Thinking of giving up our membership

congratulations DEBSC  pity you miss out on August with the grandchildren on hols from school , but still lots to look forward to

Thanks Ruby. We are hoping to take two of them away in our caravan in August but my Dad is in hospital at present, so depends on what care he will need when he comes out as to whether we can still go or not. Another reason for the static is his health, means we can just nip off, without booking, when he is having a good spell.

The place where I stayed in June, there were a couple of statics. The folk are realy nice, and I got to hear their story. All their lives they had a touring van, then found this one place they went to time and time again. They become friends with the familly that owned the site and they were offered the chance to buy a static at a good price.  They started going for holidays, helping out in the lambing season. One thing led to another and they now do house swaps with the site owners so that they can go to the Edinburgh fringe 'on the cheap' and vist ther daughter at university.

There is, of course, lots more to the story. But, it shows what sort of experience can happen.

Well we have done it! We have spent some considerable time viewing sites and also viewing their Terms and Conditions and their contracts. We have found a site that suits us, we have a very long lease. We appear to have very nice neighbours - been in for a cuppa while viewing the site. Spoken to lots of other people on site, who recommend it, saying they are happy there. We take ownership of our static van in September. Grandchildren all excited, as are we, and looking forward to all spending time there. We did look at sites where we could pitch our caravan, as suggested by some other posters on here, but it wouldn't have worked for us. Only sad part is we will now have to sell our lovely Cadiz and superb kampa awning.

Congratulations - I'm sure you won't regret it - I know we haven't. It was a good idea to meet the neighbours before finally deciding, they can make so much difference to your experience.

Only downside for us is that it means another lot of grass to cut when we stay!

Thanks Mousley,yes we will have the grass to cut too. The neighbours do seem nice, didn't hesitate to invite us in when having a chat. The lady with the van in font of us also very pleasant, actually said she hoped we would buy it and be her new neighbours, which was nice, they all appear to be our age group. Hopefully it will suit us. We did as much research as possible before making the decision.

Thanks Mousley,yes we will have the grass to cut too. The neighbours do seem nice, didn't hesitate to invite us in when having a chat. The lady with the van in font of us also very pleasant, actually said she hoped we would buy it and be her new neighbours, which was nice, they all appear to be our age group. Hopefully it will suit us. We did as much research as possible before making the decision.

Write your comments here...Well done, DEBSC. It all seems to have worked out well for you.

We looked into it and I spoke to a couple of people at work who have done it and both would get out of the contracts if they could as it has proved far more expensive than they thought.  One was saying that the site put in a rule that you had to buy gas off them - supposedly for safety, then the next time it was a rule that the gas bottles had to be in a specific little shed thing which - funny old thing - you could only buy off them. He said that is just this year and there are always ways of fleecing money off you.  They like the site, like the other people on there, like the convenience of having it all set up and ready with everything there, but they say it is financially a black hole. As has been said, check your contracts carefully for any open clauses that will allow the site to hold you to ransom.

Site owners/companies should not be introducing rules such as that. I would advise those folk concerned to consider forming a resident's association (or joining one if it already exists) to prevent such practices. Once a contract has been signed for whatever length of lease ( ours is 15 years) the operators are legally obliged to honour it. Some disreputable ones may try to pick individuals off one by one which is why it's important for leaseholders to present a united front.

Luckily for us, we are on a family run site where the residents and owners get on well together; but we still have a resident's association. 

Site owners/companies should not be introducing rules such as that.

I think - though I am not sure - that within the microprint on the contract there is something that lets them do this under the 'health and safety' all embracing umbrella.

I was a Trading Standards officer before I retired, so I have seen/heard of some pretty dodgy dealings. I have gone through the contract very carefully and although nothing is ever really sure, I am satisfied with it. If we were younger we might not be doing it, due to long term costs, but we have looked into it carefully and believe this is the one for us. We are even fairly pleased that the site floods regularly (the vans have floatation systems) because this means they are far less likely to sell the site to builders for housing, always a worry otherwise.