Purchasing a Park Home is very different to purchasing bricks and mortar. Except for Council Tax purposes Park or Mobile Homes as they are officially known are classed as CARAVANS not Housing, but CHATTEL, stationed on CARAVAN SITES. Park Homes are purchased in exactly the same way as any other chattel such as a car or TV. No Solicitor is required, in fact many park owners actively discourage prospective buyers from employing the use of solicitors to oversee the transaction. 

There are four main methods open to Park Owners under the present Mobile Homes Act which are being widely used everyday nationwide to rob Park Homeowners of their homes and the tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds in equity each Park Homeowner has invested in their homes.

Section 8 Paragraph (1) of the Implied Terms of the Mobile Homes Act 1983/2006 states that “The occupier (Homeowner) shall be entitled to sell the mobile home, and to assign the agreement (contract), to a person approved of by the owner, whose approval shall not be unreasonably withheld.”

Every day without fail PHRAA receives a call from a distressed 70, 80 or 90 year old park homeowner pleading for help because the park owner will not allow him to sell his park home. The park owner takes the opportunity presented to him by using this right of approval to put off, using various dubious methods, every prospective buyer until such time as the helpless homeowner, who may through failing health had to enter sheltered, or other more suitable accommodation, leaving the home standing empty for many months awaiting sale also now in the impossible situation of having to pay for the upkeep of two properties, becomes so desperate that he is left with no other option,  but to accept the derisory offer from the park owner.

The only form of redress available to the homeowner being prevented from selling his home on the open market is to undertake very risky Legal Action against the Park Owner. This is a very daunting exercise for a young fit and able person with ample funds to employ legal representation, but is hardly likely to be a course of action undertaken by a frightened elderly pensioner with little or nothing in the way of financial resources. Added to which it can be months, even years, before the case is brought before the Court during which time many buyers will have been lost.

Normally a Park Home Site has planning permission for use as a Permanent Residential Park/Mobile Home Site. This means that the owners of Park Homes have security of tenure on that site for ever. But there are cases where the site,  although having been granted Permanent Planning Permission by the Local Authority, the ownership of the land which forms the site, may be subject to a Leasing agreement of limited duration. Therefore homeowners only have security of tenure up until the date of expiry, after which all homes and their occupants have to leave the site immediately.  

Unfortunately many homeowners may not have been made aware of the limited lease at the time they purchased their homes, or they may have received assurances from the park owner or advisers that it was not a problem as the lease would be continually renewed. (Rolling Lease)  However it can be, as in the case referred to at the beginning of this article,  that homeowners only become aware that the lease exists or will not be renewed, when they come to sell and find that not only is their home worthless, but they will be rendered homeless when the lease expires. To add further to their distress each homeowner may well be faced with a large bill from the park owner for the removal and disposal of the home from the park.

This clause in the Act is the one of the most despised by homeowners, many of whom do not even know of its existence until such time as they come to sell. Recent calls upon Government by homeowners and their representatives, including PHRAA, to reduce the rate to 7.5% were rejected in favour of the industries wish to retain the status quo. Whether a homeowner has sold his home of his own free will, been forced to sell by declining health reasons, been forced to take Court Action to obtain the park owners approval for his buyer,  or been driven out by the illegal actions of an unscrupulous park owner, the 10% is still payable. This outrageous charge, unique to the park home industry, on any person selling his own personal property (chattel) can only be regarded as the last kick in the teeth inflicted, with the backing of the law,  by the park owner,  on one of the most vulnerable and widely abused, members of society, the helpless park homeowner and must be abolished forthwith.

The main purpose of this PHRAA report is to bring to the Governments attention, the incalculable financial losses suffered by 60,70 80 and 90 year old park homeowners. But it is also vitally important to emphasise the deep despair and feeling of complete desolation, suffered by the helpless park homeowners faced with losing their homes and every penny of the life savings tied up in their homes.  Having endured months, even years of stress, harassment and intimidation their health deteriorates. Doctors Surgeries are full of Park Homeowner patients suffering stress related illnesses and being treated with tranquilisers all brought on by the despicable actions of a park owner intent on getting them off his park. Does anyone in Government give any thought whatsoever to the devastating effect on an aged person of being forced,  not only from your own home, but also robbed of the life savings tied up in that home on which the helpless elderly homeowner had relied on to support them for the few short years remaining to them on this earth?   If being made homeless and destitute at a great age was not bad enough, They will have also been torn from their community,  away from their friends, having to adapt to a totally new way of life in a strange area and being forced, possibly for the first time in their lives, to depend upon state benefits to survive. It is also very likely that as park homes contain built in furniture, which cannot be removed, new furniture, even a bed may have to be purchased.

Those who are capable try desperately to stand firm and fight for their homes, but soon find that their pleas for help have been rejected by every one in authority,  including local authorities, the Police, Trading Standards officers, even solicitors, all of which are powerless to help. It is then they find to their horror that there is no protection whatsoever available for the park homeowner against the uncontrolled and ruthless activities of the ever increasing number of ruthless unscrupulous park owners, who with the aid of their very clever Legal Advisors, are experts at exploiting and turning to their full advantage, every one of the gaping loopholes, contained within the terms of the ambiguous, outdated,  unenforceable, (from the homeowners point of view) Mobile Homes Act 1983. This Act, the terms of which give the park owner powers on a par with those granted to the landowners in medieval times, when the local Baron had absolute control over his helpless subjects and forelock tugging was the normal way of life gives the park owner, because he owns the land upon which the homeowners home stands,  virtually total control over the lives of park homeowners..

The Amendments to the Act that came into force in 2006 which the Government assured homeowners would curb the power of the unscrupulous park owner, have in most cases made the plight of homeowners far worse than before.  Park Owners, their trade organisations and legal advisors have seized the opportunity to insert new restrictive clauses in the agreements (contracts) tightening the noose around the innocent park homeowner even further. Even the democratic right of wives and partners to a vote on matters affecting their life on the park has been abolished by this new legislation. Severe restrictions have been imposed on the homeowners right to sell homes over ten years old.

 It is said that “an Englishmans home is his castle”. Not for park homeowners while this archaic Mobile Homes Act, which has no place in the 21^st Century, remains unchanged.

 Compiled and produced for PHRAA by             Ron Joyce. General Secretary.                         

                                                          November 2007