I want to live in a caravan - am I mad?

I wouldn't do it. A mobile home had a short life and then has to be replaced, they can be very cold in winter, also the site can be at the back of beyond. As you get older you might find that it isn't quite as agreeable and what will you do? Suppose you become disabled and can't get the place adapted for you? I know that some of you will say, " but that could happen in a house" and I agree that it could but as long as you have a downstairs loo it's often manageable. No, not for me!

Be very careful of the catch 22! If the site is 11.5 you may have to have a main address elsewhere where you are paying council tax to be able to live there - and you may have to leave for at least a month in one go. Devon council is currently taking park home owners to court if they think they are not tourists!

A static home Yes. A caravan ?unless you want to move sites for a change then No.

My mum did just this. She absolutely loved her mobile home on the edge of the Forest of Dean- it had a nice little garden & a very good community for her. There was a swimming pool on site too.
The only problem as far as we were concerned was that we live in Surrey ( as did she until she left my Dad & moved to Birmingham) & it was a really difficult journey especially as she could not put us all up so we have to do it in a day! It was a really long drive there & back in a day with 2 small boys & as she didn't drive she couldn't come down to us.
If your family are close enough - go for it!!

I think if you look for a residential park .. as opposed to a static you have much more security. I have lived in a residential one a long time ago for around 5 years and loved every minute of it. You need to be quite organised as cupboard space is often limited but if you are down sizing anyway you will realise that you have to make decisions on what to keep and what to be ruthless about. Ours had a lovely large garden,and car parking straight outside. It had a full size bathroom and all facilities. We altered ours inside by making it a living room/ kitchen by removing a partition dividing the two so that we could reposition the washing machine into a more suitable and convenient position. I found the simplicity of that time lovely, without lots of possessions to weigh you down mentally and physically. We are seriously thinking of going to back to that way of life ourselves and have started looking. If you go onto the Rightmove site, then were it shows the types of property ...click onto park homes. You can go county by county and some of them tell you the annual ground rent as well. You have to be wary about the occupation times a static allows you use it for, because they are classed as holiday homes, even though many are open 11 months of the year, the licence they hold for them is different from a full residential licence which is for full occupation the whole time. Some of the residential annual site fees can actually be cheaper than the static ones as well.

Some of these sites are sounding like casinos ....the House always wins

A friend bought a static caravan with an inheritance after her Mum died - she rented out her small terraced house and moved into the caravan where she lived very happily for 5 years. Financially it made no sense at all - site fees were £6,000 a year; insulation was not great - so cold in the winter, but she enjoyed the community spirit. When she finally decided to move back to her house (she lived around the corner from her sister who became ill and needed help), she struggled to sell it for about 6 months and ended up selling it back to the owner for very little, making a huge loss.

I think a caravan loses money the same as a new car would.

I’m not sure about the more substantial chalet type homes. They’re not brick so I imagine they too depreciate in value?

I love caravan home & sites. My mum had one for 22y on a National Trust site on the Fylde coast. Site fees were reasonable as there was no pool, no club house, just a small shop and launderette.

Peaceful. Relaxing with beautiful trees and shrubs, the sounds of the cows lowing in the next farmers field, cockerels crowing in the morning and a real feeling of contented, friendly community.

I keep coming back to read the comments on this thread because I like the reminders of visiting mum and 2nd dad there some weekends over the years!

Do Park homes lose value as they age or do they keep their value? I was wondering whether it would be possible to have a little something to leave the children.

I think living costs are higher in a caravan Apart from the high monthly costs for caring for the grass , emptying bins etc. the site owner dictates who supplies your gas and electric and if you decide to sell it has to be done through the owner. Usually you can’t let them either so all very restricting.
Often it is no pets or children too which makes the site very quiet and soulless. Think caravan site owners have very quiet lives and can become complainers.
Be very careful before you buy, caravans depreciate too !

Seems to me that the main problem is that caravan site owners are often operating some sort of racket, I think we need better legislation to stop them ripping people off

I wonder if there are any park home parks without all that grass surrounding them, for the sake of hay fever sufferers?

When my son and wife were first married they lived in a mobile home. There were many restrictions. No pets etc. The site fees went up yearly. Charged a lot for electricity and bottled gas When they were expecting a baby were offered a Council house and had to sell to the site owner for a pittance.
When my husband was made redundant at 57 and because of poor health was unable to get another job we decided to sell our bungalow in Hampshire and buy a mobile home in order to get some money to live on until he got state pension. However our son warned us of the problems and advised buying a bungalow in a cheaper area. We bought a detached bungalow on an estate in Norfolk for the same cost as a mobile home. Never regretted the decision. Have friendly helpful neighbours...
New mobile homes in Norfolk now are the same value as my bungalow plus the outgoings are considerably more.

