Willow Wood Residential Park

After over five years of lobbying, the Scottish Government have at last freed Park Home residents in Scotland from the requirement to consult their site owners whenever they want to sell their homes.  Buyers are also freed from being vetted for ‘suitability’ by park home site owners.
On 1 September 2013, new regulations, The Mobile Homes (Written Statement) (Scotland) Regulations 2013, came into force and bring wide ranging changes in fortune for park home residents throughout Scotland. 
Included in the new rules are strong provisions for resident protection  and clear rules setting out the rights of residents including automatic recognition for residents associations and new procedures covering pitch fees.
One criticism of the regulations is that no change is being made to the provision for site owners to receive a commission of “up to 10%” on the sale of a park home.  See more on page 3.
Residents representatives on the Scottish Government consultative committee lobbied strongly for abolition of this provision but the Government concluded that in a Scottish context the removal of this commission would be detrimental to the average small site owner’s income.
Mike Larkman of PHLAGS (Park Home Legislation Action Group Scotland) commented “The retention of commission is highly regrettable and distorts the Scottish housing market.  New park homes are essentially being sold at 10% below their market value and thus misleading buyers who have to shell out the difference when their home is sold.  In a bricks and mortar situation this would be indefensible.”