Buying a Caravan Holiday home

BUYING A CARAVAN HOLIDAY HOME – ADVICE FROM THE NATIONAL CARAVAN COUNCIL

Staying in a caravan holiday home is one of the most popular holiday choices, according to the National Caravan Council (NCC), the trade body that represents the caravan industry. Around 43 million holiday nights will be spent in caravan holiday homes during 2004 – over eight and a half million trips - making it one of Britain’s most popular holiday choices. Nearly half of those nights will be in rented caravans – and some of those holiday-makers will have such a good time, they will be tempted to buy one. Because buying a caravan holiday home is a big investment, the National Caravan Council has some words of advice for potential purchasers. 

The NCC’s Alicia Dunne says; ‘You need to make sure you get a fair deal – a deal where you know all the terms of the contract. Potentially you can make the wrong decision and find not everything is what you had dreamed of ...’
Potential purchasers should find out the following:

- how much the pitch fee (annual charge) is, and what governs pitch fee increase
- how long they can keep the home on the park
- what happens if they decide to sell it in a couple of years
- when the new investment can be used (this is unlikely to be year-round) 

‘The best way to get a fair deal is to look for parks operating under the Industry Code of Practice for Selling and Siting Holiday Caravans’ says Dunne. ‘Thousands of holiday-home owners have benefited from the provisions of the Code.’ The full Code, and a list of parks, can be found on the www.nationalcaravan.co.uk website.

Dunne concludes: ‘Caravan holiday homes can be wonderful home-from-homes and some parks now have fantastic facilities in the most beautiful settings. But if you are thinking of buying, then it is essential that you look for the code and buy with confidence.’

Editors’ Notes

• Approximately 335,000 caravan holiday homes are in use in the UK.
• National Caravan Council statistics show that during 2003, over 26,000 caravan holiday homes were manufactured for sale in the UK – production has increased steadily since 2000.
• The NCC runs an inspection scheme to ensure that homes are built to comply with essential health and safety standards - homes that meet the standard will carry an ‘Approved Caravan Holiday Home’ badge and be built to BS EN 1647. A list of such products is found on the www.nationalcaravan.co.uk website.
• Visit Britain’s UKTS survey showed that 42.5 million holiday nights were spend in caravan holiday homes in 2002 (latest available figures) and 8.6 million trips were made to them