Key things to know about park home licensing laws
A park home is a detached bungalow that is usually located on a private estate and set up on its own pitch for year-round residential use.
As mobile homes, park homes are covered by the Mobile Homes Act 1983 (MHA83) and subsequent Mobile Homes Act 2013 (MHA13). They require proper planning permission and licences.
The MHA13 has updated park homes regulations, including amending implied terms under the MHA83 and updating legislation surrounding the enforcement of the licensing conditions.
If you are looking at park homes for sale Gloucestershire, there is plenty of information available about licensing laws; however, for your convenience, we have outlined some key things you need to know.
Key terms
Owner: the park home owner.
Site owner: the holder of the park’s licence.
Relevant protected site: a privately-owned area of land (‘park’) with planning permission or a licence to allow the land to be occupied all year for residential use. This includes mixed sites with holiday and residential owners.
Site licences
To run a park homes development, you must apply for a site licence. This includes conditions such as how many homes can be in the park, what (if any) services and amenities are included, and health and safety guidance.
The licence must be clearly displayed along with the conditions. If you are unable to find this information, local authorities maintain registers of all site licences.
Licence conditions
In addition to maintaining registers, local authorities can review licences and vary or add conditions where appropriate. To amend existing conditions, local authorities must give the site owner a chance to make representations and 28 days to challenge amendments by applying to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (FTT).
Local authorities will generally work in harmony with site owners; therefore, well-managed sites such as www.parkhomelife.com/park_orchardtwigworth.aspx should not be dramatically affected by the changes.
More visits by local authorities are becoming increasingly common, with the hope of improving living standards.
If the local authority decides a site owner is failing to comply with a condition of the site licence, it can serve a compliance notice listing the steps required to rectify the issue. This notice will include a time period in which the notice must be complied with unless the site owner can demonstrate a reasonable excuse for noncompliance.
