Campervan hire

[Newuser75]

I'm hoping someone can help me.
We hired a campervan for a holiday. It was pretty much undriveable. The steering was all over the place, the handbrake didn't always work, neither did the windscreen wipers. It also didn't have a lockable box for the gas canister which we have since found out is illegal.
We drove it a very short way before returning it home and requesting it was collected as we didn't feel safe returning it. We then luckily managed to find another one to hire so we could have our holiday but missed one day.
The owner is disputing this and says it's fine although admitted he was unaware of the need for a box for the gas canister.
Is there any recourse for this? As we then had to get another campervan obviously at extra cost. And also don't actually have the original one in our possession as they collected it.

Was this in the UK?

Yes, England.

I think your gas needs to be in a box with a secure door but it doesn’t need to have a lock on it. It just needs to be airtight

The gas cylinder wasn't in any kind of box.

If you paid on your credit card I would try via there if no joy via tge company.
You could try small claims court - I would!

Thank you. Would it be worth going through small claims as it's just our word against his. He says the van is fine!

How did you hire it? Most reputable companies would have a habitation check completed regularly on the vans which checks all the systems and would have picked up on the gas bottle issue. have you checked the MOT to see if there is anything on there as advisories about the handbrake etc.

We hired it via a website. Have checked and it has had no mot for four years as it's a vintage campervan and apparently they are exempt!

If you hired a 'vintage' camper like an old VW without realising it you share some responsibility for the fact it was 'of its time'.

A bit of research would have shown the old 'Kombi' and a recent conversion based on, say, a Transporter are very different beasts.

We knew it was a vintage campervan.
Admittedly we didn't know they were exempt from mots and would be horrendously dangerous to drive!

I have a vintage VW camper. It's MOT exempt but ours is still tested for peace of mind.

As for the driving experience... I've always had old vans so the lack of power steering, plan-a-mile-in-advance braking and gear handle that's 10 feet from the gearbox (and takes quite a while to get used to) is no surprise.

That said, you should have had working windscreen wipers, working brakes and a secure gas bottle. MOT exemption doesn't mean it's a free-for-all all, it still needs to be road-worthy and SAFE! Not sure what you would need to do to claim a refund.

www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-safe

Even if MOT exempt, it still has to be roadworthy and to ensure that, most responsible owners put their classic vehicle through an MOT so it is thoroughly checked by a fresh pair of eyes (OH owns classic vehicles).

Cannot comment on what you experienced but an older vehicle can feel VERY different to a modern one with no PAS, lack of servo brakes, choke, manual windows, narrow tyres, lack of power, cramped driving position etc etc. That said, if it was in good roadworthy condition then you should not have found it so alarming.
I regularly drive some of my OH's vehicles and it can be a different world (although I hope the camper wasn't so old). Non-synchro gearbox, hand throttle, vacuum wipers (they have a mind of there own), I have even used the cranking handle to start one of them!😆

As PP have said, if the owner is not playing ball then your best recourse may be to go via your CC but a canny owner may have already put right any faults that (possibly) existed and unless you have documented proof, it may be a slog (especially if they did the work themselves so there is no record).☹️

Thank you.
Yes we are kind of thinking that we wouldn't be lucky with small claims.
The mot said problems with steering for most of the ones that were recorded so it wasn't just us and we did give it a little chance to try to get used to it but it was simply dangerous.
It's bad that this can happen but I'm glad we didn't drive it further.