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UNSCRUPULOUS PARK OWNERS (UPO’s).
Carefully concealed from the public eye and lurking behind the glossy façade of the park home industry lies a hidden and uncontrollable predator (unscrupulous park owner) (UPO) poised ready and eager to ensnare the innocent elderly and vulnerable existing or prospective park homeowner. Perhaps an apt analysis of a UPO would be to liken him to a huge spider who having cast his web, (park home advertising) waiting for the fly, (prospective park homeowner) who, whilst happily flying about, is attracted into the web, ( a park home site) sees one he likes and then, before he sees the danger, becomes hopelessly entrapped. The spider (UPO) then immediately swoops on his mesmerised victim, and using his jaws injects his deadly venom (sales patter) which immediately paralyses his victim, (takes their money) and then proceeds to cocoon his prey (park homeowner) in a silken tread, (Mobile Homes Act and park rules) leaving the helpless victim, (park homeowner) trussed up and paralysed, until the spider (UPO) is ready to devour it. This is done by sucking out every living tissue (money and home) in its body until all that is left of the fly (park homeowner) is a dried out husk. (devastated, destitute and homeless)
Just like the fly, once a park homeowner is trapped in the web their fate is sealed. Like the fly there is no one to rescue them. All the rights, including human rights, they had before they got trapped in the web that is the current park home lifestyle have gone forever, and like the fly, the fate of the hapless park homeowner is entirely at the mercy of the spider. (UPO)
WHY? Because the Government have totally failed to provide meaningful and enforceable law to protect the park homeowner and as you will see from the following PHRAA report under the present park home law the UPO IS….
-- ABOVE THE LAW.
YOUR HOME AND LIFE IN THEIR HANDS
An extensive report exposing the hidden scandal of the absolute power the UNSCRUPULOUS PARK OWNER holds over the lives of pensioner PARK HOMEOWNERS. (or PRISON CAMPS FOR PENSIONERS)
Sell up your bricks and mortar home and invest the released capital in a park home and spend your retirement years in peace and tranquility. No more worries with money left over to travel and afford the luxuries of life you could never afford before!!!!! This is just a sample of the glowing propaganda, which is misleading by omission, screaming out from the pages of glossy park home magazines and other park home advertising all designed to lure the unsuspecting and vulnerable, who are getting on a bit in years, into parting with their hard earned cash and buying a park home. Nothing could be simpler. Unlike buying a conventional house, you pay your money to the “charming” park owner and move straight in. No red tape. No months of waiting while expensive Solicitors sort out all the paperwork. As the “charming” park owner will tell you “you don’t need a Solicitor to buy or sell a park home “. But what none of the propaganda tells you is that the moment you pay your money the carefully baited TRAP springs shut with no escape. Buying a park home is easy, getting out again will cost you at least a very significant portion of your investment payable, by law, to the park owner for graciously giving you his permission to sell your own home, but if the park is owned by an unscrupulous park owner, it WILL cost you your home, savings, your health leaving you destitute and condemned, in your 70s, 80s or 90s, to spend what little time you have left, supported by the state, having been pushed into whatever local authority accommodation is available at the most vulnerable time of your life.
Other vital information not revealed, (or carefully glossed over) in the park homes publicity is that although a park home may resemble a conventional bungalow, both externally and internally, it is in fact officially defined in law as a Caravan and the park its on is a Caravan Site therefore the occupiers classed as Caravan Dwellers Even the largest, most luxurious double park home costing anything between £100,000 to £300,000 is still legally defined as two Caravans fastened together, which must remain capable of being moved around the park as a whole at all times. Hence the official classification of a Park Home as a MOBILE HOME. As park/mobile homes are Caravans, therefore CHATTEL, they are not classed as Housing and specifically excluded from the protection of the HOUSING ACT, enjoyed by occupiers of all other types of housing conventional or otherwise. There is an old saying in this country that “AN ENGLISHMANS HOME IS HIS CASTLE”. But when that home is a £100,000 - £300,000 park/mobile home (caravan) it’s not a home it’s a CHATTEL.
THE POWER OF THE UNSCRUPULOUS PARK OWNER. (YOU WILL DO AS YOU ARE TOLD)
The main factor to take into account when contemplating the purchase of a park home is that although you own the home, the plot of land upon which it stands belongs to the park owner. For the right to station your home on his land you will have to pay a form of ground rent known as the Pitch Fee and enter into a binding contract (Written Agreement) governed by the terms of the Mobile Homes Act 1983/2006 with the park owner for the right to station your home on his park. The Mobile Homes Act is a special form of law unique to the park homes industry, but unlike most other laws in this country it is not backed up with any official powers of enforcement with the result that any unscrupulous park owner who chooses to ignore the law can do so with impunity, secure in the knowledge that how ever badly he exploits the residents on his parks, he has nothing whatsoever to fear from the law.