A Friend of mine had a static, and it was wonderful in the summer, but in the winter when it freezes the water pipes freeze so you have to wait until it defrosts to have water from the taps and shower, but the static was in Northumberland beautiful country side and excellent site with a shop that did lunches and Sunday lunch if you didn’t feel like cooking, I would love a static, but the winter freeze puts me off a little. Hope this helps.❤️?xx

We lived in one for some time while building our house. It took much longer than anticipated (doing it in spare time). I was perfectly happy in it and felt almost cut off from the world. My husband says if he never sees another caravan it will be too soon.

My friend did it after her mom passed. She ended up in a right mess.

She lived with her mom for the last 10 years of her mom's life. When her mom died, the house had to be sold and split 3 ways.

She didn't have enough to buy a home. She wouldn't listen to anyone and went ahead and bought a mobile home.

Then there was ground fees and other expenses. She ended up living remotely with no other means of transport but her car that needed replacing.

Fortunately she told me she was in a mess. Because she had below the upper limit financially and health issues we managed to get her on the social housing list.

She had to sell the mobile home at a big loss and fortunately was able to rent it until she got a social housing place.

Moral of the story: points to consider

1/ Consider how far out place is from amenities and public transport?

2/What will happen when you your health deteriorates?

3/ How long would it take to sell it and how much of a loss will you make?

4/ My friend got rehoused because I knew how to to go about it. It's not that easy. The process is complex

Laurensnan that sounds an ideal spot. Do you stay in cold months? Would you retire there and if so would your caravan last your lifetime? I think that's something that needs considering. The OP has £120k equity and wants to be able to keep the majority for spending.

If you are planning on living full time you would need to be on a residential site as you aren't allowed to live full time on a holiday park. I know they say 50weeks occupancy but there is a rule about length of time allowed to stay. The council are getting hot on cracking down on holiday parks and owners due to council tax.

One thing that worries me is if you can't stay for 52 weeks a year, what if you have to do your 2 weeks away just when you're sick? Or supposing you developed mobility problems - I don't know what they can do with a caravan in the way of adapting it for disability. Have you looked into park homes? They are permanent dwellings with some of the appeal of a caravan and cheaper than normal houses. They also often have a lot of community spirit

Go for it!!! Life is tooo short and you will get to do what you want. X

Scentia...I bought a narrow boat to live on two years ago when I was 66. I love it...no regrets. I now know what peace there is in silence....

I have a caravan although I don't live their permanently. I would love to though! It's easy to keep clean ( even your grass is cut for you), there's lots of friendly people to see if you're feeling fed up, mine is just a 10 min stroll to the beach and it has a shop, restaurant, swimming pool on site. Mine has full has gas central heating and double glazing and stays warmer than my house. It has two toilets and an electric shower. 3 beds so grandchildren and family can stay. It also has security that your can phone any time ( who would also direct an ambulance to your van). Dr's surgery at the end of the road and bus stop outside. I even get my food home delivery to the caravan. If I were more frail as I aged I'd go to a care home or retirement home just as I would if I were living in a house. In fact their is a couple on my site who's husband is very frail and they have carers come 3 times a day ( as they would in a house) Site fees are high though so you'd need to factor that in every year. A lot of things you'd be paying for in a house though anyway. rates, fuel, insurance etc (all in all ours cost £7000 per year to run but that is everything such as fuel, insurance, site fees, rates etc). The gas bottles work out dearer than the gas at home but you use less. Mine has double doors that open up with a veranda as well as the main door, that I would recommend as it stops it getting to hot in the dinner. If you buy the van second hand and not a new one you save thousands! My van was £85,000 new and we bought it at 5 years old for £29,000. It's so modern, better than my house ha, ha.

We used to own an eight birth caravan at a Haven site up to about 10 years ago and site fees were almost £3000 per annum then. I dread to think what they would be now. You could choose a site with less amenities which had cheaper site fees. They are cold in the winter as unless they are static they are not built to be homes all around the year.

The biggest problems with caravan sites seem to happen when there is a change of management. The agreements are often very badly written from the occupiers point of view and it is very important to find a solicitor who is an expert in this area as it is very different from run of the mill conveyancing.
They may, for example, be able to block a sale because they need to approve the buyers and can be unreasonable in that decision. They can often raise management fees or site rents to a much higher rent than expected.
I would have a look at as many sites as you can find about living permanently on caravan sites although of course being a property owner anywhere especially when you also have a lease can involve problems.

Be very, very careful about this! Legally, living "full-time" in a "holiday home", is a minefield. You have no security of tenure. See: www.parksureinsurance.co.uk/can-live-holiday-home/
Why not look for a "residential park" instead? See:
www.theparkhome.net/what-is-a-park-home/