Sell your house - buy a caravan

Optimist

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

This is going to sound facetious and I really don't mean it to .... but ...

This is precisely why people are running park home estates. If they weren't making a shed load of money out of it, they wouldn't bother.

We went to visit a park homes open day this Sunday as we are in a similar situation and looking to downsize our house as soon as my wife retires then spend some of our hard earned money enjoying ourselves. I was really pleasantly surprised at the quality and layout of the homes and its a definite option. However the profit margins for the park owners are obviously rather large as there were two yellow Ferraris parked at the sales office!

Xbigman

Just as I was trying to forget about park homes and caravans...

On the front page of the local free rag, the one we all throw in the bin unread most weeks, is a story regarding a local naturist caravan park. It has been told to apply for planning permission for 20 of its 63 pitches or shut them down. This is despite the fact they have been in use for 24 years.
Now my neighbour is an ex county councillor and I started chatting about this. It seems they had temporary permission for these pitches but the council have decided enough is enough and they now want it sorted properly.
We also talked about putting park homes on any old piece of land, about which he said (from memory) '...the loophole these people are exploiting is one where they claim the homes are temporary so the council don't see a reason to spend money getting them removed. This is especially true if the depts involved have a tight budget. Where the council uses the ultimate sanction of towing the home away it is near impossible to pin down who exactly is at fault and recover full costs'. He went on to say that anyone using this method to put up a park home would never be secure in the occupancy and could never sell as it would not officially exist as a dwelling.
And a final quote on the subject 'planning depts have long memories'.

So thats killed that idea then.
Regards



X

Hereward

I saw this article in my local paper today and immediately though about this thread. It should serve as a word of warning:

http://www.cambs-times.co.uk/content/cambstimes/news/story.aspx?brand=CATOnline&category=NewsCambs&tBrand=cambs24&tCategory=NewsCAT&itemid=WEED28%20Jul%202006%2011%3A54%3A53%3A480

calleyw

tempuscat wrote:

It's typical of today's 'park homes' and bears no resemblance to 'log cabins' of yesteryear mentioned elsewhere on this thread.

I am wonder what sort of log cabins you are on about. If you looked at the link in my reply I think you will find I was not talking about garden sheds but log cabins that are fit to be homes finished to a very high standard.

They are very nice something you would want to live in for ever and day. And will last a min of 50 years it not longer.

I think you are getting confused with static mobile homes and log cabins.

I would say very doubtful you would get a mortgage. Would need to see a broker. Think you would have to remortgage your current home and use that money to buy.

Yours


Calley

leni

Theirs some totally mis-informed information on this thread!

You definately will need planning permission and those Travellers that have bought land often do apply for planning permittion but compared to the UK "settled community" 91% of applications submitted by Gypsies/Travellers are turned down! So why do they buy the land and move onto it knowing they probably won't be allowed to stay there! The answer is simple! Theirs is a 15,000 pitch shortfall in the UK since the 1964 Caravan Act was revoked and the not so nice conservatives took the duty of Local Authorities to prvide sites in 1994, stating that Travellers must buy their own (catch 22 when you can't get planning) so where do these people go?

Some buy their land and move onto it without PP, but to them atleast they have a home for x amount of years, access to services and education for their children.

Gypsies/Travellers do pay taxes, like everyone else they pay tax on everything they buy (VAT), fuel duty, those employed pay national insirance and tax. Those living on sites with planning permission or council owned sites pay council tax and a higher rent then those living in social landlord brick and mortar and are often charged commercial rates for utilities.

I have first hand knowledge of all this.

Xbigman

Here's an addition. In Horton (near Sodbury common) is a guy living in a caravan who bought the land with a derelict house on it and has been living there ever since, supposedly 5 years. Work done on house, or should I say ruin, is zero so far.
Regards



X

mjbeckett

The one I heard of was a paddock was bought and a stable built (with permission). They then plumbed in a double size park home complete with fuel oil tank. To get round the planning regulations they bought a load of ducks and put them in a pen and said the place was a duck farm. I don't know how this allowed them to get around the planning regulations but it did....maybe coz it was agricultural use?

Surfer

We are living permanently in a twin axle touring caravan on a park and loving every minute plus the bonus of no council tax or utility bills to pay. Post gets delivered to a mailing address where it is collected by us every two or three days. No problem with damp clothing or frozen water taps as we take the correct precautions at that time of the year. Beauty is if you don't tlike your neighbours you up and chuck!

k13ehr

We're on the road to trying to sort out this minefield of rumour and yes you can, but no you can't malarkey.

We're on a few forums and have asked this question many times, truth is no one know anybody who has really done it yet, by that I mean, buy a plot and put a mobile home on it.

Not in your dads garden or while building a house, but a new MH on a new plot all serviced up and running.

We'd love to do it but the "planners" are always burying their heads in the sand, you can't have a shiny new log cabin out of site of other dwellings, but you can continue to live on a scruffy estate and continue to chuck your rubbish into the garden and when it gets bad enough they'll renovate the whole state, now that's what I call planning, planning by morons with no bottle, and no vision, we a rwe short of thousands of homes, but they won't let us have our own way.

If anyone can prove me wrong and it can be done then please please please stand up and be counted.

Give us chapter and verse of which council what type of mobile home, what needs to be done to satisfy the "planners" the full monty, not more of, well I know someone brother in law tales, they help no one.

Why can we not do this by the book, find a plot, approach the planners with a brochure of the MH we'd like to put on the plot, ask advice of how they'd like us to do it, what other measures they'd like is to take etc, like they would with a house, but unlike a house, it would probably have to be renewed after 25-30 years.

We've been looking at MH's for a while now and have found a company which will build to our specs but within the caravan councils guide lines, it would be built to the correct BS standards for a caravan to comply with existing regulations, and within our fairly low budget, it basically comprises a small timber framed bungalow, except it's comes in two parts and is on wheels, mainly made of wood, virtually no plastic, it's about as environmentally friendly as can be for a dwelling, with the possible exception of a mud hut, (now there's an idea) so just what is the problem with these people.

in some countries they take a used refrigerated container or two cut a few holes in them for doors and windows, place them together and voila, a dwelling out of an eyesore, all clad in cedar, could we do it here no, of course not, but one sold recently in the USA for 1.5 million dollars, OK it was a bit spesh, but it was still only an old trailer