Insight report: Sale blocking on park home sites
Legal protections and reform
Park homeowners on a protected site have the benefit of the contractual terms of their pitch agreement and the Consolidated Implied Terms [10] which form part of the agreement. Paragraph 1 of the Implied Terms provides security of tenure, paragraph 4 gives protection from eviction, and paragraph 11 gives the right to ‘quiet enjoyment’ of their home and pitch. These rights can be enforced via the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in England and the Residential Property Tribunal in Wales.
Park homeowners are protected from harassment and unlawful eviction under section 3 of the Caravan Sites Act 1968. In addition the government brought in further protections in 2013 & 2014. These are:
- a new offence of providing false or misleading information so as to prevent sale or occupation (Section 3(1AA) of the 1968 Act) which was inserted by the Mobile Homes Act 2013
- a new procedure for selling a park home, removing the requirement to notify the site owner for pitch agreements starting on or after 26/05/2013 and restricting the grounds on which a site owner could object to a sale for existing agreements starting before 26/05/2013 (see Mobile homes (England) (Selling and Gifting) Regulations 2013 and the Implied Terms)
- a new procedure for creating site rules that was introduced in 2014 (Mobile Homes (England) (Site Rules) Regulations 2014) so that existing rules were abolished by 03/02/2015 and new ones could only be introduced after consultation with homeowners; also the regulations banned any site rules which purport to prevent, restrict or obstruct sales or gift by the park homeowner
In Wales, similar protections can be found in the Mobile Homes (Wales) Act 2013.
Local authorities have been granted powers to enforce these rights. They include:
- the power under the Caravan Sites Act 1968, to investigate allegations of harassment or sale blocking and to prosecute site owners where there’s sufficient evidence; if convicted, the site owner could face a large fine or imprisonment; the right to charge for issuing a site licence and to enforce compliance with agreed standards; for example, they can require site owners to carry out necessary works and prosecute those who fail to comply
- since October 2021, a ‘fit and proper person’ test for residential and mixed use sites in England [11]; the test is intended to improve park home site management standards and to ensure the person responsible for managing a site is suitable and of good character; operating a site in contravention of the regulations is a criminal offence, for which a person would be liable on summary conviction to an unlimited fine
- Last updated:
- 23 November 2025
- Next review:
- 22 May 2026