Holiday park owners 'forced' into huge losses when reselling

North Wales nightmare

When Kelly Hughes invested in a North Wales holiday park unit (not named here for legal reasons), she did not expect to lose almost 70% of the purchase price within a single year.

Kelly bought the caravan in August 2018 after graduating from university. The Kent native had planned to stay in the holiday home for a short time whilst relocating to the area to look for work. Her long term plans were to move into a permanent home and rent out the caravan as holiday accommodation to earn some extra income.

When Kelly changed her plans, she decided that she needed to sell the caravan. That's when she was confronted with the harsh reality of holiday park ownership.

Hughes had originally paid £30,000 for her caravan. When she went to sell the unit back to the park, she was astounded to be told it was only worth £8,000.

Eventually the park agreed to raise their offer, but only to £9,500.

"So I lost £20,000 on that," Kelly lamented during an interview with BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

"If I didn't sell it back to the park, they added in a load of additional fees for removal from the park, disconnection fees, massive transport fees, things like that.

"You do feel kind of trapped selling back," Kelly told the radio station.

Former carer forced to use food banks

Hughes is only one of many cases reported on by British media. 65 year old Joanne Horner-Bloomfield "lost everything" following the purchase of a lodge on Lincolnshire's Watermill Leisure Park. The former carer now relies on food banks after spiralling site costs forced her to sell a caravan she bought from the park only a year earlier for for £29,995. Watermill refused to buy the caravan, telling her it was now worth around £5000. When challenged on the price discrepancy, Joanne recounts that the park told her "well it's business isn't it?"

Joanne ended up selling her lodge privately for £5500, of which £500 went to Watermill for a 'disconnection fee. "It just broke my heart. I'm devastated," She told the BBC. "The money that I was hoping to walk away with would have made life so much easier for me."

Pensioner sells house to survive after park loss

Sheffield pensioner Sally Nichols told the Daily Mail how she lost £54,000 in 3 years after buying a luxury caravan in Lincolnshire.

The 70 year old 'invested' her entire pension pot of £69,000 into buying unit at the Away Resorts site, Tattershall Lakes Country Park. Her plan was to rent the caravan out to holidaymakers and generate an income for herself. However the park annual fees and guest passes were increased so much that Sally could no longer make the idea work.financially. She needed to sell her lodge.

'I managed to sell it for £15,000. I had factored in depreciation," Ms Nichols told the Guardian newspaper. "I knew it would go down in value, but not that much. I was gobsmacked, absolutely distraught.'

Sally lost so much money that she was forced to sell her house to survive, and claims that she was given misleading information when she bought the lodge. Misinformation which affected her decision to buy.

ECC to the rescue

Consumer champions ECC have stepped up to defend the rights of mistreated holiday park consumers like Kelly, Joanne and Sally.

European Consumer Claims have been successfully suing rogue holiday businesses since 2016, with over £28 million awarded to consumers to date. The Henley based firm also have offices in the USA and southern Spain. Their work has been covered extensively and positively in high quality media and their online reviews speak loudly to their customers satisfaction.

"We are ideally positioned to lead this fight," says Greg Wilson, CEO of ECC: "We know consumer legislation. We understand how greedy holiday product bosses operate, and our law partners know how to navigate the legal system on behalf of people who have been deceived or cheated."

"Our record speaks for itself.