Holiday park sales victims speak out as ECC steps in to help

Victims of widespread UK holiday park 'malfeasance' report their experiences to media

£180,000 for non-residential 'retirement property'

Mike Chesworth spent his life savings on what he believed was a small holiday park property he and his wife could retire to. The 59 year old Lancashire delivery man says he was promised he could live in the static home all year round by the Wyre Country Park salesman when the couple handed over £180k in 2019.

Mike revealed to BBC's Panorama that instead of retiring, he has been forced into returning to work days a week, as the park only has a holiday licence, so he and his wife are actually unable to legally abide permanently in the unit.

Mike told the BBC: "You spent a lot of time and effort looking to retire, and you work 30 or 40 years of your life to do it, only to find the dream you thought you were going to have is the perpetual nightmare that you can't seem to end.

"And it's just, it's heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking."

The site's owner David Welch denied misleading buyers and said the site's sales agreements clearly stated that it is a holiday park.

Holiday dream leaves crippling debt

Emma and James Richardson used a £25,000 inheritance left by Mrs Richardson's mother as a down-payment on a £110,000 caravan at Tattershall Lakes Park in Lincolnshire. Emma, 43, explained: "I wanted to do something for the family. It was my way of being able to have them gain from me inheriting."

Besides providing holidays for their family, the Cleethorpes couple claim a Tattershall Lakes salesperson assured them they would make sufficient income from hiring out their caravan to cover their monthly finance repayments of £1,269.

The couple said they were soon "haemorrhaging money" rather than covering their costs.

“We had months where we were taking £1,200 in rental costs, but we would only receive £200 of that because of linen charges, (visitor) passes, cleaning fees,” said James, 46. The Richardsons could not keep up with finance payments and had to sell the caravan back to the park for a token sum.

“We were so far short of what we were sold. We lost, over a period of two years, in excess of £50,000, which has just crippled us. I'm still paying credit cards off now. We've lost that inheritance that our parents worked all their lives for.”

Park operators Away Resorts, denied promises were made about rental returns. A spokesperson said the company was clear with caravan owners that "there are no guarantees" about subletting income.

Cancer victim loses fortune

Andrew and Sue Dawson bought a static caravan at Parkdean Resorts' Skipsea Sands Resort for £62,400 in 2022, intending to have holidays in their retirement with their children and grandchildren.

The Leeds couple were delivered a hammer blow in February 2024 when Andrew was diagnosed with terminal cancer. They decided to sell their caravan as they got their affairs in order.

The official Parkdean Resorts website states that “buying a holiday home isn't considered a financial investment, as holiday homes depreciate in value with age."

However Andrew says that the salesperson had assured him that was not really the case and in fact the caravans, "pretty much hold their value".

In fact Parkdean's final offer to the Dawsons was £16,000, which devastated the beleaguered couple.

Andrew described his dealings with the park as: "dreadful. The amount of money we've lost and the way we’ve been treated, in my opinion is very underhanded and lacking in transparency,"

The 59 year old reported "a complete lack of empathy, really, knowing my condition, knowing why were selling – that we didn't really have a lot of choice. We feel they let us down very badly."

A Parkdean Resorts spokesperson said the company was "aware of and sympathetic to Andrew’s situation."

European Consumer Claims

Approximately 365,000 people in the UK own Holiday park caravans, and a further 100,000 own static homes. The total similar to the number of British timeshare owners.

"We believe that this abuse has been going on for many years, and that there are significant numbers of victims like the people whose stories are published here," says Greg Wilson, CEO of European Consumer Claims (ECC). "We appeal to anyone mis-sold or otherwise treated unfairly by a holiday park in the UK to come forward and share their experiences with us.

"If the law has been transgressed, we can assist."

If you are someone who has experienced problems similar to the cases above, or feel as though you have been mistreated in any other way by holiday park sales operations, then get in touch with our team of specialist advisors.

ECC and their associated specialist consumer solicitor firms are here to help.