Buying a category D write-off Campervan

huddlejonny

Advice needed please folks.

Checked out a campervan during the week that I am really interested in. The logbook showed up multiple owners and I checked it out on motorcheck.ie

registered in the UK - August 2007
category D write off - July 2007
imported to Ireland - August 2008
5 owners since import to Ireland.

Can anyone shed any light on:

A: How could a van be written off before registration

B: How do I find out what happened to it that it is now classed category D write-off.

Cheers for any input.

spaceHopper

None of the last 5 owners here have kept it there must be a reason I'd pass on it

crabbypaddy

huddlejonny wrote: »

Advice needed please folks.

Checked out a campervan during the week that I am really interested in. The logbook showed up multiple owners and I checked it out on motorcheck.ie

registered in the UK - August 2007
category D write off - July 2007
imported to Ireland - August 2008
5 owners since import to Ireland.

Can anyone shed any light on:

A: How could a van be written off before registration

B: How do I find out what happened to it that it is now classed category D write-off.

Cheers for any input.

A. Damaged in transit to the dealer, damaged at the dealer, damaged on test drive.

B. I doubt you can.

*Kol*

It would have been written off by the insurance company as uneconomical to repair, but it was still repairable. It's very common for even light damage to make a vehicle BER.

huddlejonny

Thanks for the replys, I should really walk away but it appears to be a decent wagon and I'd like to find out what happened to it.

Is there any way of finding out who the main dealer was that first sold it using the UK reg?

*Kol*

It's better if you buy it yourself as a category D as you know what's wrong with it. For example a friend of mine bought a car that had been keyed down the side from front to back. A no brainer to buy and get painted cheaply. Maybe the camper was side swiped or similar. If you are not comfortable better to walk away.

crabbypaddy

huddlejonny wrote: »

Is there any way of finding out who the main dealer was that first sold it using the UK reg?

Only if you're the registered owner can you can request previous owners at the DVLAs discretion. Even then not sure if they'd entertain a request about an exported vehicle and if they did would they entertain such requests from a non citizen from outside the country with eu data protection shenannigans.

May be simpler than that though, did you check the stamps in the book, check for stickers in the window? The history check should include the UK reg.

meercat

It's not a bessacarr by any chance
Fire damaged one for sale on done deal a few years back
Looked brand new except the living area was completely destroyed.

huddlejonny

meercat wrote: »

It's not a bessacarr by any chance
Fire damaged one for sale on done deal a few years back
Looked brand new except the living area was completely destroyed.

Not a Bessacar - the van I was looking at is still up for sale on Done deal.

After doing some research throughout the day I have discovered that the van was 1 of 9 Peugeots that were written off due to flood damage in the main dealer show room ( we think ) before it was first registered in the UK - the report said that there was extensive damage underneath. The insurance company paid out and then sold the vehicles.

Apparently you do not have to declare this category D Uk Write-off in a private sale - for commercial sale you do.

spaceHopper

huddlejonny wrote: »

Not a Bessacar - the van I was looking at is still up for sale on Done deal.

After doing some research throughout the day I have discovered that the van was 1 of 9 Peugeots that were written off due to flood damage in the main dealer show room ( we think ) before it was first registered in the UK - the report said that there was extensive damage underneath. The insurance company paid out and then sold the vehicles.

Apparently you do not have to declare this category D Uk Write-off in a private sale - for commercial sale you do.

Why has it changed hands so often here?

huddlejonny

Don't know to be honest. 2 UK Owners 5 Irish. Something very strange going on with that amount of owners and only 18.5k on the clock.