Mobile home site conditions
This content applies to England only.
Housing laws vary between England and Scotland. Get advice relating to Scotland
You may not be happy with the conditions on your mobile home site and feel they should be improved. If you live on a protected site, there are several options open to you, whether you rent or own your mobile home.
Check the site licence
If you think that the site owner is not looking after the park properly or is not providing adequate services, you should check what their duties are under the site licence. In order to get a site licence, the park must meet certain safety and amenity standards set by the council.
If there are three or more caravans on your site, the licence should be displayed in a prominent place. If you cannot see it, you should ask the council to send you a copy or arrange an appointment for you to look at it. The environmental health department usually holds the licence.
If the licence does not cover the matter that you are concerned about, you can either talk to the site owner or tell the council that you think the licence is inadequate.
Complain to the BH&HPA or NCC
If your park is a member of the British Holiday & Home Parks Association (BH&HPA) or the National Caravan Council (NCC), you can take your complaint to these organisations and they will do their best to resolve the dispute.
Complain to the council
If you think the site owner is breaking the terms of the licence, you should inform your council's environmental health department, who will come out and inspect the site.
If the inspectors think that the site owner needs to carry out work to the site, the council can:
- give the site owner a set amount of time to carry out the necessary improvements or repairs
- carry out the repairs on the site owner's behalf and then send them the bill
- take the site owner to court and order the work to be done and/or issue them with a fine.
What if the council won't help?
Councils aren't always very pro-active when it comes to complaints against site owners. If the council won't help you, you can always make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman. Alternatively, you could get in touch with your local councillors and ask them to support your cause and urge the council to act. Look up your council's website or phone for contact details of councillors.
Take the site owner to court
If you own your mobile home and the site owner has broken an express term of your written statement by refusing to maintain the park properly, you can take them to court. You may be able to win damages (similar to compensation) from the site owner, but the court cannot order them to carry out the necessary repair work.
Get advice from a Shelter advice centre or Citizens Advice if you're in this position, you can use our directory to find one local to you.
