The holiday park owners 'blackmailed' into expensive upgrades

Holiday park owners despair as fresh accusations levelled at site bosses

Industry in disrepute?

The holiday park industry has been the subject of intense media scrutiny for the past few years over multiple alleged abuses of their customer base.

Petitions have been made to the UK government requesting extra legislation, similar to the UK Timeshare Act which adds more robust protection to consumers of that beleaguered industry. These demands have been rejected, and holiday park victims have been told instead to rely on the Consumer Rights Act. Legislation which has widely been criticised as inadequate for the holiday park business.

Reported malpractice incidences include: High pressure sales; expensive, monopolistic arrangements for onsite utilities; dishonest information being given in order to secure business; restrictive rules; health and safety issues; eye watering depreciation in caravan or lodge value in very short time periods and antisocial behaviour on the parks themselves.

Forced upgrades

The latest accusations include parks being accused of 'railroading' their unit owners into paying for costly upgrades, despite the clients being happy with their current arrangements.

These owners at Lossiemouth Bay Holiday park were given a nasty shock when their site was taken over by Park Holidays. The Moray based park tenants were told that when their licenses expired - in some cases in less than a year - they would be obligated to either relocate their caravans or upgrade to a newer model at great expense.

"Park Holidays have come in and owners are being asked to upgrade or get out. Upgrading means a £40,000-plus upgrade. Who can afford that?" laments caravan owner Joanne Wood.

Park Holidays' justification for the demands are explained by fellow owner Ian Bancroft: "I was told because my van was over 10 years old it was considered to be an old van and I'd have to upgrade. I explained there was no way I could afford to, so the upshot was I would have to remove my caravan from the park."

This tactic does not appear to be unique to Lossiemouth Bay Holiday Park. Similar accusations have been made against sites and operators industry wide, such as Lake District holiday park Camping and Caravanning Club, Abergele's Kingsley Holiday Park and Kingfisher Caravan Park on the Lincolnshire coast

Expert comment

These latest reports come as no surprise to Greg Wilson, CEO of European Consumer Claims (ECC). "The holiday park industry has been very publicly exposed recently over a great deal of questionable behaviour and ethics.

"Our advice lines here at ECC receive calls all day every day from people with heartbreaking stories about life-changing losses of money to holiday park operations."

"People have been encouraged to take out finance or even borrow against their properties in order to buy a holiday park lodge. And these customers often later find out that what they own is vastly different to what a smooth talking salesman told them they were buying.

"The media is paying attention to what has been happening and so are we.

"Our message to the bad actors in the holiday park industry is this: Together with our legal partners. We will use all of our expertise and the full force of the law to achieve financial compensation for your mistreated customers."

How can I get help?

The first step is to understand your situation in legal terms before committing to any kind of action. There are multiple organisations offering different ways to seek justice and none of them are suitable for every claimant's individual situation.

Get in touch with our holiday park experts at ECC for a free, no-obligation, confidential consultation.

We will let you know if you have any grounds for a claim, and if so your best route forward. Whether that path is with ECC, or not.