{"id":359138,"date":"2025-12-19T22:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/359138\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T22:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T22:08:10","slug":"dreams-shattered-as-140-zone-rv-caravan-customers-worst-fears-realised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/359138\/","title":{"rendered":"Dreams shattered as 140 Zone RV caravan customers’ worst fears realised"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 140 families who purchased luxury caravans are in shock after administrators for the collapsed company Zone RV confirmed their worst fears.<\/p>\n

The Sunshine Coast-based firm plunged into administration on December 1<\/a> owing $42 million to hundreds of creditors.<\/p>\n

Administrator Cor Cordis has now told about 140 customers who partially paid for their luxury vans that they will not receive them, leaving future holiday plans in tatters.<\/p>\n

Some customers are more than $160,000 out of pocket<\/a>, having paid about 80 per cent of the total cost in progress payments.<\/p>\n

“We regret to advise the company is unable to fulfil its contractual obligations to you for the manufacture and delivery of the caravan,” the letter from Cor Cordis said.<\/p>\n

“As at the date of administration, the manufacture of your caravan had not yet commenced, and the company is without sufficient resources to continue manufacturing and deliver your caravan.<\/p>\n

“We acknowledge this is distressing and disappointing news to be receiving and we thank you for your patience as we work through the position with respect to each customer’s caravan order.”<\/p>\n

The letters included phone numbers for Lifeline and Beyond Blue.<\/p>\n

Agony and ecstasy for Zone RV customers<\/a><\/p>\n

People who fully paid before the company collapsed can receive their vans if they pay an extra fee.<\/p>\n

Cor Cordis this week released about 20 vans to customers who had fully paid, provided they paid an additional 12 per cent fee.<\/p>\n

The fee covered the cost of running the business on a skeleton staff and completing some remaining vans.<\/p>\n

Another tranche of about 20 caravans, which had been fully paid for, will be completed and passed to their new owners by the end of January.<\/p>\n

‘Sickening feeling’<\/p>\n

New Zealand couple Cade and Alexis Thornton had paid $168,000 towards their dream caravan, with a final instalment due before collection in February.<\/p>\n

The family sold their business, rented out their home, taken the kids out of school and bought flights and a four-wheel drive to complete a lap around Australia.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Thornton family from New Zealand face an uncertain future. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“We were braced for bad news, but it was still a sickening feeling receiving the official email to say our van hadn’t even been started and our contract wouldn’t be honoured,” Ms Thornton said.<\/p>\n

“We are trying to keep our plans alive \u2014 we have to because we have tenants moving in to our house next month, so abandoning the trip isn’t really an option.<\/p>\n

“We’ve started looking for a second-hand caravan.<\/p>\n

“Zone may have taken our $168,000, but we’re determined not to let them take our dream holiday from us too.”Only hope for unlucky customers<\/p>\n

The ABC understands there are several parties interested in rescuing Zone RV.<\/p>\n

Cor Cordis revealed last week Zone RV owed $42 million<\/a> to hundreds of creditors including customers, suppliers, employees, banks and the tax office.<\/p>\n

Delivering the 40 caravans to customers will shave off about $8 million from the creditors bill.<\/p>\n

The only hope of a financial return for the 140 unlucky customers, whose prospects of getting their caravan have now evaporated, is if a buyer emerges to restructure the company.<\/p>\n

They may recoup a fraction of their money if the company is liquidated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 140 families who purchased luxury caravans are in shock after administrators for the collapsed company Zone RV…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,196146,64308,181482],"class_list":["post-359138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-caravan-manufacturer","tag-liquidation","tag-zone-rv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}