I want to live in a caravan - am I mad?

My friend did it after her mom passed. She ended up in a right mess.

She lived with her mom for the last 10 years of her mom's life. When her mom died, the house had to be sold and split 3 ways.

She didn't have enough to buy a home. She wouldn't listen to anyone and went ahead and bought a mobile home.

Then there was ground fees and other expenses. She ended up living remotely with no other means of transport but her car that needed replacing.

Fortunately she told me she was in a mess. Because she had below the upper limit financially and health issues we managed to get her on the social housing list.

She had to sell the mobile home at a big loss and fortunately was able to rent it until she got a social housing place.

Moral of the story: points to consider

1/ Consider how far out place is from amenities and public transport?

2/What will happen when you your health deteriorates?

3/ How long would it take to sell it and how much of a loss will you make?

4/ My friend got rehoused because I knew how to to go about it. It's not that easy. The process is complex

We lived in one for some time while building our house. It took much longer than anticipated (doing it in spare time). I was perfectly happy in it and felt almost cut off from the world. My husband says if he never sees another caravan it will be too soon.

A Friend of mine had a static, and it was wonderful in the summer, but in the winter when it freezes the water pipes freeze so you have to wait until it defrosts to have water from the taps and shower, but the static was in Northumberland beautiful country side and excellent site with a shop that did lunches and Sunday lunch if you didn’t feel like cooking, I would love a static, but the winter freeze puts me off a little. Hope this helps.❤️?xx

When my son and wife were first married they lived in a mobile home. There were many restrictions. No pets etc. The site fees went up yearly. Charged a lot for electricity and bottled gas When they were expecting a baby were offered a Council house and had to sell to the site owner for a pittance.
When my husband was made redundant at 57 and because of poor health was unable to get another job we decided to sell our bungalow in Hampshire and buy a mobile home in order to get some money to live on until he got state pension. However our son warned us of the problems and advised buying a bungalow in a cheaper area. We bought a detached bungalow on an estate in Norfolk for the same cost as a mobile home. Never regretted the decision. Have friendly helpful neighbours...
New mobile homes in Norfolk now are the same value as my bungalow plus the outgoings are considerably more.

I wonder if there are any park home parks without all that grass surrounding them, for the sake of hay fever sufferers?

Seems to me that the main problem is that caravan site owners are often operating some sort of racket, I think we need better legislation to stop them ripping people off

I think living costs are higher in a caravan Apart from the high monthly costs for caring for the grass , emptying bins etc. the site owner dictates who supplies your gas and electric and if you decide to sell it has to be done through the owner. Usually you can’t let them either so all very restricting.
Often it is no pets or children too which makes the site very quiet and soulless. Think caravan site owners have very quiet lives and can become complainers.
Be very careful before you buy, caravans depreciate too !

Do Park homes lose value as they age or do they keep their value? I was wondering whether it would be possible to have a little something to leave the children.

I think a caravan loses money the same as a new car would.

I’m not sure about the more substantial chalet type homes. They’re not brick so I imagine they too depreciate in value?

I love caravan home & sites. My mum had one for 22y on a National Trust site on the Fylde coast. Site fees were reasonable as there was no pool, no club house, just a small shop and launderette.

Peaceful. Relaxing with beautiful trees and shrubs, the sounds of the cows lowing in the next farmers field, cockerels crowing in the morning and a real feeling of contented, friendly community.

I keep coming back to read the comments on this thread because I like the reminders of visiting mum and 2nd dad there some weekends over the years!

A friend bought a static caravan with an inheritance after her Mum died - she rented out her small terraced house and moved into the caravan where she lived very happily for 5 years. Financially it made no sense at all - site fees were £6,000 a year; insulation was not great - so cold in the winter, but she enjoyed the community spirit. When she finally decided to move back to her house (she lived around the corner from her sister who became ill and needed help), she struggled to sell it for about 6 months and ended up selling it back to the owner for very little, making a huge loss.

Some of these sites are sounding like casinos ....the House always wins

I think if you look for a residential park .. as opposed to a static you have much more security. I have lived in a residential one a long time ago for around 5 years and loved every minute of it. You need to be quite organised as cupboard space is often limited but if you are down sizing anyway you will realise that you have to make decisions on what to keep and what to be ruthless about. Ours had a lovely large garden,and car parking straight outside. It had a full size bathroom and all facilities. We altered ours inside by making it a living room/ kitchen by removing a partition dividing the two so that we could reposition the washing machine into a more suitable and convenient position. I found the simplicity of that time lovely, without lots of possessions to weigh you down mentally and physically. We are seriously thinking of going to back to that way of life ourselves and have started looking. If you go onto the Rightmove site, then were it shows the types of property ...click onto park homes. You can go county by county and some of them tell you the annual ground rent as well. You have to be wary about the occupation times a static allows you use it for, because they are classed as holiday homes, even though many are open 11 months of the year, the licence they hold for them is different from a full residential licence which is for full occupation the whole time. Some of the residential annual site fees can actually be cheaper than the static ones as well.

