Buying a sited UK static caravan??

knightstyle

We are thinking of buying one near Chichester and wondered if any of you had done this. They seem expensive but would enable us to spend more time near grandchildren now we have retired.
So pitfalls, advice please.

misterbarlow

beware to read the T&Cs.. my aunt bought one a few years back and didnt read in the T&Cs that she HAD to offer the site first refusal on a buy back if she sold it, and they pay loads less than it was worth, she lost a good few grand on it..

Sammy-Jo_2

You really have to work your figures out over maybe the next ten years as most sites only allow caravans upto 10 yrs old on them then you are faced with either selling to the site (?) at a loss or part exchanging for another van. We looked into this about 4 years ago and were astounded at the amount of money you could lose. My advice would be to work out how much its going to cost you over a number of years and then have a think about possibly contacting someone who owns a van on the site (owners direct) and coming to an arrangement for regular hire of their van.

knightstyle

Thanks for the advice, have had a good look, new home, high spec, £41k, second hand good spec £23k, annual costs including council tax and services £6 to £7.5k. Can let in season and get £4k to £6k. Need somewhere to stay several times a year in Sussex, would like to leave personal stuff there.
We could afford it but decided against this site, Church farm, Pagham, we are renting there at the moment as they are only open 8 months of the year.
Will look at other sites in the area, would like to buy privately but can't find where sellers advertise direct.
Thanks for the replies.

Aletank

The £41k you'll never see much of that back, £6-7k a year running costs, rules & regs of the site, forced to upgrade, site fees goin up, site only open so many months a year....
Wouldn't a flat be a better option, yeah its more to buy, but you'll always get back what you paid, under £1k a year council tax.

Charityworker

Hi . I own a caravan on a park resorts site and I've had it just over 4 years. I can tell you that there are a lot of hidden expenses as follows:

Site fees vary from site to site but ours is £3800 pa.
Council tax is £350 pa on our van.
Gas bottles are £63 each and we get through 3 to 4 per year.
Electric is roughly £100 per year
Insurance is £200 per year.
Drain down £70 per year
Gas and electric checks come to roughly £200 per year.

Having said that we let ours out for every school holiday week, all of July and some odd weeks the rest of the year and that covers the cost of it. To cover the cost you don't get much time in it yourself. You said in your op about being able to leave your belongings there, you can't do that if you decide to let it out as your personal belongings won't be there the next time you visit! What we do is have a cupboard with a padlock on it, then we can put what we want to leave there in it.

The first year we had it we decided to let it out through the park. Their clientele wasn't very good and in that first year we had the TV, 3 bathroom blinds, several carpets, cooking utensils and plates nicked. Since then I have been letting it out myself and only had some DVDs I provided nicked this year. The downside of letting it out is the wear and tear on your caravan. Every march I do a deep clean on it by washing curtains and using a rug doctor etc but it still looks a mess in a few weeks. You also have to think about who's going to clean it I between let's. we only live 10 miles from ours so we do it every Saturday but if your further it might become a problem. Friends of mine on the same site don't bother cleaning it between customers but I don't know how they get away with that.

The site ours is on let's you keep your van on no matter how old it is. One thing I would say is you've got to be in it for the long haul. If you think your only going to have it for a short while you will be severely out of pocket.

Another thing worth thinking of is if your in receipt of any benefits at all and you let it out to have to tell them of your income from this even if you are spending all of it on the upkeep of the caravan.

knightstyle

Thanks for the detailed reply, what I was hoping for. I have talked to existing owners on the site and am fairly sure of the costs. The unit we looked at had a huge storage area at the back, 14 by 38ft living space with 2 by 14ft full height storage space making the caravan 40ft long.
The alternative is to rent something several times a year for a month or so at a time which costs over £100 a night!

greatgimpo

I bet a Premier Inn would work out less!

paddyrg

If your annual costs are say £4k, that's 40 nights in a reasonable enough hotel without the stress of owning a van!

Seriously though, the caravan park companies are very very savvy about making as much money from you as possible - they have been doing it for decades and are absolute masters at it. Promised earnings will be gross, and not include breakages, fuel, cleaning fees, etc. They will also sell your van last - they make more from selling their own vans than selling owners vans, etc.

NOBBYTHESHEEP

Buying a Static Caravan is a mugs game...as Charity Worker explains there are lots of additional costs, but you also need to take into account the actual cost of the caravan and it's huge depreciation....I can never understand anyone who would pay £40k on a caravan and then be forced to change it if the site has a 10 or 12 year tenure...madness...but I blame the caravan dealers for this as they give site owners up to 30% commission on new caravans...more than they make themselves !
There is always the argument that it is the site owners who have the land and without it there would not be a place for caravans....but seriously.....This also leads some site owners to insist on only accepting high value new caravans Eg min 50k.= more commission..
Be very wary before buying any static caravan as it can be a BIG mistake.....

Ianwzzz

NOBBYTHESHEEP wrote: »

Buying a Static Caravan is a mugs game...as Charity Worker explains there are lots of additional costs, but you also need to take into account the actual cost of the caravan and it's huge depreciation....I can never understand anyone who would pay £40k on a caravan and then be forced to change it if the site has a 10 or 12 year tenure...madness...but I blame the caravan dealers for this as they give site owners up to 30% commission on new caravans...more than they make themselves !
There is always the argument that it is the site owners who have the land and without it there would not be a place for caravans....but seriously.....This also leads some site owners to insist on only accepting high value new caravans Eg min 50k.= more commission..
Be very wary before buying any static caravan as it can be a BIG mistake.....

Totally agree. You will loose thousands when you sell. Also make sure you read all the terms and conditions and understand them before you sign anything.

I didn't and lost 26 thousand pounds after 4 years.