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Hi Folks,

We are thinking of buying a static.

We've never owned a static before, so are there any pitfalls we need to look out for?

Also, we'll be looking at siting it in the North West.  Does anybody know of any decent sites with reasonable fees?

And lastly - can anybody let us know what the rules are with regard to age of statics that a site will let you put on their site?

Cheers

We have recently exchanged our tourer for one. Before we had a tourer we have enjoyed a few holidays on static parks. and returned to the same parks with our tourer enjoying the fact that we paid significantly less for our holiday in our tourer than in a static!

We thought long and hard before buying, having looked at statics every time we visited static sites. Having 4 children we are appreciating the extra space, and less packing and setting up time and packing up time. 

However,  I think to get the best out of them you have to keep them for a long time. I have heard horror stories about people who have decided after a year or two that it isn't for them, and have been forced into selling their static van back to the site at a substantial loss.

Finding a site that suits you and your family is most important, and a nice pitch. We looked at a lot of sites that had caravans sited very close together - like a car park really, the site fees were cheaper, but in the end we opted for a site with higher site fees, but nicer pitches and more facilities.

Site fees can be high, but we are going to let our van to help cover our costs (but not with Haven as we have heard more horror stories about Haven not looking after owners vans that they use for letting). We are hoping that being on a site with more facilities will help with the letting side of things too.

The sales people are very pushy - you give them a price and they show you a van way out of your price range, and then anything you see in your price range just doesn't compare!!!  Then they show you vans that are just a little bit over your price range. They also add site fees and other costs on on top of the price shown. We ended up spending more than we'd budgeted for.

Haven also offer to cover your first years site fees with their 'guaranteed letting scheme' but we have been told not to take that offer as you can earn more letting yourself, and guests often pay rock bottom prices to stay in your van.

However if you are considering buying get what you can out of the site owners. We were put up on a Haven site for the weekend in a top of the range van for free with no obligation to buy - we could have walked away and not spent a penny.

We did spend more than we budgeted for, but have bought a 10ft van that is a few years old. If we find it suits us, we may decide to upgrade to a better van in a couple of years, but despite the hard sell resisted the newer expensive models so we have less to lose if it doesn't suit us and we have to sell.

We had a static several years ago. Paid around £8,000. Site fees at the time were £650. After 3 years they had risen to £1,600. We tried to sell the caravan with the owers of the site having first refusal. We are offered £800. Also, 'most' sites these days have a 15 year rule. After 15 years it is down to the site owner whether or not you can keep it. As long as you are aware of this and the fact that once you have bought it is has depreciated by around 95% then you will be fine. We did eventually get rid of ours. The site fees are now £2,000 I believe.

We have just bought another static on a piece of farmland. Only 19 others. No mains electric (they all work off a generator) and the site fees are only £550 a year. No facilities as such, just looking onto a river.

Just be very, very aware of what you are getting into. That said, I loved our old one despite the costs. Check about the site fees rising as I know some sites have a fixed period for a couple of years so you can at least plan ahead a bit.

From personal experience at our parks in the Scarborough area, i would say we get at least 1 family a week want to relocate their caravan due to havens sales teams. Mostly promising letting fees which dont come through, hidden charges and extortionate site fees.

My advice would be to find your top 3 parks first and then compare what they have on offer, the parks conditions i.e. age limits and obviously prices. All parks will (or should) be able to get you any caravan you want if you are buying new.

Any price you pay will be the retail price plus any extra the site may add, the price at which you sell back to a park will be glasses guide trade price only. The difference can be alot. ie. Ex works £25,000 + haulage, commisioning, site fees, extra loading on margin; maybe £10,000. You would probably get back a year later, £15,000 at the most. Prices and sites vary of course, but beware of the short term outlook. Second hand have an even bigger trade to retail gap.