My mum did just this. She absolutely loved her mobile home on the edge of the Forest of Dean- it had a nice little garden & a very good community for her. There was a swimming pool on site too.
The only problem as far as we were concerned was that we live in Surrey ( as did she until she left my Dad & moved to Birmingham) & it was a really difficult journey especially as she could not put us all up so we have to do it in a day! It was a really long drive there & back in a day with 2 small boys & as she didn't drive she couldn't come down to us.
If your family are close enough - go for it!!

A static home Yes. A caravan ?unless you want to move sites for a change then No.

Be very careful of the catch 22! If the site is 11.5 you may have to have a main address elsewhere where you are paying council tax to be able to live there - and you may have to leave for at least a month in one go. Devon council is currently taking park home owners to court if they think they are not tourists!

I wouldn't do it. A mobile home had a short life and then has to be replaced, they can be very cold in winter, also the site can be at the back of beyond. As you get older you might find that it isn't quite as agreeable and what will you do? Suppose you become disabled and can't get the place adapted for you? I know that some of you will say, " but that could happen in a house" and I agree that it could but as long as you have a downstairs loo it's often manageable. No, not for me!

My uncle and his wife went to live in a caravan at aged 69 they loved it and wanted to die there . They are now both in their late 80s and have just had to go back to a council flat due to site fees, But I know they are still considering going back to that life and talk about it being the best way to live.
I know there were issues like they had to be out for six consecutive weeks each year but they just went on holiday.
They loved the community feel and had great freinds there.
You will encounter problems where ever you live and there are no guarantees in life. My husband died before we had chance to realise some of his dreams so I say follow your heart but look into everything and be prepared and go into it with eyes opened .
On a another note I was born in kent before moving to the USA where I was brought up . I often go back to kent which I love much more than USA. I live in the uk now so much nicer.

Here's a bit more on the legal side of this issue. Worth reading!!
justlodges.com/misuse-of-holiday-homes

I would say go for it I have lived in one now for 8 years and love it. The community feel is lovely and the site owners are very nice we look upon them as friends. My caravan has full central heating so I’m never cold.

David1968. If a holiday park is open 11.5 months then the owners of the caravans are fully allowed to stay there for the whole 11.5 months. We pay towards the business rates of the site, therefore we are not skipping out from not paying council tax. Our son and daughter in law had an extension built onto their house that is our part of the house because we helped to pay for it, that is postal address and where we stay the two weeks of the year the caravan site closes.

I think David1968 is a sales rep for a lodges company. A residential all year site 6 miles from my site has changed from residential to a holiday park because they could not find another buyers to pay £250,000 or more for their very expensive lodges. They now sell holiday caravans.

A very good friend achieved her dream of a park he bit after a few years it became her nightmare, a. Lovely home I'm a beautiful part of the country but you are at the mercy of the owners and managers and you have to get everything through them, it was a small community and things just got horrible, and yes when they sold so much has to go to owner. You might have lovely owners and managers but they can change if the site is sold. When they needed legal advice to try and get them out of the situation there are very few solicitors specialising and they had to go miles across country to find one, too far to go both ways in a day. It's like a mediaeval kingdom. You can take your he bit sites only accept v new ones and yes they do depreciate

Nope, not a sales rep - just a very ordinary Gran. I'm simply someone who knows what the legislation says...... The OP is asking for information, so I've flagged up a very relevant issue. (People have been caught out by this, and will continue to be so.) Of course the decision is up to the OP.

This might prove to be a useful resource

[http://iphas.co.uk/index.php]

Now here is someone who has actually done that, got the video (we moved into a new site and took a video of work being doing around us), no t-shirt I am afraid, and yes we love it, my husband was happy here all the while he was alive, and we moved in 2002. Let's face the facts, on this site and many more, there is age restriction, and a limit to the number of pets you can own. Each Mobile home here has a garage alongside, and all of them have their own electricity meters and gas supplies. Water bill is paid to the site owners, and the yearly sum written down for us all to clearly understand. All the homes are privately owned and occupied, no one is supposed to let their home, and we all live here for the whole year. The water pipes under the house are lagged, and if we wish, we can turn on a small heating supply during the winter months to ensure they do not freeze. Yes, we do get cold in the winter, but warm curtains and a nice carpet help to keep out the cold
and when spring comes, it really feels as if you are on holiday when you open the door, I have no idea why that is, but most people who live on site agree with me. I am not sure why people think it is expensive. You own the caravan and can sell it and move away if you need, yes you do have to pay the site owners a percentage of the sale, but this is something being discussed in Parliament at the moment. You are responsible for your own plot - lots of variation in gardening, and a lovely talking point as you walk to the shops. We are lucky we have Sainsbury, M&S, Lidl, Tesco all within walking distance, but when once you enter our site it is a different world. Do I like where we live, Yes I do, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to take a chance. There is added benefit that there is always someone on call, should you need them.