Holiday Caravan Parks

• This note covers some frequent complaints relating to holiday caravans in caravan parks. Different issues relate to mobile homes covered in another note, Mobile homes (SN/SP/1080). The note does not cover value added tax.

• Holiday caravan parks normally have planning consent for residents to be there for ten months of the year.

• Mobile homes are covered by housing law. Holiday caravan sites do not have the same statutory protection.

• The National Caravan Council has a Code of Practice for its members to protect consumers.

• Those with pitches have to agree to the contract terms of that site. Contract terms may include rules about acceptable age of caravan and may require the caravan to be sold back to the site owner.

• The Office of Fair Trading has published guidance on unfair contract terms in 2005.

• The Government does not plan to introduce more statutory rules governing holiday caravan sites.

• It is a continuing problem that residents on holiday caravan sites do in fact stay for the whole year. The local planning authority could extend the planning consent to permanent if they wished.

• The Government does not see redevelopment of holiday homes as a suitable way to provide low cost housing in the countryside.