Mobile Homes Act 1983
This Act gives homeowners the right to have a written agreement which sets out both the site owner’s and the home owner’s responsibilities. The agreement must contain the name and address of the site owner, a description of the pitch to which the agreement relates together with implied and express terms. The Mobile Homes Act provides extensive rights to home owners but is only enforceable through the civil courts, and so the Council is unable to intervene.
Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960
All mobile homes sites have to be licensed by the Council by virtue of this Act. The Council may attach conditions to licences which specify minimum standards which must be achieved by the site owner. The Council cannot address any matters outside the scope of the site licence conditions.
The Caravan Sites Act 1968
This legislation contains provisions for the protection of occupiers against harassment. Harassment, in the legal sense, (which is the only type of harassment over which the Council has any control) is confined to a site owner “illegally depriving occupiers of occupation of their mobile home” or “carrying out acts designed to interfere with the peace and comfort of an occupier with the intention of causing them to leave”.
Any other form of ‘harassment’, for example the site owner being abusive or rude can only be addressed by the person affected by reporting it to the Police, and cannot be pursued by the Council.
Housing Act 2004
This looks at the particulars of site agreements to be given in advance, the implied terms relating to termination of agreements or disposal of mobile homes, the power to amend terms in site agreements, the power to amend implied terms, protected sites to include sites for gypsies, the extension of protection from harassment for occupiers of mobile homes, and the suspension of eviction orders.
