Caravan Living

[susanxx]

A friend has sold her bricks and mortar house and bought a holiday caravan to live in. She will have to vacate the van for 6 weeks each season as it is non-residential. Obviously she has the site fees to pay but will there still be a council tax/rates to pay as well?

[bookbinder]

She should ask the local authority.

[frugalfred]

If the caravan is used as your sole or main residence in the UK, it will be subject to council tax.

[moonraker558]

Ask the site owner.

[buildersmate]

I believe that the law says that you cannot live on a mobile home site with a HOLIDAY licence as if it is your primary residence. If the site owner allows this, he is in breach of his licence, so he has a vested interest in not permitting this. However I cannot find irrefutable evidence to confirm this. It is a breach of the planning consent for the site.

However it is different if the site owner has a permanent mobile home licence.
Certainly one has to pay council tax on a permanent site if it is your primary residence.

So your friend is between a rock and a hard place.

[deggers316]

think your friend should have researched this better
holiday homes are different in specification to mobile homes never mind the legal part of it

[Sparkles62]

We have a static on a holiday site, we have to be off for twelve weeks on our site.
We have to pay council tax every year , but at a very reduced rate because you are not allowed to officially live there permanently.
A few people do live on our site, and have done as your friend has done, but they are doing so unnoficially, and presumably would get into trouble if the council realised.