"Parkdean sales staff talked me into spending £120k of my medical payout on massively overpriced caravans"

Grandmother who dreamt of owning holiday homes for her children and grandchildren loses fortune and stuck with 'endless bills'

Medical misfortunes

Retired social and community worker Janice Sims, 70, has suffered multiple medical challenges. Janice has mobility issues resulting from arthritis and asthma among other ailments, meaning she needs to rely on either a walking stick or mobility scooter to get around.

Janice was also part of a group of people in the UK who received infected blood transfusions from the NHS leaving her with a serious and debilitating health condition. Subsequently Janice received a significant payment as part of a compensation agreement.

Ms Sims decided to use this money to pay for something her large family (five children and 13 grandchildren to date) would get some happiness from.

Parkdean Highfield Grange

Her heart set on a caravan for the whole family to make holiday memories, Janice visited Parkdean Resorts' Highfield Grange Holiday Park at Clacton-on Sea.

"I was looking in the window at the caravans they advertise on site," recalls Janice, "when a salesman called Jim introduced himself and asked if I was interested in a caravan. He saw I was walking with a stick and had poor mobility. He offered to give me a lift to see a lodge using his golf buggy. He was talking all the way, so I lost track of how far away from the facilities it was.

"Jim told me he could give me a wonderful offer with a year's free ground rent as long as I didn't tell any other owners about the 'special deal'. He told me that I could more than cover the running costs by renting out the caravan through the park when I wasn't using it. It seemed like great value. I was in!"

"I paid a deposit of £6100 and was told they would get new sofas in, have the television working and the decking repaired- none of which ever happened."

"On the 15th August I paid the remaining £55k for the lodge and finally received the paperwork. The computer screen was too small for me to read the contract in advance. I was told they would print it out after signing but the font size was to small for me to read. They were very credible. I know its going to sound foolish, but I'm no expert and I just trusted them.

"The Highfield Grange salespeople told me I was entitled to extras for being an owner, including access to the facilities, owner passes, and a calendar of events, all of which sounded lovely for my children and grandchildren."

Disappointments

"Upon returning to the lodge it really hit home how far away from the facilities and entertainment I was and there are no pavements for my mobility scooter, let alone wheelchairs or pushchairs. I had been super clear about how important this was before I bought the caravan, and had been assured that the route was disabled friendly.

"I was now told to drive in the road, which of course is more dangerous.

"i also could not go out in the evening as there was zero street lighting up the back of the park so i felt unsafe and isolated.

"Despite what Jim had told me, I discovered that I was not actually allowed to rent my caravan out through the park because it was ten years old. Knowing this would have certainly have influenced my decision to buy. The sales staff said I could rent privately, but I have no idea how to do that. I don't have the energy and time to learn new things like this. And anyway other members have told me that the park undercuts private renters and charges big fees for things like cleaning and linen changes so that you can't make money.

"I asked the office to sell the caravan or move it closer to the entertainment. They said they would get back to me but they never did, despite me returning multiple times.

"At this point I was still inside the 14 day cancellation period and had the legal right to ask for my money back.

"However I had never been told about my cancellation rights by anyone at the park. Not until it was too late."

More money

"A sales manager called Kim said that she would 'do me a favour' by taking the lodge back if I agreed to spend another £45k upgrading to a newer unit. Honestly I felt like I had no choice and went ahead with buying it.

"I then realised i didnt want my son to bring his dogs to the new lodge because of my asthma so I asked Jim if he had any cheaper caravans for sale so my son's family could stay with their dogs, Jim said he had a nice one to show me near the entertainment. This seemed suitable for my son's family. So I paid another £27,000 for this caravan, thinking I was all set now.

"Again i couldn't rent it out via the park because it was too old.

"I had pointed out a number of issues with this caravan The outside light was broken, the decking was bowing, the boiler plug was upside down. The sofas needed replacing and it needed a new dining table, chairs and a new fridge. I was told that all of these issues would be taken care of before I moved in. I had no doubt that Jim was saying these costs would be included in the price.

"It wasn't until i was able to go through the paperwork that I realised the repairs and fittings I thought I had negotiated were actually added onto the cost. I was charged extra for everything.

