Buying holiday static caravan or lodge

I made the mistake of buying two on a holiday park .....one for me, one to rent out ! I put money on my owners' account to pay bills, etc ............the van I bought to rent out was full all season ..........on my end of year account .NOTHING ! when I asked where the rental money had gone I was told ;in charges; etc ...and I paid site fees separately. It was so much hassle with the Park owners ( a VERY well known company known as sharkdean) that I sold both at a HUGE loss ....but although I challenged their imaginative accounting techniques I was fobbed off all the time, Big mistake ! If I were you I would look into buying a motor home ...go where you like, when you like, no council tax, no site fees ,,,IF your driveway is large enough for a car and the motor home .....some good bargains about ..........and you get MOT ...what's not to like ! Unfortunately I cannot drive in the UK (having only a French licence which , with Brexit, I cannot get the DVLA to understand ..........

Janejudge that needs a lot of work!!

ALANaV
That’s what we have: a motohome towing a Smart Car.
The reason we tow is because not all towns are motohome friendly ? That way we can park up outside and drive in.

We had a flat at the seaside for about 5 years and we then sold it at a profit. We were able to enjoy many breaks there at little or no cost. The flat was a Victorian conversion, one of four ‘shared- freehold’ units. The owners formed the management company so the annual fees were directly related to costs incurred.
I would always recommend ‘bricks and mortar’ as it is very unlikely to depreciate. I suppose that if you would appreciate the extras offered by mobile home sites it may be worth considering over a flat.

We owned a static caravan on a Parkdean site at Challaborough. We enjoyed using it for 7 seasons and then sold it. Site fees go up every year and unless you have the funds available plus utility fees then it can become very expensive.
However the reason we sold up was because basically we felt tied to going to one place to make use of it.
Where we thought family & friends would make use of it especially as it was right by the sea they didnt.
We moved to using Airbnb's and love seeing different parts of the country

We had a static caravan in a lovely family run park in Norfolk. We have it up when covid arrived as the owner was not v sympathetic to the fees being reduced while the site was shut due to the covid lockdown . O ther sites such as haven were offering discounted fees but ours just said whether the site is open or not your ground rent is still payable I pointed out that this wasn't either of us at fault we are having to stay away due to a pandemic . Not through choice he wouldn't budge and tho we couldn't access our caravan he still wanted the £4000 a year . We couldn't risk that and covid may well have carried on for years. We didn't pay a lot for our used caravan that was prob ten years ago .we had the use out of it I guess. And enjoyed it our plans were once I retired to be free from working we would be there as much as possible. But the dream ended. Sadly I miss it every day. But there was no choice. The downside of it is the fees went up at least £150 every new season .you pay to have the draindowns every winter .you pay to have fire safety checks. Insurance electric gas bills every spring . Pat testing appliances even tho was only us using it. No renting out. We also had a metre management charge added on tho we had never paid it before and no idea why. It just seemed never ending at times. I would think long and hard about the amount of use you would get from owning one esp if only limited use. We went to ours as much as possible as I only worked two days we could go Thurs to Sunday most weeks if wanted. And in the holidays. The grandkids loved it and were heartbroken as now they can't getaway at a drop of a hat to stay in nan and paps caravan peak season. No charge. Now the school holidays are out of the price range for all of us. It's a big decision. We gave up a new motorhome we had bought to have the static I still miss it. Caravan may be the better option.

2nd homes for holidays are what's causing the housing shortage and why lots of places don't have small places for the local young people to buy.

I know you have your heart set on owning something, be it a lodge, flat, whatever, but is it worth considering that for the money you would be paying (upfront), you could stay in the most luxurious lodges etc, for a considerable number of years, but without any of the hassle/upkeep/worry etc.
I had a flat in the French Alps and I adored it - but life is so much easier without it, and I also have the freedom to visit new places as well.

I wouldn't buy a lodge or caravan on an unregulated site for the reasons others have given. There are too many extras. We have found renting cottages to suit us quite well - it gives flexibility, no upkeep problems and we try out different places.

A friend of mine volunteered with Citizen’s Advice. She said the number one problem was to do with Universal Credit, the second most frequent problem was with static/lodge homes/caravans. Be very, very careful.

Had looked into static caravans and lodges about 3 years age when looking to change the touring caravan. Seemed to be you could be held to ransom with management fees, replacement of caravan due to age, and changes to terms and conditions. We did explore two sites and when checking with local council's found both had applied for expansion. No thank you. Replaced our touring caravan. Had a remote mover for years and they are great. Have you considered a mobile home? Towing a distance may not be for you but a mobile home is just a big car. Only issue may be if you want to leave the site to go site seeing you have to pack up the van unless you have other form of transport. A lit if folk don't find this a problem and if you just want to get away fir shirt breaks you may not want to go traipsing around.

Our family always had a static caravan, but when my mum died we gave it up. She had to move from a site because one of her caravans was 10 years old and they told her she had to buy a brand new one or leave the site. She left and bought a 2nd hand one on another site who let you have them there for 15years. When they got too old she had to pay someone to take the caravan away. Most caravan sites are a joke, my friend has 3 years left on hers, that she paid £50k for 7 years ago, she will get no return from it and then will have to buy another brand new one from them.

Mid-week short breaks are very popular nowadays, I've been on several - Monday to Friday, vacate by midday. Maybe you could buy the flat and let for the midweek then use yourself at weekends.

Don't do it , it's a millstone round your neck! Management fees . Maintenance contracts compulsory changing of vans .pitch fees.you can rent wherever and whenever you want all over the UK in fabulous vans/lodges/ yurts! Without committing your hard earned cash to someone else's pockets!! Please do loads of research and don't be seduced by clever sales pitches designed to pull you I to a fantasy world that is very difficult to extracate yourself from without swingeing penalties!.good luck and sorry if I sound rooms d gloom but I'm a finance person and know the world of (very legitimate) companies happy to snatch your cash!

