Static Caravans - Costs

PasturesNew

skipsmum wrote: »

hi,
we did this, and friends still do. pre-sited "holiday park"caravans go for £5k to 60k round here. You have to be off site for 2 months of the year, although most people live on in blackout conditions. You dont have to pay council tax, but you do pay rates which worked out at about band A prices. My friend (on a haven park) pays £70 a week inclusive of gas, leccy, water, rates, site fees. I think his caravan cost £3500 a couple of years ago. Its a cheap option if you dont want a luxury caravan and you have somewhere to go during shutdown.
We looked into the permanent residency option, £100k for a nice home but council tax, bills, water rates etc were comparable to running a 3 bed house. And you cant get a mortgage and they devalue quickly.

If I saw one like that that cheap I'd probably do that. Never seen one at £3,500. I did look into one site where I am at the moment but they're at least £40k and very strict that you have to prove you have a permanent other home and you can never have mail delivered to them.

I'd imagine getting mail and packages delivered on a holiday site could be problematical.

This site is VERY clear about their rules. I have never seen such openness and detailing of the rules. Most people find out restrictions etc etc only when it's too late: http://www.lavernockpoint.com/bungalows.html

SouthCoast

I can also do a 1 bed flat at £11k.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-17918404.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

Night_KD

It's more I've made the decision that I'd rather live temp in something of my own, than pay extortionate rent for something I could lose at any moment. Houses aren't worth buying atm and I'm not planning on staying in this horrible country for that long...

vaporate

I don't know where this, its not possible, crap is coming from.

You get a personal loan on a caravan, you can get a caravan for around 13K or maybe 15K. 2 bedrooms ect.

Its alot cheaper than buying a hosue that your never buy, or renting a house by paying someones mortgage off ,forget it.

I would do it long term. Ideal for couples or single with no chidlren. Just site fees and rates ect

Morglin

You might get a fairly basic second hand van for about £15k, but the more comfortable ones, with rad heating and good insulation are likely to cost more than that.

I had a static van at Thorness on the IOW for a few years. The site was Haven who then sold it to Park Resorts.

My new fairly good one cost £28k in 1994 - even then they had nothing they would allow on the site for £5k.

Most sites insist that the vans are not over a certain age, and you could only buy and sell through the site owners where we were.

It's fine in summer - swimming pool, shops, bars, restaurant etc., but once the actual season finsishes, the owners shut all the facilities, despite owners still being allowed to be there. The van had to be vacated for one month per year, and the winter months were used by the owners to do all rebuilding and improvements - so it can be messy and noisy.

On top of the cost of buying it, there is ground rent (which can be hefty), gas bottled, electric, insurance, maintenance etc., - we didn't have to pay full council tax, as it was classed as a 'holiday home', we just paid what was classed as a 'leisure' rate.

I loved having the van - but I'd advise anything to look into it all very carefully before buying one as a primary residence.

Lin

jackieb

PasturesNew wrote: »

I just remembered more of "the lifestyle"...

I remember the lifestyle: mid-winter finding the water pipes had frozen and begging buckets of water from the nearest neighbour who still had running water so I could flush my loo. . . for up to a week at a time.

I remember the lifestyle: leaving all the doors open and having to "over air" it through, especially the clothes and food cupboards, so it didn't get damp and grow mould.

I remember the lifestyle: having to polish the whole thing every year by hand. To keep up the general posh ambience of the site.

I remember the lifestyle: having to ask for permission to do everything, from changing the little step to the door, to whether you could put fencing round the bottom, to whether you could paint that fencing.

I remember the lifestyle: being given "notice to quit" by the site owner because I had a tiny overflow leak on the loo and it was her way of saying "You seem to have a leak you might not have noticed, get it fixed"

Oh I remember ....

My in-laws have had static caravans for years. To holiday in though - they didn't live in them permanantly. One New Year we went to stay in their one at Royal Deeside - on the only site they'd been on that was open all year. We had to come home as the kids were crying with the cold. When we got up in the morning there was ice on the inside of the windows. This was a new van at the time, but it was about 15 years ago now. (That one eventually got flooded though and the water came up halfway up the TV!)