TWO VERY IMPORTANT UPDATES. from Sonia
1.
Due to the passing of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 - our RPI to CPI and 10% Commission Charge Rally date has been changed from the 19th September to the 24th October. The presentation to Downing Street will still go ahead, and the meeting in Committee Room 10 in the Palace of Westminster (where residents can have their say on the above subjects) will commence at 2.15pm.
Even if you cannot attend in London, you can help by sending the letter at the bottom of this page to the Prime Minister at Downing Street and sending the Press Release to your local media.
It is you the residents of the Park Home Owners JUSTICE Campaign who have brought about the promised change from RPI to CPI and the review of the 10% Commission Charge. If the letter that has been sent out by the Park Owners Royale Life is anything to go by - it looks as though they are preparing for any possible change that the Government might make to the 10% Commission Charge.
2.
Along with others, I received a letter - sent out by Royale Parks - from a PHOJC member on Saturday. I have since sent it to William Tandoh at the Department of Levelling Up and will be bringing it up at the next APPG meeting.
However, Tony Turner of PHPF has also written - below in blue - an excellent warning piece on the content of that letter - which I am pleased to post. SO PLEASE TAKE HEAD. YOUR SITE OWNER MAY WELL DO THE SAME THING. PLEASE DON'T SIGN ANYTHING.
All Park Home residents should be be aware of the below in case the same or similar proposal lands on on your own doorstep.
CALLING ALL `ROYALE LIFE` RESIDENTS
PLEASE SHARE THIS POST WITH EVERY `ROYALE LIFE` PARK
As all residents should already know, the government commissioned a report on the anticipated impact upon residents and ownerships of any change that might be made to the so-called `sales commission`that is usually levied at 10% of the selling price of a home. The government has yet to publish its findings or intentions, although it is hoped that this will be well before the end of this year.
MEANWHILE, whilst Wyldecrest Parks have been busy entrapping the unwitting with Agreements reserving the right to increase pitch fees if the commissions are reduced or abolished by the government, , another operator `Royal Life` is now seeking to seduce their own residents with an offer to replace their Written Statements` that would forgo the commission payments in return for monthly increases in pitch fees of £200.00, describing the proposal as a `consultation to which residents who wish to swop their existing contracts should respond by 19th October 2022` the company says that this follows enquiries about changes from their residents which I doubt, more likely in what is an incestous market increasingly controlled by undesirable operators, looking for ways in which the Mobile Homes Act can be circumnavigated, where similar moves can now be expected by others. NO-ONE should agree to forfeit their current Agreement for another and all Park Home residents should be on the alert.
Of course, the motivations are transparent. Clearly concerned that the commission percentage may be reduced, the objective is to contractually bind home-owners into paying an additional £2,400 per annum, that at each subsequent annual review will then be subject to the prevailing inflationary index. To example: where Royale Life residents are currently paying £237.50p per month and this year the relevant RPI factor is, say, 10%, the total payable for the forthcoming year would be £261.25p. However, under the newly proposed Agreement, the monthly pitch fee would become £437.50p and if the same inflationary factor were to apply in the second year this would bring monthly pitch fee to £481.25p, annually compounded thereafter. Moving forward, if the subsequent annual inflationary index over the next three years averaged 5%, after year five, the monthly pitch fee would be £556, not that many years later those pitch fees far exceeding the forfeiture of any sales commissions whatever the percentage may be.
FURTHER WARNINGS:
I have previously come across Park owners who have told residents that they need not worry about the costs of pitch fees, because if they become unaffordable they can apply to their council for means-tested housing benefit - However, no reliance should be placed upon any such assurances as at any time, the government could cap the amount of those benefits, leaving residents who agree to change their contracts with a potentially significant shortfalls. Other considerations include the possible sale of a home, where the higher the pitch fees the much slower are less likely the sale – and where compounded over future years, finding a buyer may eventually be close to impossible. Also remember, that if the sales commission is reduced – or even eventually abolished, anyone who has entered into such Agreements will seriously regret having conceded to the change.
DON`T BUY INTO IT !
There is only one reason that park owners look to offer replacement Agreements and that is to secure yet more money, driven only by common greed, hoping that the less aware or the more vulnerable will fall for it. For all these reasons, NO-ONE should agree to change their current contracts and EVERYONE should do their very best to ensure that vulnerable occupiers are not persuaded to do so. If you are approached with such a proposal, our best possible advice is not to respond to the invitation in any way.
MORE ABOUT ROYALE LIFE:
The company now boasts of operating around 80 parks but have previously been the subject of controversy as highlighted in a debate in 2019 upon which we reported at the time, when
Sir Christopher Chope MP ( Chair of the APPG for Park Homes, referred to the Fit & Proper person criteria and said as follows:
“ I am sceptical about my hon. Friend’s earlier point about the fit and proper person test. I will illustrate my scepticism by referring to the controlling director of Royale Parks Ltd. Robert Lee Jack Bull, born in May 1977, was appointed as the director of Royale Parks Ltd on 7 September 2018. Directly or indirectly, he holds between 25% and 50% of the shares and voting rights in that company, which is part of a complex group of companies. The information that I have seen from Companies House suggests that Mr Bull is the director of no fewer than 74 companies, which between them have assets of about £80 million and liabilities of about £110 million. Royale Parks Ltd controls 75% or more of the shares and voting rights in some of those subsidiary companies, such as Royale Parks (Dorset) Ltd. In marketing the properties, however, RoyaleLife describes itself as “a family-owned business with a heritage dating back to 1945.”
