Park Home Living

My cousin lives in a" posh" one in Kent and her park home is amazing,like a classy apartment.But the downside is ,the site has been sold 3 times in the years she has been there and each time,more rules and higher fees.So she regrets swapping from bricks and mortar. The plus side is, I know of 2 people who decided park life wasn't for them and the councils (2 different ones) housed each of them as they don't class park homes as "proper" housing !

Many thanks to all of you for your comments. Cold, we found the Age UK website very useful indeed. We will proceed with the utmost caution!

My parents have lived on a park home for about 20 years and love it.
It's the size of a small bungalow, two bedrooms, dining and living room and a good sized kitchen. They have a large garden too. There is a good social side to living on the park which really help my parents.
No issues with heating it, always really warm in winter. They have oil heating which is the only thing available on their park. They have annual maintenance costs, and pay a monthly fee.
When it comes to selling it this can be a problem. I think on their site you can only sell it back to their landlord who will give very low price.
Different parks have different rules and regulations so it is worth looking into it all properly and possibly getting a solicitor to go over everything.

What about the "lifestyle" appeals?
My Mil lived in one before she died and thought it expensive and wasn't very happy at being told when her current cat died she'd not be allowed to get another one. Her family are still trying to sell her home a year after she died and considering letting it go for peanuts just to get rid of it. It isn't worth much anyway, considerably less than they paid and the site owner vets all prospective buyers and then veto's them. No doubt he'll take it off their hands for next to nothing.

Age UK have a fact sheet for Park Home living that may be useful.
www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs71_park_homes_fcs.pdf

I saw a consumer TV piece about park homes a few months ago (sorry can't remember where) and there were quite a few pitfalls that you need to watch out for. I cannot remember all of them - but things to look out for
- does it have a full residential license? - not all sites allow permanent year round living - some sites close for a few months in winter or are only licenced for 12 month holiday living. This obviously means you need a place to go but can also make it hard to get services such as GP/social care.
- some sites have lots of rules regarding the caravans - where you buy and how often you must replace the home
- annual costs such as service charges and pitch fees - can vary a lot
- energy costs - many of the homes are fine for summer living but have poor insulation and are freezing in the winter