'Holiday home dream left us crippled with debt'

When Andrew and Sue Dawson bought a static caravan astatine a vacation parkland connected the East Yorkshire seashore successful 2022, they planned to walk their status whiling distant weekends astatine the seaside with their daughters and grandchildren.

Then they received immoderate devastating news. In February this year, Mr Dawson, 59, was diagnosed with incurable cancer.

"The doctors gave maine betwixt six months and – arsenic they described it – a fewer abbreviated years," helium said. "Obviously we started talking astir the future. It wholly changed everything."

The couple, from Leeds, began getting their affairs successful bid and decided to merchantability their caravan astatine Parkdean's Skipsea Sands resort.

But they were successful for different shock. The three-bedroom caravan with decking, for which they had paid £62,400 successful 2022, was worthy conscionable £17,000 2 years later.

“We were gobsmacked,” said Mr Dawson. “No 1 ever told america we’d look that level of depreciation.

"The salesman sold america the dream, but didn't merchantability america the reality."

Since a roar successful the 1960s, caravan holidays astatine Britain's seaside resorts and agrarian quality spots person been a fashionable prime among families looking for an affordable getaway.

Today determination are much than 3,000 parks crossed the UK. Caravan and camping holidays brought £7.2bn into the system past year, according to manufacture figures.

The British Holiday and Home Parks Association (BHHPA), the nationalist commercialized assemblage for the sector, says these sites bring "vital tourism" and concern "to immoderate of the UK’s astir economically challenged areas".

The National Caravans Council (NCC), which besides represents the industry, said determination were "many thousands of blessed vacation caravan owners crossed the UK".

But the Dawsons are not the lone household to consciousness they person been near retired of pouch by the imagination of owning a vacation home.

Dozens of radical person told the BBC they mislaid important sums of wealth – immoderate of them their beingness savings, pensions oregon inheritance – aft buying a static caravan.

The laminitis of a radical acceptable up to enactment caravan owners said it was "scandalous" that "people's lives are being ruined".

Parkdean’s website states that “buying a vacation location isn't considered a fiscal investment, arsenic vacation homes depreciate successful worth with age”.

But Mr Dawson said a Skipsea Sands salesperson told him caravans "pretty overmuch clasp their value".

Only erstwhile the Dawsons came to sell, pursuing the crab diagnosis, did they realise they could recoup lone a fraction of their expenditure.

The mates reluctantly agreed to merchantability their caravan backmost to the parkland for £17,000 aft negotiating with the income team.

But connected the time the Dawsons cleared retired their caravan to finalise the sale, Parkdean chopped the terms they were consenting to wage to £16,000.

Mr Dawson said his dealings with the parkland had been "dreadful".

"The magnitude of wealth we've mislaid and the mode we’ve been treated, successful my sentiment is precise underhanded and lacking successful transparency," helium added.

He said helium felt determination had been "a implicit deficiency of empathy, really, knowing my condition, knowing wherefore were selling – that we didn't truly person a batch of choice".

"We consciousness they fto america down precise badly."

After the BBC contacted Parkdean, a Skipsea Sands manager called Mr Dawson and offered to wage him £1,000 to resoluteness the dispute.

A Parkdean spokesperson said the institution was "aware of and sympathetic to Andrew’s situation" and had contacted Mr Dawson "to hold a suitable connection and settee the matter".

But Mr Dawson said it was "never astir the money," adding: "It doesn't alteration my presumption connected Parkdean and it doesn't alteration my presumption connected the industry."

James and Emma Richardson bought a caravan astatine Tattershall Lakes resort, successful Lincolnshire, for £110,000 successful 2022.

The couple, from Cleethorpes, utilized wealth near to Mrs Richardson by her parents – who died successful 2017 and 2018 – to enactment down a £25,000 deposit and entered into a concern statement to wage for the rest.

They hoped to fto relatives usage the caravan for escaped holidays and besides rent it retired to the nationalist to offset the cost.

Mrs Richardson, 43, said: "I wanted to bash thing for the family. It was my mode of being capable to person them summation from maine inheriting.

“Mum and Dad were precise hard-working, precise loving. Family was everything."

The Richardsons said a Tattershall Lakes salesperson assured them they would marque capable income from hiring retired their caravan to screen their monthly concern repayments of £1,269.

Away Resorts, which runs the parkland and manages rentals, denies immoderate specified committedness was made. A spokesperson told the BBC the institution was wide with caravan owners that "there are nary guarantees" astir subletting income.

The Richardsons said they recovered themselves "haemorrhaging money" aft buying their caravan.

“We had months wherever we were taking £1,200 successful rental costs, but we would lone person £200 of that due to the fact that of linen charges, [visitor] passes, cleaning fees,” said Mr Richardson, 46.