There may be such a heritage, but what is probably not well known is that Mr Robert Lee Jack Bull was convicted at Cheltenham magistrates court on two pieces of information brought by the trading standards department, as described in the register for 10 January 2013. They are in similar terms, so I will refer only to the first one, which says:
“Between 13/08/2009 and 08/11/2009 at Gloucestershire, being a trader, engaged in a commercial practice which, by omission, was misleading under regulation 6 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 in that its factual contract omitted material Information, namely by making representations to Phillip and Mary Bentall, being average consumers, with respect to a park home, 101 Cotswold Grange Country Park, Meadow Lane, Twyning, which representations caused them to take a transactional decision namely to sell their home at 32 Quay Lane, Hanley Castle and purchase 101 Cotswold Grange Country Park which they would not otherwise have undertaken if they had known that planning permission only existed for holiday homes at Cotswold Grange Country Park and that 101 Cotswold Grange Country Park was a holiday home, not a permanent residential property, contrary to Regulation 10 of said regulations and as a result caused or was likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise. - Contrary to regulations 10 and 13 of the…Regulations 2008.” Mr Bull was fined £4,000 on that and the other count, and ordered to pay costs and a victim surcharge.
If we go for a fit and proper person test, will Mr Bull fall foul of that test? I suspect that he would not, which shows the weakness of such a test. That is why I express openly my scepticism about it, but I think that if my constituents, certainly at Tall Trees, knew about Mr Bull’s background they would be very concerned, because many of them were the victims of mis-selling. They bought their park homes at Tall Trees around the same period, between 2009 and 2013, having been told that those park homes carried with them full residential rights over a 12-month period “.
THIS POST is being shared across all of our PHPF platforms. If you are a `Royale Life` resident, please also share with your neighbours - or if you are not resident and you know anyone who lives on a `Royale Life` Park, please pass this on.. If, having read the above, anyone remains in any doubt that such proposals should be avoided, contact the government sponsored Leasehold Advisory Service for Park Homes, or if you are a member of NAPHR or IPHAS, who are likely to offer the same advice – also re-emphasising our repeated message for anyone considering a move to a Park Homes: NEVER PAY A DEPOSIT OR ENTER INTO ANY FORM OF AGREEMENT WITHOUT FIRST TAKING INDEPENDENT QUALIFIED LEGAL ADVICE:
PRESS RELEASE. PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS TO ALL SOURCES OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL MEDIA.
'A kick in the teeth':
Furious Forgotten Pensioners representing England, Scotland and Northern Ireland march on Westminster under the banner of the Park Home Owners JUSTICE Campaign - because the Government has reneged on its four year old promise to change RPI to CPI. Wales being the only country to enjoy CPI.
Park Home Owners monthly pitch fees are rising by exorbitant RPI increases when their pensions rise by CPI. This dereliction of duty by Government to honour its promise could see many elderly and vulnerable residents suffer possible homelessness or even more serious consequences in these times of austerity and great hardship.
Their rally takes place on Monday 24th October at 12 noon opposite the gates of Downing Street . A meeting - chaired by Sir Peter Bottemley, MP for Worthing, Father of the House of Commons and President of the Park Home Owners JUSTICE Campaign - follows in the Palace of Westminster at 2 15pm. Park home residents will then have the opportunity to put questions and have their say.
All enquiries to Sonia McColl OBE
phojc1sm@gmail com. Tel: 07903024612
Ends.
PLEASE HELP BY SENDING THE LETTER BELOW TO THE PRIME MINISTER.
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
Dear Prime Minister
Firstly, may I congratulate you on your appointment.
I am a member of the Park Home Owners' JUSTICE Campaign and one of the park home owners in this country that your Government has forgotten. Four years ago, your Government promised to change the RPI to CPI as the basis for the annual pitch fee increase. You have let me, and thousands like me – down. You could easily do this in the next Finance Bill – but still you give us the same response ' when Parliamentary time allows.' Enough is now enough.
Under the banner of the Park Home Owners JUSTICE Campaign we will be rallying at Westminster on the 24th October and delivering our letter to Downing Street for your personal attention. In these austere times, when RPI is rising every day, you are condemning many park home owners to a cold miserable fate that could end in the death of some who cannot afford to live.
The only person to gain from your lack of thought, compassion and justice to park home owners is the site owner. This is a windfall for him that will increase every year. In a short while you will be wanting our votes, these will be in short supply if you do not honour your promise now.
You increase our pensions by CPI yet you expect us to pay pitch fee increases which have been calculated by linking to the higher rate of RPI. The Welsh already enjoy a CPI increase, why not residents in England and Scotland? The Father of the House, Sir Peter Bottomley has indicated this could be done in the next Finance Bill. If you won't listen to the voice of the people please will you listen to the voice of The Father of the House.
Yours sincerely
