Habitation Service / Damp test

Nick-Mandy

Nick-Mandy

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What exactly is involved in a habitation serviced / damp test?

My camper is now three years old, and for the first two years, the services were provided free (I expect it was added to the actual purchase price), obviously I had these done to keep the manufacturer guarantee in check.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Be nice :)

I guess most of the checks could be done by the individual. A gas test is a serious test that requires specialist equipment, but can't we just buy suitable equipment at Toolstation or Screwfix? I normally check everything twice a year, cooker and fridge working okay, and use a 240v socket tester in each outlet.

As for a damp test, there are many devices under £30 that seem to do the job, why would I want to pay £40 for someone else to do the job (except to keep them in employment)?

Maybe I'm dismissing the fact of why it is so necessary to pay £250 for a habitation service each year.

Do any of you do your own servicing or do you always leave it up to the dealership?
 
I've never had a habitation service done on any of the vans I've owned, to keep the water ingress warranty I always had a damp test done at the dealers. The Hymer had it's damp checks done at the dealer in Germany that originally supplied it, cost 45 euro and took them 1 hour.
 
Is it a habitation service or a check , many people have them done for years just to keep up water ingress warranty and to keep the dealers money rolling in , and all work must by registered dealers .
 
I would buy a damp meter that does not make holes and do that yourself.
Do 2 tests as benchmarks
1 say now when it is damp and cold
2 nd when it is dry and warm just to note if they differ.
3 do spot checks after/during heavy rain

It is a check not a service.
For gas see if you can get someone who will effect minor repairs ie check and service
 
A lot depends on which MH you have. The European ones only require a Damp Check every year to keep the guarantee in place. Some of the UK built MHs require you to have a Habitation Check as well. They don't do much for their £250 Habitation Check and it can be done in an hour. I had a Swift and watched a mobile guy do ours. Quick spray of the blinds with non staining lubricant. Make sure nothing has fell off. Fill in the forms and job done. IMO the Hab Check is just a BIG con dreamt up by the caravan industry many years ago to make money for the Dealers. Apart from the gas you can do everything else yourself. You do need to change the gas hoses after 5 years and you can test the gas system with the right kit. All they do is check for leaks. As for checking the electrics. You press a switch and the light comes on. Some Dealers insist that you have the checks even if they are not required and may force you to have them done before they do any guarantee work. It's all one big con.
 
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Torchy said:
What exactly is involved in a habitation serviced / damp test?
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A habitation check consists of charging the customer money. Some also include looking at the van, maybe poking around in the likely spots for damp ingress, perhaps checking that there are no gas leaks.

An enthusiastic person might check that things work

A habitation service is even less well defined.

I've never paid for a habitation check. I have a damp meter, but they're for firewood, not for vehicle interiors.

The thing you pay for is the 'engineer' knowing where to look: where problems generally appear on that model.

Generally, it's a good idea for the technically clueless. It's vital for the first year or two with a new van to protect the warranty.

Otherwise, I think their only function is to keep motorhome service workshops in business.
 
Torchy said:
What exactly is involved in a habitation serviced / damp test?

My camper is now three years old, and for the first two years, the services were provided free (I expect it was added to the actual purchase price), obviously I had these done to keep the manufacturer guarantee in check.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Be nice :)

I guess most of the checks could be done by the individual. A gas test is a serious test that requires specialist equipment, but can't we just buy suitable equipment at Toolstation or Screwfix? I normally check everything twice a year, cooker and fridge working okay, and use a 240v socket tester in each outlet.

As for a damp test, there are many devices under £30 that seem to do the job, why would I want to pay £40 for someone else to do the job (except to keep them in employment)?

Maybe I'm dismissing the fact of why it is so necessary to pay £250 for a habitation service each year.

Do any of you do your own servicing or do you always leave it up to the dealership?
Click to expand...
I paid more than that and vat was added, the carver heater wasn't working and I was told another £270. to repair that, seemed ok so told them to go ahead, I was then phoned up to say that the wiring I'd attached to the leisure battery which enabled me to attach my free standing solar panel to was illegal but he could fix it by putting a socket on and I have to attach the solar leads with a plug, 1. 65p for the socket and plug so that was ok, I figured it would take take 30 minutes tops to do, ha, I was charged nearly £70 for that, the final bill was more than double the quote, was the health check of the van needed, not really, would I do it again, don't think so, I'm sure a damp metre can be bought for self testing, and if something is wrong, get it fixed, I've never been asked for proof of a hab check.
 
We have it done every year in order to keep up the warranty. I don't like paying for it however our last MH had oodles of damp which was found on the hab check and it was all repaired FOC under the warranty saving us £'000's.

No brainer if your MH still has the warranty in place I think.

We buy 'nearly new' and I always ask for proof of manufacturers warranty via the hab check history/reports.
 