We had a static caravan on what appeared to be a lovely site however after buying our caravan the owners of the site were only interested in selling caravans and not improving the site. We initially bought a secondhand van and then bought a new one with all mod cons dishwasher and washing machine and also paid to have a surrounding deck. After about a year we decided to look for a quieter site. We had our van moved to a family owned farm site with no clubhouse or entertainment although there was a farm shop. We loved the new site but sold up after 8 years to buy a tourer and see a bit more of the country.
My advice is be very careful of over friendly sales and don’t be pressured into buying. Take a good look round the site and speak to other people who have bought ask about pros and cons. Good luck.

I think I am in a minority but buying our second hand static has worked out very well for me. My two sons are very keen sailors and are members of a sailing club at the coast (about 50 miles from where I am based). Our static is very close to the club and so gets used most weekends from May to October and every week during the university vacation.

The annual cost for the site is £2400 (March to November) and the total cost including insurance and deprecation is about £4k pa. The site has no facilities but is near to a restaurant as well as the sailing club.

Our site gave us nothing for our caravan when we gave it up .as my hubby said it must be worth something. But it wasn't. We also had to pay the fees up to leaving tho site had been closed since start season due to covid.And a thousand to remove it . They do have you to ransom definitely tho I thought they were lovely caring people who looked after us static owners .his comment your ground rent is still payable whether you are here or not really hurt as I thought of it as our home . Sadly it's ground rent . As long as you are able pay all the fees without worry and get there often enough it's lovely. We had a garden with the pitch we loved and spent lot time keeping up. It wasn't your run of the mill park in lines of close statics everyone had pitches with grass or big areas round them to make your own. Very unique. And right next to sheringham park the walks were beautiful through the trees to the sea. We just book holidays now cottages or lodges for now. While we see what we prefer . Peak season costs holidays are ridiculous we only go out school holidays. Which isn't ideal. Having static was lovely. Finding right site and owners isn't easy. We just loved ours and used to be there most time in the motorhome anyway so it seemed the right thing to do. All our things were there no extensive packing to do. Just clothes and towels bedding. And off we went. Our pitch has been taken over now. We visited the site And saw our caravan had gone. The atmosphere changed once covid came along. We weren't residents and valued . Just got to pay up. Tho the facilities were all shut staff had nothing to do. The fees were staying the same.

I literally fail to see the attract and national obsession with owning holiday homes!!!who DO these folks think they are ? Our hospitality industry is on.its.knees. self catering with kids is no holiday for mum and of much fun for dads either if mum feels short changed -again on the so called 'holiday' ! Give me holidays where eating out, so some else doing the housekeeping ,luxury all the way for me can be as simple as fresh bedding every night!

Our site had no restriction on age of caravan . Long as you kept it all tidy all they asked. And they resold old ones if I n good condition or you bought new. .there was a considerable waiting list for old ones. But we were lucky in the end . Can't believe all that's over .'re having a motor home we loved having one the drawback was when you wanted to visit places packing everything away so could drive and park somewhere . Most car parks were full of didn't accommodate long vehicles. We saw so much more once had t he static . And if wanted a change we could go away other places while family made use of it. . My hubby doesn't want to tow. Caravans but you can leave them in seasonal pitches at some sites so that would prob be the best of both worlds. When you had enough you can go elsewhere. Lots do seasonal pitches. That would have been my next option.

That's why we love our site Operalover it's small, quiet and beautifully maintained.

Shazmo24 that is precisely the reason we gave ours up, week in and week out it was same old, same old and its really terrible to say this when i am utterly grateful that we had the ability to own a static BUT it was becoming a bind, thats awful to admit to but its true.

We've recently bought our first motorhome after thinking about it on and off for years, and having previously owned a holiday home in Spain. We got rid of the place in Spain, because I was beginning to find plane travel difficult (I'm disabled), but like others have said, going to the same place time after time, does get a bit boring. Now we have the best of all worlds, as we absolutely love being able to stay at different places every night, or if we find a place we particularly like, we park up and stay a few days. We've not found it to be any trouble to put things away if we do want to go off site, plus a lot of the sites have a bus stop right outside, so if you want to you can use your bus pass (if you have one), to visit other places. You can also take lessons to improve your confidence driving, reversing etc. so if you're nervous, you can soon get the hang of it. We quite often read about ladies who have lost their life partner, and rather than getting rid of their motorhome have taken a few lessons and continued to enjoy life on the open road. Good luck with whatever you chose to do.

We purchased a used static caravan on a site we had been visiting for almost 40years with our tourer, in the Lakes. We decided on a static as my husband developed cancer in his spine therefore hooking up and winding legs down etc became impossible.
The site was small with lodges and caravans and most people had been there for years so were our friends. Our children loved going and now so do my grandchildren. Sadly my husband passed away August 2019 and pleaded with me to keep the caravan on for the grandchildren.
The site owner died and was taken over by his two (greedy, for want of a better word) sons.
No refund of fees were given even though we could not visit during lockdowns. They have almost doubled the site fees in 3 years and brought in the age cut off of caravans which did not apply before. They wont let you take your caravan off, wont give you anything for it yet we know they sell them on. You have to buy from them at ridiculously inflated prices due to people desperate for a holiday and everywhere booked up last year.
If you make any objections to the rules you are told to leave. These two chancers have ruined a lovely peaceful site and I for one will not be staying once my fees have come to the end.
So my advice is dont bother. These site owners are ruthless, money making con men and sadly they are not on their own.

Lots of people have left

A caravan or motor home parked on your drive isn’t the most pleasant of sights and is forbidden on many developments.