Differences between living on a residential park home site or a holiday park
The key differences are that on a holiday site:
- you have no right of permanent residence,
- you are not protected by the provisions in the Mobile Homes Act 2013,
- the site owners can give you notice to leave the site if they wish without going through the normal legal channels.
- the opening times of a holiday park are governed by the licence granted by the council, so you may find that it is closed for a period each year, or that you can only stay there for a maximum number of weeks at a time.
- you are liable to pay VAT in respect of your site (pitch) fees – VAT is not payable in respect of residential site fees
Even if a holiday park is open for 12 months of the year, it still does not mean that you can live there permanently. If you do use your holiday home as your sole or main residence, then you are breaching the licensing and planning conditions for the site and the council may choose to take action to enforce those conditions, including serving you and the site owner with enforcement notices requiring you to cease residing there.