Caravan patrons say they’ve been misled, ripped off and even threatened by vacation parks

When Asha and Jason Ross purchased a caravan sited in a North Yorkshire vacation park, they thought they’d made an funding which would offer them with a gradual revenue.

Nevertheless, inside a number of weeks, they discovered themselves promoting the caravan again to the vacation park firm which bought it to them – at a considerable loss.

And once they sought authorized recommendation to attempt to recoup their losses, they are saying {that a} park worker made veiled threats to them.

The Rosses are amongst about 800 individuals who contacted BBC Information, following our report on a lawsuit introduced by caravan house owners towards allegedly unfair practices by vacation parks.

The claims we heard, included:

• Deceptive claims from gross sales workers about potential revenue from the caravan
• Website charges which vacation parks elevated steeply and allegedly with out warning
• Feeling pressured to promote caravans again to parks at a loss, and for considerably lower than their market worth

Mr and Mrs Ross had been on the lookout for an funding alternative, and thought they’d discovered the right resolution once they got here throughout Malton Grange Nation Park, a static caravan website in North Yorkshire.

They purchased a lodge – a deluxe static caravan – for £125,000 from the location proprietor, Status Nation Parks. They are saying they had been informed that it had come up on the market as a result of the earlier proprietor had died.

The Rosses say the corporate’s gross sales supervisor, Patrick O’Donovan, assured them they might make a great revenue from renting out the lodge.

Additionally they noticed social media posts from Status, claiming traders might make £1,000 per week this manner, and that the lodge would respect in worth, like a home.

But the recommendation given by trade our bodies such because the Nationwide Caravan Council (NCC), is that patrons ought to deal with a caravan as a “depreciating asset” which is able to fall in worth over time.

After six weeks, the Rosses had solely obtained two bookings, totalling £180.

They determined to desert their plan, and requested the park to purchase the lodge again. Mr Ross says that the park proprietor finally agreed a value beneath what the Rosses had initially paid.

The couple say their monetary loss was “huge”, however they’re too embarrassed to confess how a lot it was.

“You feel, you feel ashamed, you feel stupid,” says Mrs Ross.

When the couple determined to hunt authorized recommendation about recouping their losses, Mr Ross obtained – and recorded – a name from Mr O’Donovan, who was abusive and swore at them.

He issued what the couple interpreted as a veiled risk: “We know where you are, don’t we?”

Mrs Ross mentioned the cellphone name left her feeling shaken: “You start thinking who are we actually dealing with here and how dangerous are they?”

Once we appeared additional into this case, we additionally discovered that the earlier lodge proprietor had not died, because the Rosses say Mr O’Donovan claimed.

His identify was – and is – Paul Gordon. Once we tracked him down, he alleged the same expertise to that of the Rosses – being left with no alternative however to promote his caravan at a loss.

Mr Gordon says he paid £140,000 for a similar lodge in Might 2021. However after 16 months he determined the location wasn’t for him and bought the lodge again to Status for £70,000.

The BBC has consulted trade insiders and estimated that this one lodge might have returned a revenue for the corporate of about £180,000 in lower than 5 years.

Status has informed the BBC that it doesn’t condone any type of unprofessional or threatening conduct and is investigating the cellphone name and the knowledge offered about earlier possession.

It says that the value supplied was as a result of the corporate was overstocked, and the couple needed a fast sale. It additionally says it informed them that rental revenue was not assured and that six weeks was a short while to generate constant bookings.

“The holiday park sector… is essentially an unregulated sector,” says Hugh Preston KC, a lawyer at the moment representing a bunch of about 1,200 caravan house owners taking authorized motion towards vacation parks.

If a caravan or lodge in England is used as a everlasting residence, then its house owners are lined by the Cell House Act 1983, which provides them tenancy rights. Comparable guidelines apply elsewhere in the UK.

Nevertheless, if a static caravan is a vacation dwelling, any settlement between its purchaser and a caravan website is roofed by personal contract regulation, which is far looser.

