Park Home Life

Park Home Living

A Good Life or a Future of Strife?

All across the U.K. there is a growing number of what is known as Park Homes springing up, usually these are grouped together in mini estates and are marketed mainly towards a particular age group, for the semi-retired and retired persons. These estates are commonly known as Semi Retirement or Retirement Parks or Villages. There is much confusion as to what a "Park Home" actually is, so to put the record straight it is a Caravan built to a residential specification, under the following official definition.

"“Caravan” means any structure designed or adapted for human habitation which is capable of being moved from one place to another (whether by being towed, or by being transported on a motor vehicle or trailer) and any motor vehicle so designed or adapted, but does not include..."

However it does not look like a caravan, it looks like a "Bungalow", it has a brick skirt all around it, how can it be a caravan. Residential Caravans come in two styles, a single unit or a double unit, either way the singular unit is built upon a rolling chassis which has wheels, at the factory it is fitted with a tow bar. Whichever style it is, it will be transported on special low loaders to where it is to be sited. If you purchase a single unit, the structure a caravan will be placed on a concrete pad using the tow bar and wheels, the same can be said for a double unit but once in place the two single units are bolted or fixed together to form the double unit. Once this has been done, the caravan is jacked up and supported on outer legs so the wheels are off the ground, extra jacks are placed underneath for stability. The caravan is then "tied" to the concrete pad for more stability. It is important to note that under law the wheels cannot be removed, otherwise it would cease to be classed as mobile. When this has been done the tow bar is removed and placed underneath the caravan. The concrete pad is laid in such a way as to extend the dimensions of the Caravan, otherwise known as a manufacturer's footprint. This allows the Park Owner to then place a brick skirt around the Caravan and mask the fact that this structure has been built on a rolling chassis and that the wheels are still in place although slightly off the ground. So the end result looks like a pre-fabricated bungalow. Still not convinced, every Park Home establishment has to be licensed by the local authority, this is called a "Site Licence" and is granted to the Park owner under the "Caravan Site and Control of Development Act 1960", such licence has to be displayed in a prominent place protected from weather environment, upon that licence will be the words "Residential Caravan Licence", and that licence will be subject to conditions exercised by that particular local authority. Every Residential Caravan so placed is protected by the "Mobile Homes Act 1983", so it can be seen, whatever one thinks or however a Residential Caravan is marketed, it is not classed as a building as would be a bricks and mortar structure for example. There have been attempts to have this definition changed through Parliament and the Courts, however as the following example shows, there is much reluctance to do this;

This issue was settled in 1998 in the case of Measor v. Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The case was heard in the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court and is therefore binding on planning inspectors. In it the Judge stated:

"In my judgment, it would conflict with the purpose of the Act and common sense to treat mobile caravans as "buildings" as of right. While I would be wary of holding that, as a matter of law, a "structure" that satisfied the definition of, for example, a Mobile home under s.13(1) of the 1968 Act could never be a building for the purpose of the [Town and Country Planning] Act 1990, it seems to me that Éby reference to the definitions in the [Caravan Site and Control of Development] Act1960 and the 1968 [Caravan Sites]Act it is clear that in the present case the caravans lacked that degree of permanence and attachment to constitute buildings

Despite the Courts being anxious not to state that a caravan or mobile home could never be a "building", generally they are not. The Measor principle has been restated and approved in a number of cases since 1998.

To be continued ....