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It is not unusal for site owners to have a commission or some similar arrangement when a van is sold. It is not unusual for a charge to be levied when a new occupier takes over a plot on a site.

Interesting how threads develop. We started off with no contract with the site owner. Later it appears that the use of the site owners land had been continuous for a number of years so there must be a contract for the use of the land.

Later there was a ground rent to pay and so there is an acknowledgement, again, that there was a contract beween the OP and the site owner and which had, as a condition, a need to pay ground rent. If there was no contract how did the OP know to pay rent and just how much was required?

So, it has been established that there was a contract between the OP and the site owner. What then needs to be considered are the terms of that contract. They may not have been written down but perhaps they are on a notice board and which was drawn to the attention of the OP. Who knows.

It is not uncommon for people to be so happy to have got a pitch that they don't look into the Ts and Cs.

If the site owner cannot provide a copy of the contract Ts and Cs the site owner is going to have some difficulty in enforcing payment. If they can produce Ts and Cs then we need to consider where they came from, did the OP know of them, were they ever drawn to the OPs attention etc. If it can be established that the OP is actually bound by the Ts and Cs then we need to consider whether the claim is justified or does it fall foul of any consumer legislation e.g the Unfair Terms In Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

So, if the OP hears from the site owner there are a number of questions to be answered in order to clarify the OPs position.

Phil

The issue here is that you did have a contract. To argue with the owner that you don't have a contract is thw wrong approach. What matters is what the terms and conditions are - that the owner can proove were incorporated into yuor contract. So, wait and see what, if anything, the owner comes up with and then consider your position.

If, after, what, four weeks, the owner has come up woith nothing then perhaps a simple letter along the lines of .........

"Further to my request for sight of the alleged terms and conditions of contract which oblige me to pay the requested sum of £500, as you have failed, in four weeks, to evidence the existence of such terms, then I consider the matter closed."

Phil