I think that this bloke is trying to rip my mum off. Am about to go raggo.

[BupcakesandCunting]

My mum has a caravan on a caravan site which she is selling. The site owners have put the ground rent up from £1000 to £2900 in the last three years and since her partner passed away, my mum can't afford to pay the ground rent any longer.

She approached the site owner about selling it and he told her that he would offer her £2150 for the van if she sold it to him. He then said he would sell it on for about £4600. He said if she chose to sell it privately, he would want 15% commission of whatever she sold it for. Fair enough. This weekend, a family have offered my mum £2500 for the van. They seem really nice and genuineand they have wanted a van on this site for years so mum has agreed a sale with them.

She went to tell the site owner that she has sold up for £2500 and to ask what she must do next. The site owner then said that actually he wants 15% of the price he THINKS he can get for it (£4600) if he was going to sell it. WTF?! This can't be right as it is just speculative, surely? We also called the caravan sales place that mum bought it from in the first place to get a value and the sales guy there said she'd be lucky to get £2000 for it, so this sum of £4600 is just wishful thinking on the owner's part, surely?

Basically, the sale has to go through the office books so he can take whatever cut he wants and give my mum what's left but I think this is wrong and legally very shaky. My mum is a bit of a pushover so she has asked if I will speak to him (the owner) but I feel like I might lose my rag with him. Does anyone know whether he is right?

TIA :)

Start off by looking at the contract she signed with the site owner. Unless any of the terms are unreasonable, it will be enforceable.

She never signed a contract. That's the first thing I aksed her when this all started off...

There are lots of stories about dodgy site owners, not many of them have happy endings . Just do a google search and you'll see.

If he digs his heels in I think you will really need to see a solicitor and look at all t&cs carefully.

This might help:

www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN00988.pdf

Why should he get anything, she owns ot and rents the space off him? Disclaimer I know nothing about caravans.

He is trying it on about what he should get mind.

I agree with Coco. I know nothing of the law etc but I would think the owner's income comes from the ground rent and the actual caravan belongs to your Mum and is therefore nothing to do with him.

Like I said, I'm probably talking out of my arse but him getting any cut seems completely bizarre to me.

Most site owners write into t&cs that they get a cut of the selling price.

I think it is topped at 10% though, but that could be a voluntary code.

That's really...erm...odd.

I don't understand why he would get anything let alone 15%.

Sounds very dodgy.

Why doesn't she just sell it to the site owner for the £2,150 he offered? Sounds like a fair price, if the sales guy said she'd be lucky to get £2,000? And it's pretty much the same as the £2,500 offered by the other family less the 15% cut.

Get a free half hour from a solicitor, if nothimg in writing can 't see he can dobthis ...after all what would he do? Take he to court?

He is intimidating her ...wonder how many other elderly folk he's ripped off in the past?

Maybe yr local trading standards might
advise too or CAB?

erm, it does sound dodgy, esp if she hasn't signed a contract but: if she was prepared to give him 15% of what she sells it for, then she'd be better off selling it to him for £2150, as 15% of £2,500 is £375 - so she'd end up with £2125. She's £25 better off selling it to him for £2150, and if he can get £4k for it, well well done him. No skin of your mum's nose if he discovers that actually £2500 is closer to the actual value.

Cancel the sale to the family if he is clear his offer is still on the table, sell to him, then warn that family to avoid that caravan park.

I think now I have heard about the site owners getting a cut, fucking ridiculous

Report him to the police for fraud, for attempting to scam a vulnerable person out of what is rightfully theirs...

Thank you all for your replies :)

She has no problem with the 15% of the selling price i.e £2500 going to him, it's this extra "rule" he seems to have plucked from thin air that we're debating. We know that taking a cut of the selling price is standard.

We have discussed her selling to him instead of the family but have decided to sell to them for a few reasons...

1. The owner is greedy. He will sell the van on at a profit. Not much of a profit but even if he makes a couple of hundred quid out of it, it's sticking in my mum's craw a bit.

1. The family are lovely and it is their dream to own a van on this site, they've been looking for ages and my mum says she'd rather be £25 down and know that a nice family and their children are getting the benefit of it and ALSO...

1. The family want to buy the fridge/microwave/television etc in there for an agreed price otherwise my mum would just have to take all of the stuff out and try and get rid of it another way. Selling to the family makes more sense.

If she didnt sign a contract then there is a big fat fuck all he can do. A well worded solicitors letter would be the best place to start.

That's what I was thinking, Bogeyface. My mum reckons that on the last page of every newsletter sent out by the site owners, it stipulates this 15% of the selling fee. But there is nothing about this 15% of the "imagined market value". It all sounds very dodge...

Out of interest Bups, whereabouts in the country is the caravan? My aunt and uncle sold their recently because of rocketing site fees and the owner was pushing for far more of the sale price in commission than he was due and was being a right dick. They got legal advice and he backed right off. This was in South Wales.

Sounds like Haven, the dodgy bastards.

If she never signed a contract, she doesn't have to give him anything. Personally I'd tell him to go fuck himself, but thats just me.

He sounds a right chancing nob head.

Your mum must have some sort of contract from when she bought the caravan originally - it will be how she proves ownership. That's what she needs to check if she hasn't signed anything else - sometimes there are rights reserved to the original seller in the event of an onward sale (I am assuming your mum originally bought from the site owner). If that doesn't say anything about paying the site owner a commission, it sounds as though he's trying to pull a fast one.

If your mum came to me for her half hour I would be dictating a choicely worded letter to this grasper WRT the "imagined" value. Utter bollocks IMH(legal)O.

The 15pc may very well be right but the rest is a try on. If he attempts to pursue it ask him to put it in writing "so your solicitor can check it over". That should flush him out.

Bogey, it is on the welsh border (Monmouthshire), sounds very similar though. Caravan owners are leaving like rats from a ship at this site.

Suburban, that's what I thought and I have asked and asked again but she is adamant that she has no contract. I will quadruple check though!

Thank you for that advice, PeppermintPasty. I've told my mum to hint that she is taking legal advice, I definitely think that she needs to!

Why are they allowed to take any % from a sale? That's bonkers.

at raggo