AIBU to be annoyed my caravan site has banned electric car charging with no warning?

My parents own a static & I believe that many sites are beginning to have issues due to the number of EV's that now want to charge on site. Their grid, essentially isn't set up for the continuous pull of electric & can cause outages. Insurance companies are also putting more restriction due to the fire risk. Aside from this, the fire services are probably not happy with the risk involved as fire spreads so rapidly through caravans. Many sites are also in areas served by reserve fire services so harder to respond quickly.

One of my parents caravan neighbours had their van go up when they were home & it was destroyed in minutes. Luckily there were enough people on-site to help prevent spread & they were in an area with a full fire service and a station a couple of miles away.

there's some dodgy info on here - of course you can charge a car from a normal power socket! It's called a trickle or granny charge when you use the AC from your house. We just use a regular power point at home, with equipment that came with the car, provided by the car company.
Regarding the caravan park, it could be their insurance doesn't cover it, or the power grid is not set up for it, or as other PP have said it could be other users stealing electricity from other people's sites.
You may have to use a charging station if they hold fast to their policy, but it could be worth an email to ask them the reasons around the change.

Ask him for more information….it might be that someone was using substandard equipment that could likely have caused a fire…….and no one wants that on a caravan park do they?

I second joining Holiday Park Action Group on FB.

There doesn’t have to be a reason why - although in this case, if people have been charging their cars from others caravans (how?) then it does make sense. As a previous caravan owner, I also wouldn’t appreciate guests tripling my electric bills by charging their cars. I wouldn’t pay for their petrol would I?

I very much doubt the op had had one installed either but that would be the only circumstances that it would be unreasonable.

Or they’ve had their annual safety check by the fire brigade who saw some idiot charging their car that on a standard sockets. They probably been told that unless this practice is stopped they won’t get their safety certificate and won’t be insured!

Really? I highly doubt OP has a properly installed charging point otherwise she would have said I went to the expense of installing an EV charger and now I can’t use it! Like the other idiots she was probably plugging it in to a standard socket!

They don’t have to supply a charging point! The likely scenario is that there is potential for a fire if charging from a standard socket. If EV’s could be charged using standard sockets then people wouldn’t be paying large sums to have charging points installed. Park owners are entitled to change terms and conditions at any time if there is a health and safety risk. The park has no doubt had its annual safety check by the fire brigade and they’ve picked up on this and the park won’t get the safety certification for its insurance unless this is rectified.

Their site, their rules

If you check your contract you might probably find that they can change the rules at any time. If your solicitor did not point that out to you then you might have a case against the solicitor. If you did not have a solicitor to check the contract then I suggest you read your contract carefully and see if there is anything else that you did not know beforehand.

I suspect that a lot more people are charging their electric cars next to the caravans and they need to uprate the supply.

It’s a safety thing as any idiot knows plugging a car into a caravan electrics is mental!

Probably would overload the electricity if everyone done it, they need to put public chargers on site for people to use

If it’s a properly installed car charger then they are being unreasonable.
If they don’t want you using a granny charger from your caravan then they are being reasonable in my mind.

I am wondering if there has been a fire at another caravan park and as a result their insurance has gone up a lot. I expect this means their trade association or such like are advising sites to bring in such rules.

OP I would do as other have suggested and try a face to face.

sadly, however, if you look at holiday park action group on Facebook you will learn these places basically do what they want and there are no rules.

Is it in the contract?

Ours has just got some chargers in the car park. If yours is a site used for holidays and rented out to the public, can you ask if they might get some of the proper chargers for the car park?

Most of the campsites I've been on recently - some with statics on as well as tourers - have this rule. Some of the bigger sites had separate electric car chargers.

I think it’s important to understand how you’re charging it. Fair enough not to be allowed to just plug it in as you would a toaster. Did you have a proper charger installed?

I would have thought that whoever said you could charge it there were wrong.

Charging from a domestic supply should only be emergency/occasional shouldn't it?

How do you charge at home?

Caravan sites can basically change the rules as they see fit. There are many people whose contracts are not worth the paper they’re written on but they’re so excited when they buy they don’t read them properly! As others have said it will be down to health and safety as caravans have very low voltage supplies so really aren’t safe for charging EV’s or running normal ovens! Our site in France does not allow EV charging but they have installed EV chargers. Likewise we now have to pay for electric and water which was previously included in our ground rent.

Did you ask, and get your answer about charging your car, via email OP, or was it face to face? If by email, then you have proof of what was said, and have a far better case than if you just had a conversation, as then it's a case of, 'he said, she said'.

If you have it in writing, send the site management an email, referring to the email you already have, confirming they said it was OK, and point out your difficulties of charging elsewhere with your children onboard, and say that while obviously if it's a case of 'Health & Safety', you understand, but they do need to provide another suitable charging point. If they won't do that, and you have the previous agreement in writing, then they have broken the contract you have with them, and you would be able to take legal action, or alternatively negotiate selling the caravan, with THEM paying any fees.

However, if it was only ever a spoken agreement, and the person you spoke to is still there, then I would try and speak to them about it, but whatever you do, at least start off by being completely reasonable, not by issuing threats, as that will just get their backs up, and make it far less likely that you will get what you want.

But it also has to be safe. I just don't understand why posters cant see this new rule is not to prevent people having nice or convenient things. Its about stopping caravans going up in smoke.

All issues around charging are about to get more contentious I suspect.

At least with petrol price differentials don't tend to be huge (may be a bit different if you're in a rural area) and then it comes down to usage.

But the difference between what people with driveways will pay and those forced to rely on commercial outlets is huge!

If the government really wants people to go electric there's going to have to be provisions made to make this more equitable.

This is an annoying change, and presumably the management has taken this step because the current situation has become untenable for them. They wouldn't do it otherwise. Other posters have suggested the many ways in which people might have exploited the situation, demonstrating once again why we can't have nice things.