded said washroom.
Almost every time we went out with the 'van something fell off, went wrong or didn't work. After about four months the van went back to the dealer for various warranty claims and whilst with them they found even more faults!
Despite the warranty work things were no better. With ever more faults piling up, including cracks in the front panel that other postings in this thread have mentioned I threw in the towel and traded it for a Lunar Clubman CK in 2015.
The Lunar has been far from perfect but is way and above the Affinity, and there must be something good about it because 8 years later I still have the Lunar. That though, is probably more due to financial constraints rather than my admiration for it!
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I had the same thing with a Swift Conqueror 480 cracked panoramic window. So I hopped online and found that it is indeed common and a design fault. Presented the caravan to the dealership who said it was impact damage! No it's a design fault says me. They replaced it (eventually) under warranty but it was a long wait. The dealership said they had sealed it so I carried on and was in Scotland for a funeral. I went to recce the funeral and when I came back their so called seal had failed and filled the front chest of drawers with water and soaked my bedding! Brilliant local man came out to the Scone campsite and sealed it for me again - he was horrified at the previous seal although he did grin and say they would have problems getting his repair unstuck!
It was in a thread maybe 18 months ago and someone had noticed the crack in a new van he was buying still at the dealership! Eventually he rejected the caravan and went elsewhere if memory serves.
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