THE CROOKS CHARTER

The Park Homes Policy Forum has been launched because in too many respects the Mobile Homes Act is blatantly unfit for purpose and needs to be radically changed. Often seen as the `Crooks Charter` we cannot trust that the current government review of the legislation will go far enough. We need to ensure that it serves the interest of all parties and not just the bank-rolled investors and the con-merchants who laugh all the way to the bank, at those who could and should have have done something about it a long time ago – and the many thousands who have been lured into their clutches.

I believe that government now has a better understanding of the market and the abuses and negligence’s that are rife. Much of this was due to the JUSTICE Campaign and its members, who finally had somewhere to go with the evidence and where the needed measures taken against sales blocking has been a high achievement. But no-one who understands the problems disagrees that there is much more to be done and the Park Homes Policy Forum has been launched to work alongside the JUSTICE Campaign, to ensure that the facts overcome the waffle.

We can start with the British Holiday and Home Parks Association.

Given far too much credence and not least in the extraordinary appointment of this trade body as secretariat and public point of contact in the current review to the All Party Parliamentary Group, they remain responsible for many of the problems.

In this, aside from the nonsense that sales commissions are “the recovery of the site owners subsidised costs of a home”, we are all familiar with the terms in most of our Agreements that includes “ To pay and discharge all general and/or water rates which may from time to time be assessed charged or payable in respect of the mobile home or the pitch (and/or a proportionate part thereof where the same are assessed in respect of the residential part of the park) and charges in respect of electricity gas water telephone and other services” a clause originally devised by the British Holiday and Home Parks Association and somehow approved by those who should have known better, since thankfully referred to by the Court of Appeal (Case No: C3/2016/0126 ) which observed “ there are absent all the usual provisions for control of excessive service charges which are found in leases and there is not even an express provision limiting what is recoverable by way of service charge to a reasonable amount in respect of costs reasonably incurred.

The question is, WHY was this not addressed in previous reviews by those who have been paid to represent the interests of park home owners at Westminster ?

In January 2018, on behalf those the JBS Residents Action Alliance I submitted a 28 page market
report that included a raft of recommendations ( including references to the above ) and whilst the DCLG has agreed that this report will be considered alongside other received submissions, there is no guarantee that anything received will be implemented. In short, apart from the advocacy of the JUSTICE Campaign, it is clear yet again that the vital changes will need to be driven by home-owners and not be those who rest upon laurels and are marking time.

Having now launched the Park Homes Policy Forum, the objective is to secure a big enough
membership that will support the unstinting work of Sonia and ensure that the voices of ALL home-owners demanding `radical changes` are heard, where although the leads of NAPHR and IPHAS are Park Home owners, there is not a single other home-owner that has been formally asked to contribute toward the decisions that may be made by the All Party Parliamentary Group.

For my part, I do not pretend to know all the answers but I do know all the abuses and much about how they can be resolved. I am not a supporter of cosy little groups and neither am I nowadays much interested in attending one hour Meetings in London that involve ten hours on the train and perhaps three minute to speak.

But I am determined to ensure that the lives of all home-owners become what they should always have been and if this steps on the toes of the complacent or those who do not do their jobs, then I am happy to cause the pain !

We will only succeed in radical changes if there are enough of us behind it. So of your have not already joined the fast growing list of members, you can use my private email address to contact me. Membership costs nothing but with enough of us, the barriers to vital change can be overcome

Tony Turner
Park Homes Policy Forum
email: ferrier57@btinternet.com