We explore the delicate issue of park home residents experiencing harassment on their site. The Leasehold Advisory Service’s specialist park home legal advisors Manjit Rai and Antony Tregenna explain more

The term ‘harassment’ is often bandied about but what’s the correct legal definition, as far as park home residents are concerned? Residents of park home sites are provided with protection against harassment by Section 3 of the Caravan Sites Act 1968 (the 1968 Act) as amended by Section 210 of the Housing Act 2004 and Section 12 of the Mobile Homes Act 2013 (the 2013 Act). This applies to all occupiers of park homes who:
●    Live on a protected site.
●    Have a residential contract with the site owner.

Harassment is defined as an action that interferes, or is likely to interfere with, the peace and comfort of the occupier, or the persistent withdrawal of services or facilities reasonably required for the occupation of a park home. These actions must be carried out with the knowledge that they are likely to cause the occupier to abandon the park home, remove it from the site, or to refrain from exercising any right. We have outlined some examples of what constitutes harassment in this article.

Examples of harassment
●    Forcing occupier to sign an agreement to sign away their legal rights.
●    Removing or restricting essential services such as disconnecting the electricity.
●    Entering the home without the
occupier’s consent.

How the law has changed
Section 210(2) of Housing Act 2004 amended the definition of Section 3 of the Caravan Sites Act 1968.

In order to bring a prosecution, it was required that a site owner carried out ‘acts which were calculated to interfere with the peace and comfort of the occupier’.
The Housing Act 2004 removed the word ‘calculated’ and replaced it with ‘acts which were likely to interfere with the peace and comfort of the occupier’.
Section 12 of the 2013 Act also amended the earlier definition of harassment as outlined in Section 3 of the 1968 Act.

The word ‘persistently’ has been removed from the definition of ‘harassment’, so one act alone could amount to harassment.

For example, a site owner disconnecting services that they should be supplying to the home.

 

Let us know what you think about the issues raised here at. Email us: phhc.ed@kelsey.co.uk

If you have any questions in relation to this article please do not hesitate to contact the Park Homes Advice team at LEASE on 020 7832 2525, email: parkhomes@lease-advice.org

 

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To read more about this issue read the June 2016 issue of Park Homes and Holiday Caravan

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