01.02.12

The vast majority of Park owners are reputable business people.

However, too many Park Owners exploit current legislation and guidance in order to make a quick profit.

There is a need for legislation and we therefore support the purpose of this proposed Park Homes Bill.

A residents survey carried out by the “Park Home Owners” Justice Campaign on 803 - Parks Home sites including Wales, Scotland and Ireland - found that   63% of respondents reported living under unacceptable conditions and 48% living under the regime of an Unscrupulous Park Owner, many of whom have been  reported as aggressive, abusive, violent and dishonest.

Correspondence received from the National Association for Park Home Residents states that it is ‘standard practice’ for Park owners to encourage park home buyers to buy a park home off the site owner themselves.

This also usually means that residents have to sell their Park Home at a reduced rate to the site owner, who then sells it at market price.

A Prestatyn Park Home Owner emailed this week to say they have never known of any site owner charging less than the 10% maximum when a Park Home owner needs to sell...
… which in our opinion,” they said “is a money grabbing bonus”.

They added “pitch fees in our case are £154.64
per month. In the two years we have been here, the owner  has never once carried out maintenance. On top of this we pay Council Tax”.

They continued “Of course there are very good and well run sites in the UK which charge the appropriate fees for proper maintenance and for the good of the Park Home owners, but many sites are not run this way,by site owners who do not need to have credentials whats so ever?”

They concluded “Everything about what goes on in Park Home Sites needs to be looked at very closely and Park Site owners must be stopped from, getting away with charging retired people what they want”.

Related concerns raised by a  Prestatyn Park Home Residents Association generated a Denbighshire County Council response  which included:

 “Trading Standards could be interested in the issues in relation to the 10% commission charge and the maintenance contract.  

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 helps ensure consumers are treated fairly.  One of the requirements relates to misleading omissions, briefly summarised as one which "causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise."  

Following a meeting with the Chair of Morfa Ddu Park Homes Association Prestatyn and two Trading Standards Officers, Denbighshire Councillor June Cahill emailed to state that the Trading Standards Officers promised to do what they can, but could not offer any hope of recompense for existing park home residents.

They could perhaps put enough pressure on park owners to follow the rules of contractual behaviour that they have not done before.  

In other words future residents may be treated better that others have in the past.

However, they stated  that without new legislation and better regulation, their hands are tied.

Schedule 7 to the Government of Wales Act 2006 lists ‘residential caravans and mobile homes’ as within the competence of the National Assembly.

Proposals for a new licensing regime for park homes are therefore a devolved area.

Consumer Focus Wales research to build a detailed picture of the problems faced by park home residents -and to develop solutions - has led them to call on Assembly Members to support this proposed Bill. 

I cannot conclude without referring to holiday parks.

"Speaking in the last Assembly, I highlighted calls from the holiday park sector in north Wales to promote holidays parks positively in the Welsh Government’s marketing strategy and to clamp down on residential misuse  -

- adding that "Caravans on holiday parks must not be used as a person’s main residence. It is the duty of local authorities to tackle this through licensing enforcement and planning permission.

“If a holiday park is licensed for holiday and recreational use only, then it must be just for that. As reputable holiday park owners emphasize, any breaches must be dealt with firmly.”

Persons using Caravan on Holiday Parks as their main residence are not included in population statistics which determine the level of government grants to the area – and local residents can be penalised if Park Homes residents use local facilities without contributing towards them.

It’s time for action.