Mobile Home Parks (Permanent Residential Caravan Sites)
As a resident of a mobile home you may be in the unusual position of owning your home but not the land on which it is positioned.
There are several pieces of legislation relating to mobile home parks and the rights of residents who live on them.
Below you will find brief information on those pieces of legislation that may be relevant to you as a mobile home owner and details of where to get more information.
Mobile Homes Act 1983
If you own your mobile home and live in it on a permanent basis as your only residence, you are protected by the Mobile Homes Act 1983.
The Mobile Homes Act 1983 potentially provides people who own their mobile home with extensive rights.
Unfortunately it is only enforceable through the civil court which means that you must pursue action yourself, usually with the assistance of a solicitor.
Lancaster City Council is not able to intervene on your behalf.
Further information: Useful information about the Mobile Homes, A Guide For Residents and Site Owners and 'The Park Homes Charter - Your guide to buying, living in and selling your park home', which includes a list of useful addresses.
Please note: The Act does NOT cover people living permanently on Holiday Sites as under the site licence no caravan on a holiday site can be used as a persons only residence or abode.
If you are living on a holiday site on a residential basis you thus have no rights under this Act.
The Caravan Sites Act 1968
This legislation contains provisions for the protection of occupiers against e.g. harassment.
The protection against harassment is enforced by the Strategic Housing Service, Lancaster City Council, Morecambe Town Hall, Morecambe, Lancashire. Tel 586808
'Harassment' in the context of the Act means: a site owner ' illegally depriving occupiers of occupation of their mobile home' or ' carrying out acts designed to interfere with the peace and comfort of an occupier with the intention to cause them to leave'.
Any other form of 'harassment', for example the site owner being abusive or rude can only be addressed by the person affected and cannot be pursued by Lancaster City Council.
For further information about the specific protections covered by the Caravan Sites Act 1968 please see A Guide To the Caravan Sites Act 1968 (PDF 112K)
Please note: It is only people who own their mobile home and are living on protected sites (i.e. sites with a permanent residential licence) who are covered by the Act.
Holiday sites (i.e. those with a specified open season set in the caravan site licence) are not covered by the Act and thus people who do use a holiday van for residential purposes have no rights of protection under the Act.
Caravan Sites And Control Of Development Act 1960
All mobile home sites have to be licensed by the council's Environmental Health Service.
The council cannot refuse to issue a caravan site licence but a licence can only be issued once planning permission has been granted for the land / development.
When issuing a licence the council will attach conditions to the licence which deal with issues such as number of caravans allowed on the site and the prescribed usage of the site e.g. whether it is a holiday site or residential site.
All licences will also have a condition that the site should meet the requirements set out in the Caravan Site Standards.
Environmental Health staff carry out regular inspections of licensed sites in order to check that site-owners are complying with the conditions of their licence.
If you are concerned that the conditions attached to a site licence are not being adhered to please contact the Environmental Health Service using the options below.