Holiday home/ static caravan - does your family have one? Do you love it/ regret it?

osian

Thanks all, it's lovely to read positive reports about them being well used and also grateful to hear about those that don't use that as often as they'd like as that is something that I'm cautious about.

The Chalet we've fancied is more like a house. It's two story, concrete constrution and built in the 60/70's so should hopefully last a while as they are still in good nick even though 40 years old. The site fees are 500 a year and index linked with a 999 year lease so not too bad (I think?) and you can use it 11 months of the year. Looking at the sold property values, they seem to go up and down like normal houses so hopefully may have something to sell in twenty or so years time. We've lived so tightly for a long time saving for something like this.

I guess on top of the fees, we'll have to budget for water, electric, insurance and fuel for our car. Council tax is £600 a year, but I got in touch with the local authority yesterday and so long as we made the chalet available for let 20 weeks of the year it would be classed as having business rates which is currently zero as qualify for small business relief.

People do let the chalets out and I'd be open to this, but would want to use it too.

I am also cautious about some sort of tax on second homes that may be brought in, in the future. Though it's not technically a second home as people can not use them as a permanent home.

How much do you spend on insurance / water/ electric if it's not included in the fees? I think most of these proprties are on a water meter.

I love going away but only go a few times a year (when I've planned and booked something in advance). I'd love to just be able to go on a Friday night straight after school/work and back in time for bed Sunday night.

I'm nervous but excited. I'm not thinking about it from an investment point of view but more from an enjoyment type of thing. I'm kind of trying to justify the cost by thinking it's the kind of amount that people would spend on a luxury car or two ordinary cars which normally don't have any much value left after about 12 years.

Treevo

zaksmum wrote: »

We had one for 13 years on a site that had no amenities but was in a beautiful coastal area.

Site fees were £2.5K a year, insurance (compulsory) £250, rates £300. In total over £3K a year.

Fuel cost £40 a return trip. We loved having the caravan but the British weather was constantly dreadful...for the last four years we just didn't have a summer.

The only difference between summer and winter was the lighter nights and the slightly warmer rain.

When the caravan was 13 years old the site manager said we either had to upgrade or scrap the caravan and quit the site. New caravans (no option for used vans) started at £24K and we'd be guaranteed a maximum of 15 years on site, after which the van would be worthless.

So that works out at about £1600 a year depreciation plus ever increasing site fees etc...you can reckon on almost £5000 a year without adding fuel costs.

And of course you have to pay for gas bottles and metered electricity.

So around £100 a week, every week of the year, even in the depths of winter when the site is bleak, windswept and locked and barred!

You could get a good few holidays for that kind of money.

zaksmum wrote: »

it's pretty standard on all caravan sites.

We had one where the site had absolutely no facilities at all, but was in a scenic area. The site fees were £2000 per year, rates £450 and compulsory insurance £400. So almost £3000 a year. We bought the caravan new costing £12000 and after 12 years, even though it was still in excellent condition, we were told we had to either buy a new van costing from £22000 or get off the site.

We decided not to buy another van and have had several holidays each year for the price of the £3000 alone. Not to mention the depreciation, over 12 years, of nearly £2000 a year on top.

*confused*

Pollycat

My Mum & Dad had one for 40 years, they spent all their holidays there with my much younger sister.

When they retired they spent most of the summer there until my sister had a family and then they yo-yoed back and forth each week.

Since my Dad died, my mum kept it on for the grandchildren but it doesn't get used as often as it used to.

Think this will be the last year.

I would work out the cost of running the holiday home (ground rent, insurance etc) and getting to & from it to see if it would be viable.
Also maybe check out how easy it might be to offload in the future.

happy35

i had a static caravan for a few years, was good when DS was very small but as he got older and had hobbies I found it was hard to fit it all in

I sold mine as it no longer fitted in with our lifestyle, and we decided that we preferred to holiday abroad less often than go away every weekend

If I could have got away more often I would have kept mine though, we are considering a touring caravan now though as DS is old enough to stay at home and I would like the freedom of going to a different place every time

Norma_Desmond

DH's aunt has a static caravan somewhere in Dorset, and since she bought it some 10 years ago it's depreciated in value hugely, the site fees are awful and to top it all she's bored with 'having to' go there every time she wants a break.

Why not get yourselves a good size camper van and go where you fancy? You can normally sell them on for not much of a loss too.

Ich_2

You can always go part way, buy a tourer and put it on a seasonal pitch. The advantage of this is it is possible to move sites every year so you don't get bored with a specific location.
You can also use it as designed and tour at home or on the continent

Gloomendoom

Ich wrote: »

You can always go part way, buy a tourer and put it on a seasonal pitch. The advantage of this is it is possible to move sites every year so you don't get bored with a specific location.
You can also use it as designed and tour at home or on the continent

My parents store a tourer on a site in Devon. They just ring the site before they want to go down and it gets pulled out and set up on a pitch for them. If they want to go elsewhere they can just hitch up and off they go. It's a relatively cheap way of doing it as, other than the storage fee, there are no standing charges.

DanE2010

A family member bought a static caravan on a campsite, it cost £22000 brand new, biggest mistake ever.

The caravan park said it would be first choice to people booking to stay but it was barely let over the summer season, the park fees were too much and so they decided to sell.

In the space of 12 months the caravan had depreciated by £20,000 and after trying to sell it online for months they eventually had to sell it back to the caravan park for £6,000, they were devastated, so no dont invest in a static caravan its a poor investment and more trouble than its worth.

fireyfirenze

Treevo wrote: »

*confused*

what is confusing about those two posts? she is basically saying the same thing in both.

Taadaa

My grandparents had a van at Leysdown. Every weekend and holiday we went. Had it for 20 years until they were told they had to upgrade to one with running water, couldn't afford it.

It's been gone for nearly 30 years but we still talk about the happy days we spent there, some of the best of our lives no doubt. It may be expensive but l'd have one in a flash if l had the money. You can't buy happy memories like the ones l have of those halcyon days spent with a bucket and spade, or even crowded round thw wood burner when it was snowing one Easter!