Some important changes to the legislation relating to Welsh park home sites was introduced in 2013. The Leasehold Advisory Service’s Richard Hand and Ibraheem Dulmeer explore the main issues

LEASE provides legal advice to park home owners, site owners and local authorities on park homes law in England and Wales. This article examines some of the main features of the Mobile Homes (Wales) Act 2013 (“the Act”) and the increased protection it provides for home owners in Wales.

When did the Act come into effect?

All sections of the Act came into force on 1 October 2014 and apply to all residential parks in Wales.

Licensing

A site licence is required if the owner is using land as a regulated site. Operating without a licence is an offence and an unlimited fine may be imposed by a court.

Regulated sites

The licensing provisions apply to regulated sites. A regulated site must have at least one mobile home stationed on it for the purposes of human habitation, apart from holiday sites. Schedule 1 to the Act also lists the types of site that are not regulated. These include sites owned by the local authority.

Application for site licence

Section 6 of the Act provides that an application may be made to the local authority. Certain information must be provided, including the land that is proposed to be licenced and the identity of the applicant. If the applicant is not the proposed manager of the site, the manager must be identified.

The local authority may require the application to be accompanied by a fixed fee. They are able to charge a fee to an applicant provided they have published their fees policy (Section 36 of the Act).The application must also include a declaration by the applicant that the manager (or applicant) is a fit and proper person to manage the site.

 

If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact LEASE’s park homes advice line on
020 7832 2525.

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To read more about this issue read the July 2017 issue of Park Homes and Holiday Caravan

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