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A friend has mentioned that there seems to be a multitude of 'new' or 2007 caravans for sale in the South of England, all at quite low prices, and wondered if perhaps these could have been 'vans which had suffered water damage during the floods.

He has seen one or two with 'minor damage', described as being bought direct from the Insurance companies, but had called one seller to ask what the damage was, only to be told that the Insurers had not passed on this information and that the only visible damage was a 10" scratch, "now repaired and invisible"!

I suggested that he should be very wary and perhaps contact the dealer who sold the caravan originally before parting with his money.

Has anyone heard any news relating to this?

Flood damaged vans that were insured will be cat B at best and only fit for what is salvageable or Cat A which means they are destroyed as is, nothing is allowed to be salvaged. Legitimate salvage dealers will get most of them and would not dare sell them whole, it's far to easy to get caught and the insurance companies simply won't deal with them again. Insurance companies btw will never re-insure Cat A or B's again.

The big problem then is when a van is not insured, there's plenty of these knocking about but probably tend to be older rather than nearly new, the newer surely the more likely to be insured.

I would say though you don't need to be a Sherlock to spot one, tide marks inside should be easy to spot. Unevenness on the bottom of furnishing where the wood has swelled and then dried is another easy clue as is a totally uneven floor. A quick check underneath should quickly show where muddy water has laid leaving a thin even layer of dried mud behind.

I've just had someone in today that bought a gas fire from a 1999 flooded van and although washed off, tell tale mud was everywhere in the nooks and crannies

P.S. The insurance company may not write down the actual damage but the buyer will buy it at a price according to it's Cat letter, this will be on his invoice and he most certainly will be aware of this. As I said A & B he should not be selling, C will require an engineers report before re-insuring and D is minor cosmetic damage.

The late models for sale cheap are probably not flood damaged ones but rather ones that flood victims have been using as temporary accomodation pending repairs to their houses.

As Ron says, daily living will have caused more than average wear and tear,, hence low prices.

That's a good point Caz, so if it's direct of an insurance company without a Cat then I think you can take it it's been used for temporary accommodation.

This may or may not be a bargain though, I'd get a good mobile service guy to check it out