habitation check

how much should i expect to pay for a habitation check?have been quoted £200 is reasonable?

I use a mobile engineer who charged £95 back in April. Dealers seem to charge between £120 and £200. Shop around.

thanks paulmold.when you say mobile engineer i take it thats a caravan/motorhome type of guy?

Yes. Just google 'mobile caravan engineer' and you'll find a couple of directories of engineers sorted into regions.

£200 is far too much.  The NCC Caravan rate isnt that high where there is more to cover than on a motorhome/campervan.  
We use a different NCC approved mobile guy to Paul and pay around £100. He is slightly more later in the year but Jan/Feb time this is his rate.

I use a local mobile engineer in S.Wales and usually pay £95.He has been excellent and has replaced a few "bits & pieces" at a very reasonable price.Unfortunately he is retiring next year so I am hoping he will find someone to buy his business.

There are a couple of useful web sites. For highly qualified engineers able to work on new vehicles under warranty then take a look at - [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

For engineers in your area take a look at this site. Some engineers are also AWS and able to work on new vehicles - [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

In my opinion you should be looking at a price between £100 and £175. If the engineer is paying all of his insurance, membership fees, re-calibration etc. etc then they can't be making any money at less than £100.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for that, your advice as always is appreciated.  I dont like asking you too much too often as its your full time business which brings in your income

Its probably worth putting a reminder here that the check is what it says it is, there is no servicing or adjustment involved (unless the vehicle is still under warranty when the approved agent should (with AS or other relevant supplier approval) rectify any faults found that fall under the terms of the warranty).

Read the small print carefully because for some items additional servicing may be required for warranty purposes.

You should also confirm that the engineer is qualified to carry out both gas and mains electric tests and records the results.

Peter

I found mine from the Caravan Club website. Had two before but felt they really weren't bothered. One even flattened my battery. They were both approved gas engineers. The one I use now is a star.
I think you have to use them to find out what they are really like.

The Approved Workshop web site will give you engineers that can service your vehicle under warranty and to the manufacturers standard in order to protect the warranty. It is run by the National Caravan Council with support of the Caravan Club and the Camping & Caravanning Club.

I am always happy to answer questions and help if I can.

thanks all for your input. i have managed to find a local engineer he is coming on friday so i will let you know how it goes.

Don't forget your fridge will need a separate service, probably from a different engineer as it's not usually covered by the standard habitation service.
I have mobile engineers for both habitation and fridge, approx. £140 for habi (exc. parts) and approx. £90 last time for the fridge (inc. essential parts)

An approved workshop will service your fridge at the time of a service but you must book it at the time that you book the service because of the extra time it takes.

Hi, I didn’t realise that a fridge in a leisure vehicle needed to be serviced, I assumed that the gas hose to the fridge would be checked during the habitation check. Is there other things that need to be done to the fridge over a period of time?

what exactly do you get in a fridge service?

The fridge service is all about cleaning the flue and jets. We are also looking for proper room sealing.

A normal habitation service is checking for gas leaks, proper burning and cooling.

The last known fridge service on our Harmony was back in 2001 when we last owned her. Now back with us and 5 owners later and it was obvious no-one had bothered, the burner and jet were FBR'd !! (..... beyond repair). The vents were, um, a great home for the spiders and we'll leave it that. It took my man 2 hours to sort it all out. He was not too phased as, sadly, he sees that state quite often apparently.
I've just looked the invoice and it was £60 labour and £39.94 for the new burner and jet.
If you're in Hampshire I use Albany Mobile Caravan Services for the fridge and 'ollyvan' (paul.butler@ollyvan.co.uk)for the habitation service, which is being done this coming Friday.
Because we don't use the van very much I get the habi service done at the same time as a small mechanical service and the fridge coincides with the major mechanical service which balances out the annual overall service cost.

a bit late in posting but the habitation check went well,well almost.the water heater i had installed was leaking gas but everything else was ok.the engineer was great and told me what to do,i followed his instructions and now don't have a leak.saved myself £60 there and he only charged me £80 for the check.

And you're still alive.

ha ha and kickin rose.