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The provision chain behind protected site status

Whether the Mobile Homes Act 1983 reaches your agreement at all turns on one question: does the land count as a protected site? Section 1(1) of the 1983 Act gives you its rights only where the land is a protected site and the home is your only or main residence. Section 5(1) then sends you to the Caravan Sites Act 1968 for what a protected site actually is.

Where the exclusion comes from

Section 1(2) of the Caravan Sites Act 1968 takes certain land out of the definition altogether. If the planning permission or the site licence for the land says holiday use only, or imposes a closed season, the land does not count as a protected site, no matter what the sales office calls it or what the agreement says.

This is why two documents matter more than anything a salesperson tells you: the planning permission and the site licence. A park can describe itself as residential throughout its marketing and still sit outside the Act if either document restricts occupation to holiday use.

Why the chain matters in practice

The three provisions work as a chain, not three separate rules. Section 1(1) sets the test. Section 5(1) tells you where the definition lives. Section 1(2) tells you what knocks a site out of that definition before you even get to asking whether you live there as your only or main residence. Miss the exclusion and you can satisfy every other part of the test and still have no protection at all.

For the words to look for in each document, and what a closed season or a holiday-use condition actually says on the page, see England, Wales or Scotland for how this chain is applied, and If You Disagree, What Actually Happens for what follows once you know where you stand.

Before you sign

The two documents to ask for

Whether the Mobile Homes Act 1983 protects you on a given park does not depend on what the sales office calls it. It depends on two documents, and you can ask to see both before you sign anything.

  1. Ask for the planning permission

    This sets out what the land may lawfully be used for. It will either permit residential occupation, or it will restrict it, often with wording such as holiday purposes only, a touring caravan condition, or a closed season requiring the park to shut for part of the year.

    Permission restricts to holiday use

    The park is unlikely to be protected, whatever it is marketed as, and the site licence will not change that.

    Permission allows residential occupation

    Move on to the site licence. Both documents have to point the same way.

  2. Ask for the site licence

    This is issued by the local authority and states the type of site it covers. Look for the same kind of restriction as on the planning permission, a condition limiting occupation to holiday use, or the site being named as a holiday caravan site.

    A park can hold residential planning permission and a site licence restricted to holiday use, or the other way round. One residential document is not enough on its own.

    Licence restricts to holiday use

    The agreement is unlikely to be covered, even where the planning permission is residential.

    Licence allows residential occupation

    Both documents agree, and the agreement is of the kind the Act is written to cover.

A brochure description or a verbal assurance from staff is neither of these documents. Only the planning permission and the site licence themselves carry the restriction, or its absence.

If the park falls outside the Act

Where the planning permission or the site licence says the land may only be occupied for holiday use, the agreement sits outside the Mobile Homes Act 1983 altogether. The agreement itself does not change. What changes is which protections attach to it, and here the answer is none of the ones the Act provides.

What falls away

  • No written statement. The right to a written statement of terms, at least 28 days before you sign, under section 1(3) of the Act only arises on a protected site. Outside it, there is nothing to waive, because there was nothing to have.
  • No implied terms. The terms in Schedule 1 that would otherwise govern pitch fee reviews and the rest of the agreement are not read into a contract that falls outside the Act.
  • No security of tenure. You hold the pitch on whatever the written agreement actually says, and on nothing beyond it.
  • No tribunal. The First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber has jurisdiction over protected sites. A dispute about a holiday-use agreement is not one it can hear.

What governs the agreement instead

Whatever the agreement itself says, read as an ordinary contract, and general consumer protection law where it applies.

Where there is a dispute and no tribunal to take it to, the Leasehold Advisory Service (parkhomes.lease-advice.org) still takes enquiries on park home agreements generally, holiday-use ones included. For the process that applies once a site is protected and a pitch fee figure is in dispute, see If You Disagree, What Actually Happens.

Questions buyers ask at the sales desk

The brochure calls it a residential park, but the site licence says holiday use. Which one counts?

The licence counts. Protection under the Mobile Homes Act 1983 depends on s.1(1), which requires a protected site where the home is your only or main residence, and s.5(1), which takes the definition of protected site from the Caravan Sites Act 1968 s.1(2). Where the site licence restricts occupation to holiday use, the land is not a protected site under that definition, whatever the park calls itself in its marketing. Ask to see the licence itself and look for the condition restricting use.

The planning permission has a closed season, for example no occupation in January and February. Does that stop the Act applying?

Yes. Mobile Homes Act 1983 s.1(2) excludes land where the planning permission or the site licence restricts use so that the home cannot be someone's only or main residence all year round. A closed season of any length does exactly that. Ask for the full planning permission, because this kind of condition is often a single clause among several others.

I've already signed the agreement. Is there any point checking this now?

Checking still tells you what you have. If the planning permission or the site licence restricts the site to holiday use, the 1983 Act never applied. That decides whether you have a written statement, implied terms and the right to take a pitch fee dispute to the First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber. If you disagree with how a park has treated you on this basis, If You Disagree, What Actually Happens sets out what that process involves.

Where do I get the planning permission and site licence if the seller won't show me?

The site licence is held by the local authority that issued it, and the planning permission is on the council's planning register, both public records you can ask for directly without going through the seller. If neither document can be produced before you need to decide, that gap is worth weighing on its own.

Does this test work the same way in Wales and Scotland?

No, the detail differs by jurisdiction, even though the same two documents matter everywhere. England, Wales or Scotland sets out where the statute and secondary legislation diverge, labelled by jurisdiction, so you can check which version applies to the park you're standing in.