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buying our first static caravan home


hazelrab

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please can you provide us with some information or provide a link on buying our fist static caravan,

we are looking at Inverbeg park (Loch Lomond) has anyone been on the park? and if so please tell us how it was?

kind regards

hazel & rab :-S

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HI there

 

You mention the word 'home' in your post, which leads me to think that you are looking to purchase a 'static caravan' as your main home.

 

Inverbeg Holiday Park is exactly that, a holiday park with an eleven month license. You may not live their permanently under the terms of their site license. You need to have your primary home elsewhere.

 

To buy on a holiday park gives you no protection at all, whereas if you buy on a fully residential licensed park you will have the full protection of the Mobile Homes Act 1983.

 

You need to look for a residential park home website. Just do a search in Google for 'park homes for sale' and see what comes up.

 

Good luck!

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Hi There, I don't know too much about static caravan homes other than my parents used to have one some years ago. The biggest problems seem to arise when you actually decide that you want to sell it. PLEASE check carefully what the site rules are on this and THINK CAREFULLY about whether these would be acceptable to you when the time comes.

 

I have two sets of friends who have owned static vans and swore by them when they owned them, but within three years decided to go back to towing vans.

 

Sorry not a very positive post. I am sure there are lots of people for whom static is the bees knees.

 

Joy

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Thanks for your reply.

we are looking for a holiday home. :-S you know lodge/caravan.

this would be for holidays only family ect.. we are going to view some on the park at Inverbeg. we are looking for information on buying a preoccupied or new one. please can anyone advise us? and what are the clauses' to watch out for? we are true novices

8-) many thanks

hazel + rab

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As Joy has already mentioned, read the small print VERY carefully. You need to know what the annual fees will be, the cost of gas, electric, water etc, what permissible price hikes they can make, whether you are permitted to let it out, even to family either for free or for a fee, and most importantly, if you come to sell, what commission they will want - some can be extortionate.

 

A static caravan doesn't increase in value, no matter what you are told, if there is ever an increase in value it is only because of the popularity of the site it is on and the increase in land costs. In the present climate it is extremely unlikely that this will happen and I would guess that most statics are worth a lot less than they were initially bought for - make sure that you put this into the equation too when looking at the cost of ownership and then work out how much you would use it for and how much it would cost you to just hire one when you want it, especially since you could then go to other sites rather than be 'stuck' on the same one time and time again.

 

If after all of this, you decide it is what you want then I hope you'll have some lovely times there. :->

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As an afterthought, you could consider getting a normal caravan and putting it on a campsite on a seasonal pitch. This would probably work out a lot cheaper and you'd then have the option to move to another site once you had tired of the existing one. :-S
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  • 3 weeks later...

My parents bought a second hand static on a lovely site just outside York. They live in leeds and used it most weekends and often, as they are both retired, spent weeks there.

 

They, as well as most others, had turned their pitch area into little homes from home, garden sheds containing lawnmowers, BBQ's etc. Paved areas etc.

 

However, after 10 years new owners took over the site and commenced puting on brand new static vans for holiday hire. They told my parents that their van was old and looked unsightly and that they had to get rid of it or move it to another site (not another pitch, another location all together). They could not afford one of the newer ones and there was nowhere else they wanted to go to. They ended up scrapping the van and now spend their days in their 1 bedroomed council flat.

 

Sorry if this sounds a bit horrendous but check where you stand with contracts if ownership of park changes hands.

 

Good luck with your hunting and when you find what you are looking for just thoroughly enjoy yourselves (lol)

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  • 3 years later...
  • 1 year later...

Statics on Holiday Parks sound great, but as Mel B and others have said you really need to study the T&C's very carefully.

 

Bear one thought in mind the whole time, once you have bought your static caravan on a holiday park that's it, the park owner has got you in a vice grip, he can increase the ground rent each year by any amount, he can increase the maintenance charges above inflation, and as we've seen above he can even tell you to move your 'van or scrap it!!! and when it comes to selling thepark owner will get a big commission on the sale. The difference between a 'Residential Park Home' and a 'Holiday Park Home' are enormous, sadly not many people even know the basics.

ETA:-

I realise this is a very old thread but the facts haven't changed much in the last three years and there may be others out there considering a static caravan on a holiday park. I have also been looking but the more I look the less I feel like taking the plunge.

 

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