If you are thinking of purchasing a holiday caravan, you may decide that you do not need a solicitor to assist with the purchase. There is no legal requirement to use one, but we regularly deal with issues that could have been identified at the time of purchase and are now difficult to resolve.
Making a purchase can involve significant sums of money and it is often worthwhile investing a little to potentially save a lot. There are a significant number of pitfalls to avoid when buying a holiday lodge, as well as a number of things that you need to be aware of. Buying a holiday caravan is very different to buying a ‘bicks and mortar’ holiday home.
Over the years that we have been dealing with static holiday caravans and other sites, we have come across cases where many thousands of pounds could have been saved if the agreements had been checked first.
We offer two main packages for holiday homes, depending on what you would like us to do;
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This covers a review of the licence agreement that is offered by the site owner any other documents that you are provided. If you are buying from an existing home owner rather than the site owner, we will read though the documents that they provide and check issues such as whether a commission is payable to the site owner or there is anything in the agreement that might prevent you from being able to move it. With this package, all communication with the seller is done by you. Because we are only dealing with a review of the paperwork, we will be unable to help with transferring funds for the purchase on this package.
This covers the review of the documents, as well as some basic enquiries about the site and the pitch. We will liaise with the seller or the site owner on your behalf to complete the purchase, on the assumption that you will complete any negotiations that are needed. If you need us to negotiate on your behalf, we can do this but there is an additional charge which is based on the amount of time that we spend.
These are ‘fixed fees’, which means that they are payable in advance and allow you to know what the total cost will be for the work that we agree needs to be done. Please note that any disbursements (such as fees payable to a local authority) need to be added to these figures. Generally there are none, unless you wish us to carry out a formal search or a Land Registry entry is required
We can also operate on an hourly rate, which depends on the seniority of the lawyer dealing with the work. Our rates run from £140+VAT per hour through to £270+VAT per hour. Please see our fees page for differences between the types of fees we offer, or call us to discuss.
If the home is on a lease, then our prices start at £1500+VAT plus disbursements. Depending on the nature of the lease, these disbursements will include local authority fees (around £250) and any fees charged for assigning the agreement. Stamp duty is not normally payable, but will depend on a number of factors. Please contact us for further details.