To make the situation of the park homeowner even more desperate, the fact that they are caravan dwellers officially classed as living in caravans on a privately owned caravan site under the terms of the Mobile Homes Act denies them access to all the normal protection afforded by the Housing Act to all other conventional property owners or tenants. There is nothing more soul destroying for an elderly, vulnerable, and very often terrified park homeowner devastated by being powerless to prevent the unscrupulous park owner appearing, without any warning whatsoever with a JCB, entering their pitch, and ripping up their garden in order to squeeze in an extra home, or being hounded mercilessly by a UPO and/or his very “clever” Solicitor, very often using dire threats of Court Action, to abandon their older (over 10 years) but meticulously maintained home because the park owner is determined to replace their home with a brand new one.
The final and even more soul destroying blow for the helpless homeowner is delivered when they seek help from the authorities. It is usually now, if they didn’t know already, that distressed homeowners realise that as “caravan dwellers” they are treated by the Government and all in authority as ‘second class citizens” deemed not worthy of any real and enforceable protection from the law, as most have found when attempting to obtain help from their local authority the Police or Trading Standards Officers. In fact the only time a local authority pays any real attention to a park home resident is if they are a week late in paying their monthly Council Tax Payment. But ask this same local council for help when the UPO is ripping up residents plots, putting new homes on every available inch of space, including residents recreation areas and car parks, chopping down trees regardless of whether or not these trees are subject to preservation orders, and all you get is “its his land he can do as he likes”, “there’s nothing we can do” etc etc. Ask the Police for help when the UPO has destroyed your property, or continually harasses you, and they will usually tell you that there is nothing they can do “it’s a civil matter and you will have to take him to court”. It is a fact that the moment you move on to a park home site you immediately cease to be protected by the usual every day laws governing this country. The only law, governing every aspect of your future life, to be obeyed from the day you buy a park home, is the law as dictated and ruthlessly applied by the unscrupulous park owner.
Defining an UNSCRUPULOUS PARK OWNER. (UPO)
The Unscrupulous Park Owner (UPO) would, in every other walk of life except the park home industry, be publicly exposed and condemned by Government and all in authority as a thief, tyrant, rogue trader, expert fraud practitioner and ruthless predator who, using well practiced tactics including harassment, bullying and intimidation, shows no mercy whatsoever when preying on his helplessly captive and very often terrified victims. But because these unscrupulous park owners have mostly become multi-millionaires by buying up existing park home sites, kicked off all the existing homeowners, using all and more of the methods listed above, and crammed every inch of the site with brand new park homes, complete with a new set of innocent homeowners ripe for exploitation, they are revered by Government ministers, the park home industry trade bodies, and all others in authority as clever “business people” who must be given every assistance possible to facilitate their aspirations. Never mind the fact that the helpless homeowners being forced off the park to make way for the new homes will lose their homes and every penny of their savings presently tied up in their homes. The local council will have to find somewhere to re-house them. If, as frequently happens the local council have no permanent accommodation available, shove them into “bed and Breakfast’ or some other form of shared temporary accommodation. What does it matter where they go or what happens to them, as long as they are off the park???? Unfortunately the victims are easy prey as they happen to be the most vulnerable members of society, the thousands of vulnerable 60,70,80 and 90 year old elderly park homeowners.
The ruthless tactics used by the UPO to exploit the park homeowner are far worse than those used against the elderly by the rogue traders regularly exposed in the excellent TV and radio documentaries when conning them out of their life savings for fictitious and unnecessary work they persuade the little old lady or gentleman needs doing on their homes, gardens, drives, etc. The difference is that if the rogue trader is caught he could well end up in prison because there are laws to protect the victims in such cases. But when the victim lives on a park home site, it is the UPO, expertly assisted by his very “clever” specialist legal team, that is protected by the law, (Mobile Homes Act 1983/2006) which effectively insures the UPO is immune from prosecution or sanction for his misdeeds. Experience proves beyond doubt that park home law, devoid of any power of enforcement, allows UPO’s to enjoy a unique position in the UK in 2008 in that they are above the law, leaving them free to abuse, exploit, extort money, intimidate and rob elderly and frail pensioners of their homes, create and ruthlessly enforce their own laws at will, with the threat of eviction for any who fail to comply, on their helpless victims (residents) with absolute impunity.
I am thinking of buying a Park Home
HOW CAN I TELL IF A PARK OWNER IS A UPO?
