She owns a caravan and has recently paid the annual fees of £4000.00 to stay on the site for next year and despite numerous requests, she has never been provided with a cope of her license agreement.
She has today received an email from the site to advise that her agreement has been terminated and she must leave the plot by December 31st.
She has asked for her money back but was told that this will be swallowed up by disconnection fees etc and when she advised she will speak to a lawyer, the site manager became extremely aggressive.
She owns the caravan and pays to rent the plot from the site. Is there anything she can do to;
a) avoid eviction (although she now does want to leave because of the way she's been treated and;
b) get her money back for the site fees.
Apologies for the rushed post, this all happened this morning!
Citizens Advice can give some guidance.
If she has the static insured, check whether the insurance includes a legal help line - some have specific advice lines for disputes with the site owner.
Otherwise, check her/your house insurance, as that may include a legal helpline.
I assume that this is a holiday site - was she given any form of contract when she purchased? If so, what does it say about termination and notice?
And it may be worth contacting NACO (even if she has to pay for a year's membership) to get some advice. https://www.nacoservices.com/static-caravan-advice/small-claims-and-static-caravans
It does, on the face of it, sound as if the park is being at the very least unreasonable, but without knowing all the facts, the best advice you will get on any forum is to get specific professional advice. We will only be guessing.
Did she pay the fees by credit card? If so, she may be able to get the card company involved in recovering the money, as she has paid for something that has been cancelled by the park
Yes, the park will be entitled to recover costs for disconnection and clearing the site, but this should be a separate invoice.
Has she tried getting the park to buy the van off her? Will be mickey-mouse money, but will save the trouble of having to remove it.
Gather up ALL the paperwork you have, including receipts for money paid, make notes of how long the van has been owned and sited, anything that can be recalled of any conversations, put it in order so that you can give clear picture of what has happened, and then - as above - get some professional help to try at least to get a refund.
I wonder - has the park changed hands recently? And I hesitate to ask - but was she using the static as a permanent residence rather than a holiday home? The 2 combined are one of the biggest causes of sudden terminations.
its a shame that some caravan parks treat static owners as badly as they do. They hold all the cards,
leaving aside the legality of fees being 'filtered' off for something else and looking at fees for disconnecting ..... undoing a compression fitting on a stop tap (or turning off the tap and cutting the pipework, unplugging from the mains electric and cutting and blanking off a soil pipe takes less that 20 minutes .... and can be done by the caravan owner BUT they dont allow them to !
a static with half decent inflated tyres can easily be towed off the site by a 4x4 (not on the road as that is illegal) - so just where would 4k be spent?
This is why it is so important that BEFORE buying, any static owner needs to know the process of termination of the contract by either party.
i am sorry to say that your MiL is not the first and wont be the last to be treated like this.
i hope it all works out, but can you post on here the outcome and what process you used/followed, so that others might be better informed? thanks
PS, this is the reason why owning a static in the UK can be a very unpleasant experience
What MisterB1959 says is absolutely right, static owners in this country are treated diabolically by site owners! It is of course all motivated by sheer greed. Site owners are lovely when they want to sell you one, but once they have got their hooks in its just one excuse after another to extract more money from you. Once you are on their site they have you over a barrel, as they know you can't move it yourself and no other site owner would take it anyway. They are all in it together.
I have holidayed in a static and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'd never dream of buying one even if I could afford it. Certainly not in rip-off Britain anyway.
Would suggest a solicitor rather than CAB. Ring locally and find one who offers free 'legal clinic' consultation. They will give free advice on /how whether to pursue, cost etc. These are often telephone appointments with current situation. It's better to have one single line of advice from a legal professional so you know exactly what your rights are.
Good luck
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the advice, I’ve made a Subject Access Request by email but no reply yet as I need a copy of her license agreement, I’ll let you know how we get on.
I agree with DotP, use a solicitor rather than the CAB. Most solicitors will do a free half hour if you ask. People who give advice in the CAB usually aren’t specialised in any field of law so the advice given can be wrong or misleading.
Quote: Originally posted by Josephliverpool on 01/11/2021
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the advice, I’ve made a Subject Access Request by email but no reply yet as I need a copy of her license agreement, I’ll let you know how we get on.
Hopefully you did the SAR in her name and not yours? As suggested CAB will be useless and a waste of time. You need to get a solicitor. Another avenue is to contact Which Legal Services on 0117 405 4672 and speak with them as they are the experts in consumer advice and do not charge the earth.
When phoning you may be on hold for awhile but if you persevere, you will get through.
Quote: Originally posted by arthurdent on 27/12/2021
This is the kind of thing that puts me off owning a mobile home, your mother in law has my sympathy.
I couldn't agree more! One giant rip-off and an excellent way of getting rid of loads of money if you have too much of it. If I want a holiday in a static caravan, I'll rent one for a week or two like I have in the past. They are lovely, but would I own one? No chance, even if I could afford to buy one. Come to think of it I wouldn't have one as a gift!
The OP joined UKCS on 28 Oct in order to post their request for advice. Their 3rd and last post was on 1 Nov, almost 2 months ago.
I don’t expect them to come back to update us, but it might help others in a similar situation in future if they did.
Quote: Originally posted by Fiona W on 30/12/2021
The OP joined UKCS on 28 Oct in order to post their request for advice. Their 3rd and last post was on 1 Nov, almost 2 months ago.
I don’t expect them to come back to update us, but it might help others in a similar situation in future if they did.
Hi.
Apologies for the lack of contact! So, the SAR came back and despite having being onsite for 10 years, they came back with only one document and nothing else, no signed license agreements or anything like that. I have emailed multiple times and my emails have been ignored and the date on the letter of termination is tomorrow.
Also, the local media have become heavily involved in the story, if you Google ‘Park Lane Holiday Homes Meols’ there are 3-4 stories off the back of them terminating the tenancies of multiple tenants!
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Topic: Legal Advice.
via mobile 01/11/2021 at 1:43pm
