Many of you
may be familiar with me waffling on about my ‘happy place’ – my static caravan
situated in East Anglia.
In the post
‘Static Caravans Can Move’ I wrote:
“Providing
that you own your caravan outright, (are not tied in to any finance deal with
the company) you are free to move. Some park owners may prefer you not to know
this, and should you express a desire to leave the site, will probably offer
the following suggestions:
a)
Allow
them to buy back the caravan from you. Translation: Offer a price
bearing no resemblance to the price you paid them, or its current worth, so
they can sell it on for only fractionally less than you paid when you bought
it.
b)
Sell
the caravan yourself on site. Translation: Selling must not involve any on-site
advertising; the park owner will not assist in the sale in any way; the company
is allowed to approach your potential buyers to sell them a caravan of theirs
instead; the company will claim 15% commission when you sell.
c)
Sell
for scrap. Translation: cut your losses and clear off.
Of
course, I must point out that not every caravan park owner is as ruthless as
this, there are some really quite helpful ones out there, who give better
advice and help properly with selling your caravan, but there are those who
adopt the attitude outlined above – shame on you, you know who you are!
However,
I am pleased to report that there are an increasing number of caravan parks
that will allow you to site your own caravan and moving it is not as expensive
as you may think, in the region of £350 for transport depending on the
distance/area/etc. Of course, you do have to pay a disconnection fee at the
site you are leaving, as well as a connection fee at your new site, but if you
shop around these costs may be cancelled out by lower site fees at your new
chosen park.”
Our caravan
was originally sited at place called Marlie Farm in South Kent, a caravan park
that is part of the Park Holidays chain. Unfortunately the standards of
maintenance and management on the site fell quite badly (grass was not cut,
reported problems were not dealt with etc), whilst the fees continued to rise
sharply. The final straw came when a staff member was actually quite rude to
us.
A
discussion with the area manager of Park Holidays proved very useful, as he
revealed how much cheaper and easier it was to move a static caravan than I had
imagined. Of course, his plan had been for us to move to another of their
sites, but we had other plans.
After
spending time researching and visiting sites, we found our present location in
East Anglia – a delightful caravan park overlooking the sea, which is part of a much smaller group. The staff there are so friendly and helpful, the site is well
maintained and any problems are dealt with quickly and efficiently, whilst site
fees are lower than at our previous site.
It really
is worth looking around if for any reason you are unhappy with your current
caravan park.
If you struggle
with the yearly site fees, then why not get together as group, share the fees
and draw up a rota of who uses the caravan for a holiday and when? Alternatively, rent out
your caravan when you’re not using it yourself. Whilst some parks ask you to
pay a commission for this, others are happy for you to keep the whole rental
fee, knowing that it could be the difference between you being able to afford a
caravan there, or having to leave.
So remember
my original message – Static Caravans Can Move!
Follow
me on Twitter @shoppersjoy
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