Caravan park fees

michelle1607

Since the lockdown has been imposed, obviously caravan parks have had to shut within Government guidelines and recommendations.
Many fellow caravanners on social media are concerned about monies paid up front for their seasonal pitches (this is not in reference to those who tour). 
My husband and I received an email from the site days before site opened and fee were due,stating that we were required to pay in full and if not we would lose our pitch and have to remove caravan from its storage facility. We felt that we had no alternative but to pay as we have nowhere to store the caravan. Lockdown had already been imposed at this time
I understand that this is a difficult time for all financially, especially small businesses, but feel this is wrong for any park owner to charge FULL fees whilst their facilities cannot be accessed. This is affecting 1000’s of seasonally pitched caravan owners nationwide.
Question is, do we have any legal rights to reasonably request compensation/money back in these unprecedented times?

DoaM

Your rights will depend on your specific contract T&Cs and how they are worded. i.e. what exactly you are paying for. If you're paying for the right to use that pitch freely (e.g. between April 1st and September 30th) and they are preventing you from using it, then you may have a claim. If you're paying for them to reserve that pitch for you then you probably don't - the pitch is still reserved for you.

Aylesbury_Duck

The other matter is that if your contract is of the type where you might be able to reasonably challenge the fee, you need to consider whether you want to keep your caravan there or return in the future.  They may simply bar you if you get too heavy about it, so ask nicely in that case.

Undervalued

michelle1607 said:

Since the lockdown has been imposed, obviously caravan parks have had to shut within Government guidelines and recommendations.
Many fellow caravanners on social media are concerned about monies paid up front for their seasonal pitches (this is not in reference to those who tour). 
My husband and I received an email from the site days before site opened and fee were due,stating that we were required to pay in full and if not we would lose our pitch and have to remove caravan from its storage facility. We felt that we had no alternative but to pay as we have nowhere to store the caravan. Lockdown had already been imposed at this time
I understand that this is a difficult time for all financially, especially small businesses, but feel this is wrong for any park owner to charge FULL fees whilst their facilities cannot be accessed. This is affecting 1000’s of seasonally pitched caravan owners nationwide.
Question is, do we have any legal rights to reasonably request compensation/money back in these unprecedented times?

As I have said in other similar threads, if something else (equally not the landlord's fault) had prevented you from accessing the site for a few weeks would you be seeking a partial refund?

Come to that and being honest, had this been a normal year, on how many of the "lockdown" weeks would you have actually used your caravan?

michelle1607

Aylesbury_Duck said:

The other matter is that if your contract is of the type where you might be able to reasonably challenge the fee, you need to consider whether you want to keep your caravan there or return in the future.  They may simply bar you if you get too heavy about it, so ask nicely in that case.

Would like to keep pitch, so won’t make an issue out of it, it is difficult in the situation for them

sharpe106

You being there or not the cost for the company are about the same. Yes they may save some staffing cost but that is about it. Everything else still needs to be paid for. You are paying to have the pitch for year, you have the pitch.