The short answer is that you usually can’t until its too late ! The UPO is a :Jekyl and Hyde character. Very charming, helpful and full of promises when he is trying to sell you one of his very expensive park homes. It is only when he has your money or shortly after you have moved in that his true character will become apparent, usually after the first time you ask when he is going to fulfil, having waited many months for work to be completed, one of the many promises he made before you agreed to buy.
Other danger signs indicating a UPO may be…..
(1)…. Reluctance to confirm in writing any promises or agreements he makes prior to the sale.
(2)…. Being reluctant or making excuses for failing to provide a completed copy of the written statement (contract), including the park rules, for the prospective buyer to carefully study before they commit to purchase.
(3)…. Generally evasive when asked pointed questions regarding your rights of occupancy on his park.
(4)…. Telling you that there is nothing to worry about you don’t need to see all the paperwork he will sort all that out later after you have moved in.
(5)…. Reluctance to allow you to walk around the park unaccompanied by him or his agent in order that you may ask questions of other residents or your being directed to make your inquiries at particular resident/s homes.
(6)…. Be wary of parks that are obviously in the process of being re-developed with brand new park homes. Ask the owners of any remaining “older” homes what happened to the owners of the homes that have obviously been removed to make way for these new homes?
A FINAL WORD OF CAUTION.
Buying a park home is possibly the biggest investment you may make in your life. Not only are you investing the majority of the capital realised from the sale of your bricks and mortar in the purchase of the park home, you are also investing your future happiness and welfare in the park home lifestyle which, where the park is owned by a good and caring park owner can be idyllic, but if inadvertently you buy a home on a park owned by a UPO, or that your previously very happy park has been sold to a UPO, that promised dream lifestyle will almost certainly turn into a never ending nightmare, from which, due to there being very little protection for park homeowners from the law, there is little chance of escape, and could well eventually result in you ending up homeless and destitute, even Bankrupt, stuck in local council accommodation, alone and miles from family and friends, at the most vulnerable time of your life, as many very elderly devastated residents have found to their cost.
There is little mention in park home publicity regarding the existence of unscrupulous park owners and the problems they cause to park homeowners unfortunate enough to find themselves, through absolutely no fault of their own, trapped and forced to endure the tyrannical regime imposed upon their lives by the UPO. A regime that was prevalent in the middle ages when the local Baron held the power of life and death over his oppressed subjects and which everybody believed had been outlawed in Great Britain several hundred years ago, but has been revived and continues thriving in 2008, in the form of the UPO. It is hardly any wonder that park home sites administered by UPO’s are becoming increasingly referred to by afflicted residents as “PRISON CAMPS FOR PENSIONERS”.
Publicity issued by Government, the Park Home Industries Trade Associations, specialist park home publications and others, reluctantly acknowledge both the existence of the UPO and the damage their disreputable activities are causing to the reputation of the park homes industry, especially the rapidly diminishing number of remaining good park owners, who treat their residents fairly and with courtesy and respect. But unfortunately for all park homeowners, present and future, whilst all these bodies admit there is a problem they all, including surprisingly a high ranking officer of a prominent National Park Home Residents Association in her article published in the June 2008 edition of the Park Home & Holiday Caravan magazine, claim that the number of Unscrupulous Park Owners is insignificant and represent only a “small minority” of park owners.
Whilst 20years ago it may have been possible to claim that UPO’s made up a “small minority” of park owners, it is certainly not true today for numerous reasons……
(1)….Most, if not all of this so called “small minority” are multiple park owners owning many parks each, which equates to hundreds or thousands of affected residents.
(2)…. These same UPO’s, very often using different company names, are buying up parks concentrating on parks considered ripe for development, ie., parks consisting of homes over 10 years old, at an alarming rate, often two or three at a time nationwide. One only has to glance at the tremendous number of advertisments and feature articles screaming out from the pages in any park home publications announcing that so and so park is under development with all new homes for sale. Spare a thought for the former residents of that park who have lost their homes to make way for this “new development”. This could be you in 10 years time.
Far from being the so called “small minority” UPO’s are like an aggressive cancer rapidly spreading uncontrolled by authority, encouraged by the fact that there is virtually no protection under park home law for the elderly and helpless residents (park homeowners) whose lives are being destroyed in the process. Let no one underestimate the power of the UPO, and the very real danger to home, life and limb faced by any park home owner who dares to stand in the way of a determined unscrupulous park owner.
Whilst you may be able, by following the advice proffered in this article and also elsewhere on the PHRAA website , to avoid buying a home on a UPO park, unfortunately it is not possible to avoid the very real possibility of the park being sold at some time in the future to a UPO. If that happens, GOD HELP YOU!! Because nobody else in authority will!!!!!
Compiled and produced for PHRAA by Ron Joyce. General Secretary June 2008.
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