I'm one of the clueless so have had habitation checks done on a regular basis. On my old van it has generally paid off with problems rectified if needed. I got into the check habit because of travelling with my then small grandchildren. I don't play with gas and electrics; it's not an expertise I possess and I'm not risking making bad situations worse. For me watching a You tube video on cake decorating is one thing gas and electrics I'm not playing with
 
BunnyB said:
I paid more than that and vat was added, the carver heater wasn't working and I was told another £270. to repair that, seemed ok so told them to go ahead, I was then phoned up to say that the wiring I'd attached to the leisure battery which enabled me to attach my free standing solar panel to was illegal but he could fix it by putting a socket on and I have to attach the solar leads with a plug, 1. 65p for the socket and plug so that was ok, I figured it would take take 30 minutes tops to do, ha, I was charged nearly £70 for that, the final bill was more than double the quote, was the health check of the van needed, not really, would I do it again, don't think so, I'm sure a damp metre can be bought for self testing, and if something is wrong, get it fixed, I've never been asked for proof of a hab check.
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Sorry, but you were conned if he said the 12v wiring was illegal. As far as I know, there are no laws about how 12v wiring is done. It may have been suboptimal, or even dangerous (unlikely) but it wasn't illegal.

You were told the carver heating wasn't working. Unless you never used it, surely you'd have noticed that? If you never used it, why have it fixed?
 
GMJ said:
We buy 'nearly new'
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Why?

There are two reasons for selling a nearly new motorhome: because you want this year's model (as if it's a fashion parade) or because it proved to be a lemon with things going wrong all the time.

The latter makes for a poor.purchase.

My approach is to buy older and better.
 
I bought a 10 month old MH with negligible miles that had never been slept in, cooked in or peed in. Why was it sold? No idea. Why was it bought by me? It suited my needs and in nearly 9 years has been faultless - German engineering, Burstner. I also saved many thousands over buying new. With prices sky high these days I’d reckon it’s almost lost no depreciation in all that time even with 55k miles on the clock now.
 
SimonM said:
I bought a 10 month old MH with negligible miles that had never been slept in, cooked in or peed in. Why was it sold? No idea. Why was it bought by me? It suited my needs and in nearly 9 years has been faultless - German engineering, Burstner. I also saved many thousands over buying new. With prices sky high these days I’d reckon it’s almost lost no depreciation in all that time even with 55k miles on the clock now.
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We were lucky enough to find the same thing with our first motorhome, an AutoTrail. The previous owner had hardly used anything either. He'd bought it brand new, had the dealer fit steadies, then found he was too large to use it and couldn't drive it.

We couldn't buy it quickly enough and kept it over 12 years.
 
Never had one done on any of our vans, now and then I've had them check for leaks with a manometer if they are doing a repair on an appliance as there isn't a better or simpler way to do it, and you can buy them yourself and it's an easy check to do.


Digital may or may not be accurate


Traditional cannot be inaccurate but you need to store it safe and learn how to use.
 
I do habitation checks for a living and no way I could do one in an hour. A new van for its first or second would take me 2 hours, anything older and you are looking at 3 hours plus to do the job properly. Chris
 
Geek said:
Why?

There are two reasons for selling a nearly new motorhome: because you want this year's model (as if it's a fashion parade) or because it proved to be a lemon with things going wrong all the time.

The latter makes for a poor.purchase.

My approach is to buy older and better.
Click to expand...

Each to their own.

By buying a relatively new one someone else has paid the VAT; someone else has hopefully sorted any niggles out; it'll have low mileage and be in great condition; chances are that it'll have extras fitted; and it'll have loads of manufacturers warranty left. We tend to keep them for 3-5 years and then do the same again.

Our current one had 2k miles on the clock and the previous owner had had fitted an E&P self levelling system amongst some other stuff, none of which was charged at a premium when we bought the MH.

Works for us.
 
ChrisAndHeather said:
I do habitation checks for a living and no way I could do one in an hour. A new van for its first or second would take me 2 hours, anything older and you are looking at 3 hours plus to do the job properly. Chris
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Can you tell us what you actually do that takes so long to do?

As an owner. I have a clue about most things, I am constantly doing a hab check and apart from a gas safety check most things are observational, a hab service may take three hours but I can't see a check doing so it'd be nice to see what it entails for a Pro.
 
ChrisAndHeather said:
I do habitation checks for a living and no way I could do one in an hour. A new van for its first or second would take me 2 hours, anything older and you are looking at 3 hours plus to do the job properly. Chris
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I too am interested in your work where about are you located, thanks Chris. (my name too)
 
A local dealer offered a Hab SERVICE for £265, which I agreed to because they'd done me a favour saving hundreds of pounds AND the van hadn't had one for over a decade. I knew that there were things wrong and I listed them to either leave (because I knew how much they would cost to fix) or sort. A couple of things which I forgot to list didn't get spotted: so much for their checking!

It took approx 6 months from them first getting their hands on my MH to me getting it back with (almost) everything working! Some of that wasn't their fault, as my life got busy during the summer and I couldn't guarantee being able to let them have it even for 24 hours.

I complained about their terminology, as "doing" the fridge was charged extra.

One of their comments was that the rubber seal round the skylight was sticking and I asked why it hadn't been done under their "we offer 1 hour of complementary work so that we don't have to contact you about every little aspect" only to be told that they had removed that from their T&Cs but had forgotten to update the webpage: "thank you for drawing this to our attention". I fixed the seal in 5 minutes.

I don't think I will be having another one done!

Gordon
 
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