Mobile home residents given better protection

[Michael Browne]

Residents of mobile home parks in England have been given new rights to protect them from rogue site operators.

 

A Commons select committee report last year found many residents experienced problems with maintenance, security, written contracts and intimidation.

 

New legislation, introduced on Monday, bans site owners from the buying and selling process and gives new powers to prosecute those who harass residents.

 

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said it "called time on the crooks".

 

There are about 84,000 "park homes" - relatively low-cost bungalow-style residential properties, usually sited on private estates - on 2,000 sites across England.

 

Those who buy them, own the home but pay a pitch fee to the site operator, who owns the land and imposes rules and regulations.

 

Before the new legislation came in, those rules included getting the site owner's approval for a buyer when selling the home on.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22677508

[jegneg]

This is fantastic news. A little too late for me however.

I bought a park home at a Northampton site (Billing Aquadrome) for £28000.

I had a bit of a crisis and needed to sell the home urgently. I offered the home back to the site (this was two weeks after I bought it) and they offered me £8000!!

I tried to sell the unit privately and the site management prevented my every move. They followed me and my prospective buyer round the site and all the way up to the home.

When I and my buyer were inside the home and I thought out of there praying eyes, they knocked on the door and walked in!

They made it very clear to my potential buyer that if he bought the home privately from me that they would make the transfer very difficult indeed.

They also told him that if he proceeded with the purchase through me, and not them, that they would move the home to another area of the park (it was a waterside pitch and the key selling point to any buyer!)

I had no choice but to sell the site for £8000!!

I wish I had have had some way I could challenge them legally.

A very costly lesson!!