20/04/2017

The Mobile Homes Act 2013, which made significant changes to existing law to improve rights and protection for 85,000 owners of park homes on 2,000 sites in England, is the focus of a call for evidence that fulfills a Dept for Communities and Local Government commitment to review its effectiveness.

Park home residents own their homes and pay a pitch fee to a site owner for the right to station it on their land. In addition to introducing new procedures for selling mobile homes, reviewing pitch fees and making site rules, the Act introduced a new local authority site licensing regime that gave the authorities substantial new enforcement powers from 1 April 2014.

The DCLG reports that all sites are still not managed well, with some site owners not fully complying with their responsibilities or respecting residents’ rights.

‘Review of park homes legislation: call for evidence’ – which is Part 1 of a 2-part process – seeks evidence on the fairness of charges, the transparency of ownership and experience of harassment.

Part 2 will commence in May and focus on the effectiveness of local authority licensing, whether ‘fit and proper’ controls are necessary in the sector and whether the procedures for making site rules and holding pitch fee reviews are working well.