"Within two days of my son's family staying in the caravan there was a strong smell of gas late at night and everyone had to vacate the unit. An engineer was sent out to check, and gave us the all clear without identifying the smell. Even though the contract stated a gas and electric check had been recently done, the engineer found the carbon monoxide alarms were broken.

"Two weeks later I found out I had been charged £120 for this call out. Despite the fact we never requested an engineer. All we did was report a seemingly dangerous issue to the park with a caravan they had just sold us."

A fourth caravan

After the dust had settled, Janice realised it was going to be expensive to run both caravans.

"I was advised by the sales staff that I should buy one more caravan to stay in myself, while renting out my existing one which is new enough to do so via the park. I know that people will wonder why I spent even more money with Parkdean after so many disappointments, but it all seemed to make sense and if I'm honest these young salespeople were probably finding me an easy target. They told me I would earn between £12,000 and £15,000 a year, which should cover the annual running costs of all three vans.

"They showed me a number of older caravans and I settled for one I could see myself holidaying in. I paid £25,000. There were endless issues with this new caravan. I don't know why I expected it to be different, but the salespeople convinced me things would go smoothly this time.

"An unpaved, muddy path made it impossible to get my mobility scooter to the door safely. The new steps I was promised were not installed, neither was the new fridge. The caravan was not deep cleaned, also as promised in the sales patter. Certain rusty fittings had not been replaced as agreed and the oven was broken.

"With each caravan purchase an inventory pack was included, for which I was charged £600. I only found out later from another owner that these were optional. So I had paid £2400 I didn't need to, and of course the park would not take them back. Every caravan was supposed to be 'deep cleaned' before it was handed over to me, and none of them were. I had to do it myself, which is harder for me than a young, healthy cleaning professional. There were always issues with pipes or electrics.

"I tried Parkdean's rental program Your Lets but it very quickly became clear that I couldn't earn anything like £12,000 - £15,000 in a year. My caravan was rarely being rented out, even during summer holidays. A walk around the park revealed that all the Parkdean owned units were full and the privately owned ones weren't. When the Park rents their own vans out they get 100% of the rental money, whereas when they rent private caravans in the "Your Lets" scheme, they only get 30%. So their motivation is to keep their own vans full and only use private ones for 'overflow'

"My caravan was being damaged by the few renters that I was getting and the money was not worth it after the increased bills and costs."

Final insult

"After a summer of stress and constantly going to the office for one issue or another. I left the site for winter.

"In January the salesman Jim called me to tell me he had a lovely lodge right next to my son's caravan for sale for £70000. I did like the look of it and asked him what deal he could do to trade in my other three caravans, which I had paid over £120,000 for.

"He told me he could only part exchange one caravan out of the three, he offered £30,000 for the caravan that had cost me nearly £47,000 just weeks previously.

"That is when the penny really dropped. I understood in that moment I had been taken advantage of. I have spent and lost so much money.

"I realised the park didn't have my interests at heart and that they would keep squeezing me for money until they couldn't get any more.

"My son and daughter in law had also been talking to the previous owners of the caravan I had paid £27,000 for. The park had only paid them £9000 for the lodge before adding £18,000 to sell it to me. The previous owner had a look inside the caravan and confirmed that nothing had been replaced or changed.besides some minor details that I had to fight with the park over.

"I found this extremely upsetting. I felt sorry for the people who had been short-changed and angry that Parkdean had taken advantage of me.

"Dealing with Parkdean has left me stressed, financially wiped out and disappointed about my grandchildren not being able to have the holidays they deserve."

The fight back

"Janice's story is clearly distressing," says Greg Wilson, CEO of European Consumer Claims, the company spearheading the national movement to seek justice for holiday park misconduct. "We have thousands of clients, including elderly, infirm and/or vulnerable people who have objectively been lied to or taken advantage of by both small family run holiday parks, and huge national businesses.

"There is applicable consumer law that can be used to redress the situation, but generally people will need expert help to claim meaningful compensation," explains Greg. "One thing we at ECC have been calling for is mandated transparency in the price a caravan or lodge has previously sold for. In the same way that this information is public knowledge for house buyers."