WARNING BULLETIN No 32.

Being Kicked Off Your Park? Where Do You Go?
                  But Worse Still Who Gives A Damn?


You have worked and saved hard all your working life investing a large proportion of your income in the home in which you have raised a family. Now that you are approaching retirement you may well be persuaded by reading the glowing accolaides for the park home lifestyle, contained within the pages of specialist magazines, the press and regular park home exhibitions, that, as the adverts suggest, selling up your bricks and mortar, investing the majority of the released equity in a park home in which to spend your Autumn years, leaving you with money in the bank to spend as you wish. But what every one contemplainting purchasing a park home should seriously consider before they buy is what could happen to them and their homes in ten or twenty years time when both they and their home are that much older.
Practically every week PHRAA receives calls from distressed park home owners saying that the park where they have lived happily for many years as been taken over by a new owner, and he, within a very few days of taking over, has told the residents of the older homes on the park that he is going to develope the park by replacing the older homes with new, and they and their homes have got to go.
Just imagine how devastated you would be IF, or more likely due to the epidemic of parks changing hands, WHEN you, through absolutely no fault of your own, you, as a seventy, eighty, or ninety year old home owner, find yourself in this terrifying position. Here you are, at the most vulnerable time if your life faced with loosing, not only your home, but also your dear friends with whom you have built up a warm relationship over the past happy years. The close community spirit that has grown on the park over the years is soon destroyed as neighbours are picked off one by one, with the elderly widows living alone, the sick and infirm being targeted first, their lives being made a living hell by a park owner, who will stop at nothing to get them and their homes off his park as soon as possible. To make matters even worse the torture does not end there! The helpless home owner being kicked off the park receives virtually nothing for his home! The nest egg that was, until the park changed hands, the money raised from the sale of their home which they had always believed would be used to support them for what is left of their lives should they decide to leave for any reason, or because of declining health become no longer able to look after themselves in their park home has also gone. The unscrupulous park owner, who are mainly the only ones buying up parks, will pay only a few hundred pounds for the residents homes regardless of the proven market value (£300 for a home professionally valued at £87,000 is just one everyday example.)
At first many residents may put up a spirited fight to save their homes, but as they witness the most vulnerable neighbours loosing the will to fight have given up and abandoned their homes after having endured months of being constantly harassed, bullied, abused and reeceiving frightening letters threatening them with court action for possession of their pitch by a ruthless park owner and/or his "clever" solicitor. Another common tactic used by a ruthless park owner is to turn neighbour against neighbour by various underhand methods. This is the very successful divide and rule tactic, which is guranteed to succeed and crush the remaining opposition to his plans. To complete the programme as systematic demoralising of the remaining residents, the ruthless park owner will smash up the empty homes in situ as the out going resident leaves, leaving the debris as a warning to others of what is in store for them.
But who else besides PHRAA cares or even gives one minutes consideration to what happens to these traumatised elderly and vulnerable seventy, eighty, & ninety year old park home owners who have already lost, or are about to loose their park homes at what is the most vulnerable time of their lives. They have lost absolutely everything, their homes, every penny of the life savings they had invested in their homes, their friends, wrenched from the community they love, but most of all for many is the loss of their independance.
What inknown fate awaits them provided they survive the traumatic upheaval and the devastating effect that such a move has on their health that is, many do not.
Some may have to move in with family. The majority will be forced into local authority accommodation, sheltered housing, flats etc., having to accept whatever is available which may well be in a strange area miles away. Imagine what it is like for an elderly person to be kicked out of his/her own home, situated within a community he/she  knows and loves to be forcefully thrust, through absolutely no fault of their own, into a strange flat, bedsit or whatever, amongst strangers in a strange environment for no other reason than to satisfy the greed of an unscrupulous park owner. Not only has the helpless resident lost his home, savings and his/her independance, it is more than likely they will have to beg or buy everyday furniture and other of lives necessities as their park home would have had mostly built in furniture, which they would not be able to take with them. There is also the probability that because of their changed circumstances they may be forced into havinh to rely on benefit payments for the first time in their lives. This fact in itself is an extra avoidable burden on the state.
I REPEAT, WHO EXCEPT PHRAA CARES WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ELDERLY PARK HOME OWNERS MADE HOMELESS BY THE UNSCRUPULOUS PARK OWNERS GREED. Certainly not the park owners, his Trade Associations, Park Home Manufactureres or even the glossy specialist Park Home Magazines all of which prosper at the expence of the elderly helpless victims. Local Authorities who, although they are responsible for issuing and monitoring the running of Park Home Sites, have very little actual power to take action against the rogue park owners due to antiquated laws, which cause them to grant a Licence to operate a Park Home Site without the requirement to make any investigations whatsoever as to their suitability, to any despicable rogue or criminal who purchases a site. If a park owner wishes to redevelope the park by replacing older homes with new, all he has to do is submit his proposed plans to the council, and provided they conform to the conditiond outlined in the Site Licence with regard to distances between homes etc., then the plans will be passed with no regard as to the fate of existing residents on the park who are in the way. All the local council can do to help is to provide alternative accommodation for the affected residents, which in many ways plays into the park owners hands as he knows that when he unlawfully kicks a resident out of his/her home, the council will pick up the pieces.
The other major contributor to the discraceful plight of Park Home Owners in theis position is the Mobile Home Act 1983 itself, which is suppossed to afford park home owners protection from the unlawful practises of unscrupulous park owners. Unfortunately neither the Act itself or the recent 2006 ammendments offer any real protection in practice due to the fact that it is so riddled with loop holes, all exploited to the full by the park owners with the aid of their "clever" solicitors. That it is virtually worthhless to the home owner. So utterly ambiguous is it that most solicitors approached for help by home owners either have no knowledge of it whatsoever or refuse point blank to take the case on, stating that, as this Act can be interpreted in so many different ways any Court Action undertaken by a resident would be very unlikely to succeed. As the government have placed the entire responsibility and the cost whic could run into several thousands of pounds,for the enforcement of this Act including the 2006 ammendments solely on the shoulders of the seventy, eighty, or ninety year old park home owner. What if any chance has the elderly and vulnerable park home owner got of obtaining any sort of justice????
To anyone contemplating selling up their bricks and morter to buy a Park Home especially a brand new one, before you make the final desicion to but please take a moment to consider that in as little as ten years, but almost certainally twenty-thirty years time, (age as quoted by the Industrys Trade Organisations) it could be your finding yourself on the receiving end and being subjected to the same type of pressure from a ruthless park owner determined to get your home off the park to make way for the parks redevelopment. Remember that not only will it be your home that is that much older, but you also. Are you sure that you will then be fit and able to resist when you are at your most vulnerable????
A further  note of caution for prospective purchesers of new park homes which are sited on parks which are in the process, or are being advertised as being new developments. Before you buy, ask yourselve what happened to the homes and their owners that where on the park previously. Remember what happened to them could be happening to you in a few years time. Also a note to those who have recently purchased new homes on a site that still has so called older homes in situ. PHRAA often receives reports from the distressed owners of these older homes stating that the new home owners look down on them, regarding themselves as superior because their homes are new and very expensive. Little do the realise their turn will come.

Compiled for PHRAA by Ron Joyce. General Secretary.                                                       August 2007.