Mobile home - Ground Rent

Smudge12345

Hello
The site owner has just increased my ground rent fee from £2800 to £3300 a year plus VAT.  This is nearly a 20% increase.
Is she allowed to increase it by this much?
Thanks for your help

Penguin_

Yes they can. It's your choice as to whether you accept it & pay it. Do they have an early payment discount?
How does their rent compare to other local sites?

moneysavinghero

Did they not give you 28 days notice in writing?

You could try and challenge it a tribunal if you feel that it is unfair. Whether or not you will get anywhere is another thing.
https://www.gov.uk/park-mobile-homes/charges

Smudge12345

Thank you for your replies.  No they do not have any early payment discount.  She gave me 25 days notice in writing.  I need to check about other sites' rent.  The owner is extremely obnoxious and so going to a tribunal to contest it is probably not an option as my husband needs it for work (he works away a lot) and I'm sure she will refuse him access if he has a contested bill.

AdrianC

Smudge12345 said:

The site owner has just increased my ground rent fee from £2800 to £3300 a year plus VAT.  This is nearly a 20% increase.
Is she allowed to increase it by this much?

Is this under the existing contract? If so, what does the contract say about increases?
Or are they asking you to sign a new contract?
What does your contract say about them asking you to leave?

Smudge12345

The contract says that park ground rents and other charges are reviewed and paid yearly in advance and in full on receipt of invoice.  And no lodge may be used whilst any monies or invoices are outstanding or in dispute. 
All paperwork is always very poorly written and unprofessional.
The invoice received has no VAT number, no date  and the date for which the rent covers states '1st April 2021 to 2022' .  No mention of ending date - which is worrying as we know the campsite is in the process of being sold.  So we could pay £5260 (which is the whole amount with rates and VAT) and she may sell it before the end of the year!  

Smudge12345

Plus we never have to actually sign the contract, it just gets posted to us every year.

eddddy

Smudge12345 said:

No mention of ending date - which is worrying as we know the campsite is in the process of being sold.  So we could pay £5260 (which is the whole amount with rates and VAT) and she may sell it before the end of the year!  

If you pay a year's rent in advance, change of site ownership of the campsite won't mean you have to pay the rent again. The new site owner would take over any existing rental contracts.

Slinky

An invoice requiring VAT must have a VAT number on it. Have you checked to see if they are registered for VAT?

Smudge12345

When I do a check on the VAT number it comes up with her own personal name (not company name) and doesn't specify the name or address of the campsite.  Does this sound like it needs investigating?

davidmcn

Slinky said:

An invoice requiring VAT must have a VAT number on it. Have you checked to see if they are registered for VAT?

There only needs to be a proper VAT invoice if both parties are VAT-registered - pretty commonplace for invoices/receipts to consumers not to have VAT numbers.