Residents of mobile /park homes/caravans have the right, under the Mobile Homes Act, to gift the home in a will [government fact sheet}. In the case of a couple living together this is not really a problem as the site owner does not have the right to interfere in the process. However, where a single person occupies the home and bequeaths to a member of his/her family, I gather that the sight owner has the right to decide whether or not that person is acceptable or not to live in the property.

I am led to believe that a Will is a legal document and can only be contested for reasons such as insanity, there maybe one or two other points. Correct me if I am wrong.

If a bequest is made in a will where a flat or house is left to a loved one, then that person has the right to either move into the property or to sell it without interference from a third party. The utility services do not have the right to check whether a person has the means to pay for electricity, water, gas etc. This apparently is not the case with mobile homes, and by default, it appears that the site owner has the right to ignore the wishes of the person writing the will.

Mobile Home residents are not given the same rights as other property owners in this country, a matter which we find exceptionally unfair and unjust. There seems to be no protection for residents against unscrupulous site owners who use intimidation and harassment against residents, the majority who are quite elderly and vulnerable. Even the Local Authorities say they have only a certain amount of power as the licensing authority. Although having said that, some local authorities do prosecute site owners for breaching the licence, whereas others do not. This should be universal surely in terms of equality.

The point I am trying to make is that it is quite common practise for unscrupulous site owners to refuse new residents to live in the home, and to offer a derisory amount of money for the property, then moving it off and replacing it with a new home for which they can make a much bigger profit, which they gain at the expense of the seller. If this happened with bricks and mortar properties, there would, quite rightly, be a public out cry. This is and has happened on the park where the author of this story lives and where the owners have been forced to take the site owners to court, having sold their home, but the site owner refused to let the purchasers move in. The purchasers are being forced to live in rented property until such time they can move into the mobile home due to the unreasonable behaviour of J@J small park homes the site owners.

No one surely should have to go through such a stressful process just to sell their home. Do we not live in a democracy?

No matter how hard we have tried to get the same rights for residents on mobile home parks as any other citizen, no-one in authority, and I include Government is prepared to change the law. We feel therefore we are being treated as third class citizens living under a feudal system where the site owner believes him/herself to be above the law. Even the police treat the illegal activities of unscrupulous site owners as a civil matter despite evidence of what is really criminal and threatening behaviour.

I have to say I am incensed by this disgraceful discrimination against decent UK citizens and I would appreciate your comments at your very earliest convenience. Someone, somewhere has to take us seriously, and the sooner the better. The law needs to be changed so that mobile home residents enjoy the same rights and protection as anyone else in the United Kingdom in order to live their lives in peace and tranquillity as the 1983 says you can but really can’t.