Can I live in a static caravan on the countryside?

hussnainh8

Hi,

I am 20 years old and trying to think ahead of my future.. So I am currently living with parents and I have recently bought my dream car and now I am saving up money for a few years till I am ready to move out. I have been looking at houses for sale and with todays day and age.. the house value is super high! It is gutting to know im working on a minimum pay job and that to buy a 2-3 bedroom house would cost me 150k and that I would need to get a loan of atleast 100k!! It would take a long time to pay that off and I am looking at £500 a month mortgage at least! On the other hand........... I was browsing along and saw an add on zoopla which said static caravan for sale for around £35,000. This got me thinking that I dont need any thing fancy as long as I can sleep and cook food in thats all I need and not just that but it looks so much better than the houses I have seen for a quarter of the price and you can park numerous vehicles outside which is a big bonus! its basically a house but a caravan layout? (Cant show because it wont let me post links as a new user).

My question is.. Yes I know it will be hard to live in when its cold outside etc but I can live with that.. The question is.. Can you really live in a static caravan on the countryside? I mean I have seen other caravans which come with pitch fees but this doesn't seem like it says anything about fees? It does say it is a private area so does that mean I would own the land my caravan is on as well or what? How does it work? I just wanted to know if it possible to live there because I wouldn't mind it at all... Lots of perks.. No mortgage problems.. no neighbors.. close by to city centre so thats no problem too as I drive and love driving... I dont want people telling me things like what are you doing with your life etc.. I am quite happy living there (personal taste) So is it possible or will I buy the place and then the government will come along and tell me to move ? :rotfl:

Thank you to any one who replies!

Arleen

This type of topics pops up here every now and then. The nutshell of it is that there are a lot of hidden charges there, you will need land with residential permission (or park in one of the expensive parks) etc. There really is nothing wrong with renting, especially if right now you can't afford to buy.

tlc678910

Hi OP,
Keep in mind that if you buy a caravan in twenty years (for example) it's value could be minimal and it may have degraded a lot where as bricks and mortar should stand the test of time and hold or increase in value.

If you live in a caravan you would probably want to start saving for a more traditional home or the next caravan right away.

Some sites are open 11 months to comply with their permits and in this case you need to live away for a month e.g. January. Some sites only allow caravans up to a certain age and you then need to move or replace it.

If you investigated all the costs in the particular case it could be OK in the short-medium term but I think you would need your follow on plan in place.

Re your original question I don't think you can assume you can just pop it anywhere (with the landowners permission) - I wonder if the council's planning dept are the people to ask if you are not looking at a licensed site?

Tlc

nimbo

You also have to consider electric and water. Bottled gas is not too hard to find but soon adds up cost wise.

But how will you be flushing your toilet? Having a shower and watching television or getting your boiler to heat the cold caravan with no mains electric.

They are fine to live in over summer. But my mil’s gets cold by the end of the season and costs a fortune to heat with the bottled gas. On some sites they close down for more than a month. You have to keep them heated when the weather drops or drain the system to avoid frozen pipes.

Youll have some kind of pitch fee. They take up a lot of land. I imagine what you’ve seen for 35k is just the caravan. They can be moved. Not cheap or easy as you can imagine. I imagine it’s best practice to have them on a concrete (or similar) foundation / footing so they stay level and don’t sink into grass or muck. You need to find a place to have it - where the neighbours won’t complain. If you’re not on an official site - you’d be charged to get rid of sewage but if not on mains water you’d have to figure out a safe plan to dispose of this and be hooked up to *something* to safely collect this and then have it emptied.

It could be possible - but not an easy way to live....

beedeedee

There are private freehold plots in various places along the south coast that I know folk have one or two caravans sited on. I have seen them advertised occasionally by estate agents.....don't know if this is common anywhere but the south coast?

_CC_

Few people buy a 2-3 bedroom house on their own.

Buying a house for £150k in today's money on two modest incomes should be possible with some dedication with saving a deposit?

If buying alone, are flats much cheaper?

If you've just bought a nice car then maybe buying a house is of less importance to you. I'd personally prefer to own a house and a banger than a nice car outside a caravan. I am jumping to the conclusion that your new car was quite expensive though, which it may not be.

Either way, I'd get into the habit of saving, stay with parents and see what you think in a few years time when circumstances may have changed.

Edi81

You are 20 and looking to the future which is great. You write that £500 on a mortgage is a lot of money - in the grand scheme it’s not that much.

Perhaps you would do well to consider your career options and how you can increase your income.

You are still young so plenty of time to go back into education.

seven-day-weekend

Also unless you buy the caravan on its site or from a regsitered dealer, you may find it difficult to find a site that will take it. Even if you do there will almost certainly be site fees which can be several thousand pounds a year (I know of one site where they are over £9k - ours is 3.5k a year plus gas, electricity and insurance).

The site also may be closed from 1-4 months a year and you won't be able to live in your caravan during that time.

If you buy one already sited on a residential site (as opposed to a holiday park), then you will be able to live in it all year round, but I think the site fees still apply.

AnotherJoe

Many sites also have a restriction on the age of the caravan. It may even be this is one, eg the OP is expected to buy it and take it away. Without knowing the full costs and restrictions of the site, it’s impossible to know if this is a great way to save money or wholly impractical.

ProDave

Forget the dream car.

When I bought my first house in 1986 (when people tell you it was oh do easy back then when a house cost £30K) I borrowed the max I could, then to make up the shortfall (deposit) I sold my decent car and bought a very old very rusty, just about working old banger.

It was many years before I could gradually work up to something resembling a decent car again. There was no money for any luxuries.

But it was all worth it in the end.

It never has been, and never will be easy to buy your first home and you will need to make sacrifices.

Davesnave

Can I live in a static caravan on the countryside?

Apparently yes, because that's exactly what a couple are doing near me, although their caravan is not a super-dooper £35k jobbie and it's just parked in a council lay-by on a tiny side road.

They've been there over 12 months now and their child even attends the local primary school, so the council know about the situation.

I dare say they'll be moved on eventually, but that will cost the taxpayer money and they'll still need to live somewhere.

Maybe they're cutting costs to the bone and saving for a deposit, in which case it's a strategy which is working. Or maybe we'll have another winter like 2009, when the temperature there went down to -19c......