“We were truthful acold abbreviated of what we were sold.”

The mates soon decided to chopped their losses and offered to merchantability their caravan backmost to the park. After this connection was rejected, the Richardsons paid £20,000 and handed implicit their caravan to get retired of their third-party concern agreement.

"We lost, implicit a play of 2 years, successful excess of £50,000, which has conscionable crippled us," Mr Richardson said.

“I'm inactive paying recognition cards disconnected now. We've mislaid that inheritance that our parents worked each their lives for.”

Mrs Richardson said losing the wealth her parents had near was a “bitter pill to swallow”.

She added: “If it was conscionable my wealth it would beryllium wholly different, but due to the fact that it’s what my parents worked for… I felt similar I’d fto them down."

Sally Nicholls, 70, from Sheffield, utilized her full pension cookware and a tiny indebtedness to bargain a £69,000 static caravan astatine Tattershall Lakes successful 2021.

She said she told a salesperson she planned to unrecorded disconnected the rental income successful her status and was fixed figures indicating what she could expect to make.

“At the time, it looked similar a bully proposition," she added.

Ms Nicholls did marque a tiny nett from her caravan successful her archetypal twelvemonth arsenic an owner, but her takings rapidly dried up aft repeated increases successful parkland charges, which she was forced to walk connected to customers.

She past recovered herself successful contention with the parkland itself, which was capable to connection much favourable rates, including escaped entree to facilities, to prospective guests.

"That much oregon little enactment a implicit halt to the bookings coming in," Ms Nicholls said.

Ms Nicholls decided to merchantability her caravan but, similar the Dawsons, was shocked astatine however small it was present worth.

After Tattershall Lakes declined to bargain it back, she ended up selling to an extracurricular trader for £17,500.

“It came arsenic rather a daze to realise that I wasn’t going to get my pension backmost to unrecorded connected successful aged age," said Ms Nicholls, who has since sold her location to escaped up funds for her status and moved to a smaller spot successful Bolsover.

"I had to see what I was going to unrecorded on," she added. "The lone enactment for maine was to merchantability my home."

Away Resorts said it provided each prospective buyers with “comprehensive information, including elaborate presumption and conditions” to guarantee they had “full consciousness of the imaginable risks and rewards”.

A spokesperson added: “While subletting a vacation location tin beryllium a mode for immoderate owners to make further income, we marque it wide that determination are nary guarantees successful narration to this, arsenic assorted factors – including seasonal request and wider economical conditions – tin power returns.”

Ibraheem Dulmeer, a barrister who specialises successful vacation parkland law, said caravan buyers were not ever afloat informed astir the agreements they were signing.

He said it was "really, truly essential" buyers did "due diligence" and got immoderate promises from salespeople successful writing.

“Many radical from the outset are not provided with immoderate ineligible proposal oregon don’t get immoderate ineligible advice, they simply spell done shaking hands, handing implicit ample sums of money," Mr Dulmeer added.

"And what seems to hap is that, arsenic a effect of that, they aren’t really afforded the accidental to reappraisal the terms, reappraisal the conditions, and spot whether it fits for them. And that’s wherever astir of the problems truly stem from."

The BHHPA, which represents vacation parks, said it was important consumers "read the tiny print" and "fully recognize the income contract" earlier committing to buying a caravan.

A spokesperson for the NCC, the commercialized organisation for the industry, said vacation caravan ownership was "a important acquisition decision" and imaginable buyers should behaviour their ain probe to "fully recognize what they are buying".

They added: "We enactment with our subordinate parks to punctual them of their obligations and responsibilities to assistance consumers recognize intelligibly what they are buying, erstwhile and however they tin usage their vacation caravan oregon lodge, and that they dainty each customers reasonably and honestly utilizing elemental connection and pursuing champion practice."

Caravan owners are protected by user rights laws, which are enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and section Trading Standards offices.

The CMA, a authorities regulator, told the BBC it could not remark connected circumstantial cases, but said businesses indispensable not mislead their customers and immoderate claims astir products "must beryllium honorable and transparent".

Last year, a petition signed by much than 27,000 people, which called for protections to beryllium strengthened, was rejected by the Conservative government.

The petition was started by the Holiday Park Action Group, which has much than 66,000 members successful a Facebook radical successful which caravan buyers dependable complaints.

Its laminitis Carole Keeble said consumers were "consistently misled successful respect of the existent worth of the caravans they are buying" and claimed the CMA was failing to act.

She told the BBC it was a "national ungraded that radical are losing their pensions, inheritance oregon having to merchantability their ain homes to screen the losses they are incurring".

Meanwhile, Ms Nicholls said she wanted a regulator to "step up and instrumentality control" of the sector.

She added: "It's had a devastating interaction connected me. It's changed my life, basically."

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