Any advice or thoughts welcome

mydoglovesme

This is my first timid adventure into this and I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing so please be patient. I'm 55 and haven't worked for over a year because of depression. My husband is working 6 days a week to keep us afloat but its starting to affect his health. To take the pressure off financialy we're considering buying a park home. Not something that I relish but feel financialy trapped. Is this a good idea financially, does anyone have any experience of park homes, ie. pros n cons.

Thanks

twirlypinky

I'm afraid i don't know a great deal BUT, a friend of mine lives in one and he loves it, it suits him really well. His only concern is meeting the right girl and having to move out of it to have a family. You don't have that worry.

I guess you'd just need to do a lot of research to ensure you end up in the right park.

The seem to hold their value as they keep popping up in my searches for houses!

Yorkie1

Have you looked properly and recently at your income and outgoings? Might be worth poppping over to the debt-free wannabee board on here and posting what they call a statememt of affairs (SOA) - they will help you to analyse your figures to see if there are any savings you haven't thought of.

Good luck and hope you manage to take control over a little bit of this - you may find that it helps you see a way through.

geoffky

If it helps you and gives you that breathing space,i say go for it but do some research and then some more and some more..look into what happens when you want to sell and things like ground rent as i was looking at caravan places the other day and ground rent was 4k a year..good luck and how about selling and renting for a few years?

motherofstudents

what is your present situation i.e. do you own your home with or without a mortgage, or are you renting ? I think that would have a bearing on how you can proceed. I once went to an exhibition of park homes and must say I came away very impressed. The main thing to check is what the rules are, what are you allowed to do - no kids, dogs etc and I know there has been some controversy about fees that parks charge so look for some information to start with. There is a monthly magazine I think specifically about park homes and there is always google. Whatever you decide, I hope it goes well.

chris_m

motherofstudents wrote: »

The main thing to check is what the rules are, what are you allowed to do - no kids, dogs etc and I know there has been some controversy about fees that parks charge so look for some information to start with.

Especially watching out for any rules regarding the maximum age of the properties in the park - I believe that some some parks do have such rules to ensure that everything looks reasonably modern and all is tidy.

G_M

There have been horror stories about park homes, the way the parks are run, the 'permission' required from park owners for every sale/purchase, etc.

Some parks are well run, some have nightmare owners. And the law governing them is under review due to these problems.

Some resources here.

Or here.

BBC Face the Facts here.
Or use google!

dancingfairy

You might want to contact the debt charities and have a chat through your options:
Try National Debtline, CCCS or your local CAB for advice.
Best of luck
df

zaksmum

We have a park home and though we only use it for weekends/holidays there are many on the park who live there permanently, having sold their homes to do so.

They are all very happy with the arrangement. They pay just over 2K a year, plus rates of £185 and insurance of about £150. The site is in a lovely area by the sea and you really can leave your door open when you go out. All of them say they'd never go back to their houses in urban areas.

Financially you'd be better off as there are less outgoings. You have all the comforts of home (central heating, etc.) It wouldn't suit me as I need to be near shops and my family but it's certainly worth looking into.