Family of four spend a total of £57,400 to live in unsellable, regularly flooded caravan for two years, while the park’s only offer of help is for them to spend an extra £75,000
Initial purchase
Alicia Mearns (41) and partner John Hayden (48) were hoping to buy a property in Spain, but wanted a ‘base’ close to where their work would be when in the UK. Holiday parks seemed to be the best option for a secondary residence, provided they could find one that they were allowed to live in at any time of year. Park Lane Holiday Homes on the Wirral were open all year round, so in early 2023 they met a salesman called Simon to discuss the idea. Alicia and John’s budget was £25,000.
Simon told the couple that he had only one caravan near their price range at £36,600. But as someone else was interested in buying it they would need to commit right away with a £500 deposit. “We felt rushed,” Alicia, who owns Allure beauty salon in Birkenhead. “But the caravan seemed to be what we wanted, so we took the plunge.
“The rest of the money we had to pull together from bank loans and part-exchanging our 2013 touring caravan,” adds John, who runs a building business (J&J Joinery), “pending the sale of our former property.”
“We were not given a contract,” says Alicia. “Not then and not later. All we ever received was a piece of paper in the office to confirm the sale.”
Site fees were £4600 a year, which they had to pay upfront. A further £300 was charged to the couple a few weeks later. The family moved in. And for a few months everything was fine.
Floods
On October the 20th that same year the first of many floods happened. “Whenever there are heavy rains, our pitch floods,” explains Alicia, “which is often, due to the British weather. The water depth can be such that we find it extremely difficult to get in and out of the caravan. I am a mum with two kids and the youngest is seven. It’s clearly dangerous, especially when the electric meter is immersed in deep water.”
“They told us a new water pump was installed to keep water levels down in future,” adds John. “But the flooding is actually worse now. It has flooded badly a total of seven times since we moved in.”
The couple asked Simon if they could move the caravan to a higher pitch to avoid future floods. He told them that yes, for a fee of £1400 he could have the unit moved and the couple arranged for it to be done while they were in Spain trying to arrange the family’s move abroad. “It didn’t happen,” says Alicia. “While we were in Spain we got messages from people we know on the site telling us Simon had robbed the owners (the Hill brothers) and done a runner.” Simon’s disappearance was soon confirmed by an email from Park Lane Holiday Homes
“We spoke to Tom Hill when we returned to ask about Simon’s promise to move our caravan. He told us outright that they would not be moving our caravan. He told us that the only way to move to a more flood-proof location was to upgrade, to one in a more preferable location”
Upgrade madness
Introduced to a new sales manager called Steve, the couple were stunned to be told that their caravan was “basically not worth anything“ because of a new kitchen that joiner John had installed at a cost of £10,000. “Apparently this had devalued the caravan. Steve told us that this, plus the fact it was 20 years old (we had no idea about its age until this point) rendered it worthless. We are probably biased, but we feel that the caravan looks objectively better after John’s lovingly installed kitchen replacement,” says Alicia.
“Steve then told us that the cheapest upgrade was around £75,000, which was far more than we could or would pay,” says John.
Not convinced of Park Lane’s assessment that their caravan was now worth no money, they attempted to sell it privately.
“Two friends expressed an interest in buying our caravan,” says Alicia. “Steven quickly stopped us from being able to go through with that transaction. He told us that ‘because of the caravan’s age’, the park would have to put the ground rent up from £4600 to £10,500 for the new owners. Understandably our friends did not want to go through with the purchase after learning this”
Alicia and John investigated the possibility of moving the caravan to a different site, but again because of it’s age no other site would allow this. “This information is something they absolutely should have disclosed to us before we paid out £36,600,” says Alicia. “We never would have paid so much money for a caravan if we had known the limitations caused by its age. Not telling us this was a serious failure on their part in our opinion.”
“We are now stuck living on a pitch that continues to flood, resulting in our electricity tripping out as our washing machine and dryer are located outside. The tumble dryer is now ruined due to water damage.
“Currently we are in limbo. The park keeps sending us a new lease to sign, and we daren’t sign it because it states a caravan age limit of ten years.
“We have paid two years site fees for a pitch that is unliveable, not fit for purpose and a danger.”
Consumer experts
“Alicia and John are a hard working couple trying to get on in life and do what is best for their family,” says Greg Wilson, CEO of European Consumer Claims, the holiday park experts who the family have turned to for help. “The issues they are reporting here are sadly rife across the British holiday park industry, and many people who bought these caravans or lodges are in need of assistance.
“The Consumer Rights Act is currently the main form of legislation available to firms defending people like Alicia and John. Although there has been considerable lobbying of the UK government to increase protection against bad actors in this sector.”
“ECC’s Holiday Park Advice Centre is proud to be leading the fightback against what we consider to be systemic consumer abuse in the holiday park industry.”