Many patrons face issues as a result of they won’t have studied the small print on their contract with the vacation park, in keeping with second-hand caravan vendor Peter Preidel.

A contract can usually permit a park to “do what it wants, when it wants”, he says, and may cost the customer “what it wants, when it wants”. The client, he provides, has no redress towards this.

An additional means this energy can be utilized is to hike website charges for the caravan.

In 2019, Mark and Sandra Thompson from Coventry purchased a static caravan at Allerthorpe Golf and Nation Park close to York. The worth was £66,000 together with decking.

Their annual website charges had been free for the primary yr, after which £3,995. However in simply three years, Mr Thompson says they had been going through a requirement for £7,000.

“I did feel bullied in the end,” Mr Thompson mentioned. “I just felt it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth all the hassle and the arguments and the stress that it was causing.”

It is a feeling former house owners from different parks recognise.

The BBC interviewed one who mentioned they felt bullied when a park firm pressured them to exchange their wood decking with plastic, at a value of £20,000.

“It wasn’t a case of you could get another contractor in and ask them for a price,” he mentioned. “It was a case of ‘we are going to do it’ and you had no [other] option.”

In September 2024, the Thompsons requested the location to purchase again their lodge.

The gross sales supervisor supplied £23,000 – little greater than a 3rd of what they’d paid.

Mrs Thompson mentioned they’d no alternative however to simply accept: “I just said, yeah, let’s move on. It is making you ill.”

However quickly after leaving, they had been shocked to see their lodge again up on the market, in precisely the identical lakeside spot, for £110,000 – £87,000 greater than they’d been paid for it.

“We were devastated because we’d taken a mortgage out for this holiday home, so we still have to pay the mortgage off,” says Mrs Thompson.

To see how trustworthy the parks had been being with potential new clients, our group posed as a household fascinated about shopping for the Thompsons’ former lodge, and recorded the dialog.

A salesman supplied to promote the caravan for £90,000 together with the primary yr’s website charges – almost £70,000 greater than the Thompsons had obtained for it.

He additionally mentioned that website charges would solely ever rise by the speed of inflation, and that the park could not “just put them up to £7,000” – despite the fact that that is precisely what they’d deliberate to do, in keeping with the Thompsons and others from the location the BBC has spoken to.

Allerthorpe Golf and Nation Park says website price will increase “reflect the growing cost of operations” and “the significantly enhanced offering”.

It strongly rejects any suggestion of deception, saying “the final decision on whether a caravan remains on park is a business and operational matter and the listing price reflects significant upgrades and premium location, not simply the original unit value”.

We additionally heard from Vivian Vincent who – together with her late husband, James – purchased a lodge at Far Grange Vacation Park on the East Yorkshire coast in 2010, for £80,000.

After her husband’s dying in 2023, Mrs Vincent determined to promote. The park proprietor, Haven, supplied to purchase the lodge again for £26,500.

It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Mrs Vincent noticed her lodge being readvertised in a Haven gross sales video: “I gave them the keys, and two days later they put it up for £74,999, which absolutely devastated me. I’ve been in business, and I understand you have to make money, but this isn’t right.”

In response, a Haven spokesman mentioned the corporate was sorry Mrs Vincent felt she had been handled badly, and that it was at all times the corporate’s intention to deal with house owners pretty, and with transparency. The spokesman added that the sale value of the lodge was significantly decrease than implied within the gross sales video.

Talking concerning the trade typically, Peter Preidel says that promoting caravans is how vacation parks make most of their cash, and that mountain climbing up website charges is a means of pressurising caravan house owners to promote again to them.

“The parks can only sell as many caravans as they’ve got bases for,” he says. “These days a lot of people will pay cash for [caravans] outright, and as soon as they have, the park would actually quite like [the buyer] to go, so they’ve got another base to sell again.”

He provides: “I know this sounds cut-throat and well, basically it is cut-throat.”

The NCC informed us they had been saddened to listen to that some vacation caravan house owners felt let down by the trade.

It advises patrons to analysis their buy and punctiliously learn contracts earlier than signing.