Park homes, the Mobile Homes Act and trading standards role In this feature l mobile homes Act l rogue park owners l residents rights No place like home Problems with park home sites are more common than you might expect, as martin fisher and Emma Coetzee explain P One way rogue park owners keep their profits high is by not doing maintenance ark homes may look like little bungalows, but in law they are caravans, and many complaints that arise about them are within the remit of trading standards. Residents buy their van via a sale of goods contract, and pay the park owner a pitch fee for the right to station it on the site and to use the parks utilities and facilities. It is much like parking a touring caravan at a campsite for a week or two, except thatthe contract is regulated by the Mobile Homes Act (MHA) 1983, and is usually unlimited in duration. This means park homes can be sold and inherited. The pitch fee is supposed to pay for maintenance of the common areas of the park and of utilities infrastructure, such as underground pipes and wires. It cannot be increased easily except for an annual inflation (retail price index, RPI) increase and there are few legal ways to get other profits out of residents. Residents rights and the Consumer Rights act 2015 When things go wrong, residents generally dont know where to turn. The one council worker they might see at their park is the district council licensing officer. All caravan parks have to be licensed, with conditions about site maintenance to ensure residents and visitors safety. When licensing officers inspect sites, residents often raise contractual issues with them. They have no powers to deal with these, however, and may not realise trading standards officers (TSOs) are the correct people to whom to refer the matter. Consumer helplines also often fail to spot that park home residents rights fall within the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and a breach of these comes under trading standards remit under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) and the Enterprise Act 2002. Complainants are often steered towards housing departments or charities, such as Shelter. So a lot of relevant LEGaL pRotECtIoNS information never reaches TSOs which The Mobile Homes Act 1983 sets out key implied might be why you assume the park home sites terms. These cover: near you are trouble free. The residents power to sell or gift their home Rogue park owners When things go wrong, residents generally dont know where to turn The park owners ability to enter the pitch Rules on the pitch fee and how it may be Most park owners, of course, trade fairly, but changed there is a significant and growing minority The residents and the park owners who dont. These are referred to as rogue maintenance obligations park owners (RPOs). The park owners obligations to supply copies One way RPOs keep their profits high is of utility and other bills, so that residents can by not doing maintenance. Residents may check their own bills then refuse to pay the next RPI increase, Rules on the establishment of qualifying which they are entitled to do under the MHA. residents associations The RPO is likely to apply extreme pressure, For persistent breaches of these contractual including billing non-existent arrears. rights, trading standards officers can take However, these are not legal debts because enforcement action under Part 8 of the Enterprise arrears can only start accruing if residents Act 2002. have agreed to the RPI increase or after a tribunal decision that it is payable. We have seen four-figure bills for arrears of pitch fees when there was never any resident agreement or tribunal decision to make an RPI increase payable, so they were not legally enforceable debt arrears. There are plenty of other ways RPOs try to make a dodgy profit for example, by: Overcharging for utilities, such as water, electricity and sewerage. Water and electricity are subject to regulation that forbids landlords from profiting on resale but this doesnt stop some RPOs from trying to overcharge. We have seen examples of RPOs forging sewerage businesses invoices to justify their bills Charging extra for repairs to the park that ought to come out of the pitch fees Interference when residents try to sell their park home, known as sales blocking. The aim is usually to force the resident to sell to the park owner cheaply, or to abandon the home altogether. If the resident dies or goes into care, family members and executors are alsovulnerable to this tactic protections for park home owners The MHA amended Section 3 (1AA) of the Caravan Sites Act 1968. This made it an offence for the site owner or agent to knowingly, or recklessly, give misinformation or make a false or misleading representation either as part of a sales-blocking tactic or to try to get an existing resident off the park. Changes to MHA brought in by the Mobile Homes Act 2013 have reduced the scope for this, but it may still be tried. These changes could assist officers when dealing with cases involving the mistreatment of existing residents. When it comes to site rules, there is a strict legal process involving consultation with residents, an appeal procedure, and then depositing the rules fRom DREam puRCHaSE with the licensing local authority. TSOs should note to NIGHtmaRE HomE that even deposited rules may contain terms banned under the Mobile Homes (Site Rules) (England) Regulations 2014, or which are otherwise unfair under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Residents may not realise a rule is potentially unfair or even prohibited for example, those that stipulate only site owner-approved contractors can carry out maintenance or improvement work, or that a resident buy a replacement park home through the site owner. A licensing authority has a duty to keep and publish a register of site rules, but has no way of objecting to unfair rules. However, it can make the site owner and residents aware of any such rules in case of future consumer detriment, and the local authority can publish a disclaimer stating that the rules are not endorsed. It is important to build a good relationship with residents associations Building good relationships There are few legal ways to get profits out of residents It is important to build good relationships with residents associations. This will ensure you hear about any problems before they get out of hand, and that you gain the trust of vulnerable residents, who may be afraid of complaining or committing to give a witness statement. You can promote buy with confidence schemes through the associations and give residents a stock of no cold calling stickers. Park-home sites have a large number of older residents and are often atarget for doorstep traders. Finally, remember that licensing problems nearly always go hand in hand with trading standards issues. If you get complaints about a park, ring the local licensing officer and plug into their intelligence in the same way, they can plug into yours. This will help ensure park home residents have a happy and safe place to call home. Credits Martin Fisher is a trading standards officer To share this page, in the toolbar click on You might also like Covert costs May 2016 at Cornwall Council and Emma Coetzee is a trading standards officer at Devon, Somerset and Torbay Trading Standards Service. Images: iStock.com / ZAKmac park home, so Torbay TS instructed a building and engineering consultant a park home on a caravan site. found the base consisted of two In 2013, Torbay Trading Standards enter into a contract to purchase to examine the hardstanding. They fRom DREam puRCHaSE to NIGHtmaRE HomE an average consumer would not It may have seemed strange to the sections one original, one new judge for someone to make such that had not been joined effectively. an expensive decision on site, but There were also significant cracks in caravan parks are business premises the new section. as well as residential sites. now part of the Devon County The base was likely to have an What is relevant for officers to Council joint service received increased susceptibility to distortion learn from this case is it is important a complaint from a resident who and movement, which would have to consider the conditions of the had paid more than 110,000 for a detrimental effect on the park site licence and whether a breach a new park home to be sited at home. The site licence requires new could constitute a trading standards Beechdown Park, in Paignton, Devon. hardstandings to be constructed to offence. They should clarify during The complaint had come via the industry guidance the Gold Shield the Police and Criminal Evidence residents association. Code of practice but this one was (PACE) interview how and where not compliant. the site owner agrees contracts with Part of the agreement related to the pitch condition, such as installing Torbay TS then received a second, new residents. In this case, the site owner Jeffrey decking and erecting fencing. similar complaint from a new Promises about when the park home resident at the site. Officers began Small, from Taunton was found would be ready for habitation had to put together a case for offences guilty of Regulation 8 offences also been made. These were all of misleading actions, including under the Consumer protection verbal agreements that were later time of availability, specification from unfair trading Regulations breached, leaving the resident in with regard to the decking and 2008, including contravening temporary accommodation for contravening the requirements of the requirements of professional a significant period of time and, professional diligence. diligence in relation to the eventually, living in a park home surrounded by mud. The resident also became aware of problems with the base of their In July 2015, Newton Abbot construction of the hardstandings, Magistrates Court found no which were defective and not fit for case to answer in relation to the purpose, and on which new park misleading actions, stating that homes for two consumers were sited.
