Brand-New Caravan Arrived Defective? Your Refund Rights Under the ACL

You spent $60,000–$200,000 on a caravan. Maybe it’s a touring van, an off-road expedition van, a fifth-wheeler, or a custom build. Then on the first trip — or sometimes before you’ve even left the dealer’s lot — the defects show up. Water leaks. Dodgy electrics. Chassis flex. Hot water failure. Brake issues. Slide-out mechanisms that won’t operate. The dealer points at the manufacturer. The manufacturer points back at the dealer. Both ask you to “give it time” or “use the warranty repair process”.

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) — Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 — gives you stronger rights than that pinball-machine treatment. A caravan sold by a dealer comes with non-excludable consumer guarantees. Major defects almost always trigger your right to a refund or replacement.

What counts as a “major failure” for a caravan

• You wouldn’t have bought it had you known about the defect
• It’s significantly different from how it was described or displayed
• It’s unsafe to tow or to live in
• The defect can’t be fixed within a reasonable time
• The combined effect of multiple smaller defects amounts to a major failure

For caravans, that last point matters. A new van with eight or ten “minor” issues — none individually catastrophic, but collectively rendering the van unfit for the touring purpose you bought it for — is a major failure. The ACL doesn’t require any single fault to be fatal.

Why dealers stall

Caravan dealers know most buyers will accept warranty repair rather than push for a refund. The repair process drags on for months — service backlogs, parts on order from the manufacturer, “next available slot in February”. Meanwhile, you’re paying off a $100k loan on a van you can’t use.

A formal Letter of Demand changes the calculation. It cites the major failure, names your right to a refund or replacement under the ACL, sets a deadline, and signals you’re prepared to file in your state tribunal. Most dealers will negotiate seriously at that point because tribunal decisions become public records.

What the Letter of Demand covers

• The caravan (make, model, VIN, build date, purchase price, dealer)
• The specific defects with dates discovered, plus any independent inspection report
• The remedy attempts and why they’ve failed (or are unreasonable)
• Citation of the ACL major-failure provisions
• Your chosen remedy (refund, replacement, or compensation)
• Deadline (typically 14–21 days for caravans given the complexity)
• Escalation pathway: state tribunal, ACCC, Fair Trading complaint

What about finance?

If you financed the caravan and the dealer arranged the loan, the financier may be jointly liable under linked-credit provisions of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act. That’s an extra lever.

Flat fee

Tell us what you bought, what is wrong and what your mechanic found; we draft the letter, and once you approve it, we send it to the dealer.

If the dealer doesn’t respond, the next step is a tribunal application ($97). For amounts within state tribunal limits — $25,000 to $100,000 depending on state — that’s the right venue. For larger claims, the District Court or equivalent.