Static Caravan

[MaryQuando]

My MIL died earlier this year from Covid and my DH is going to inherit about £140,000 once probate is sorted out and MIL flat has been sold. This was a shock as she didn't want him to marry me and had always said she wouldn't be leaving him anything as she didn't want my DC to "get their hands" on any of it (I had 2 when we met and we have had 2 more together). Anyway, he wants to give all the DC £10,000 each and for us to do something joyful with the other £100,000 or whatever the final amount is (unsure of what expenses there are still to pay out of the estate, so it might end up being a bit less).

His favourite idea is to buy a static caravan in a place where we have all spent so many happy times together. One that we can use often on our own, as he is planning to take early retirement in December this year, but also one that the adult children can use alone or come and join us if they fancy a family get together, which we try and do a couple of times a year by having a family camp at our favourite site in the area he wants to buy the caravan. So all good..... BUT he wants to buy it now, which would use up all our financial reserves and leave us a bit broke until his inheritance appears. AIBU to want to wait until we actually have the money from the will in our account? The flat his mother lived in is a retirement flat in a block where there are 8 others up for sale and could therefore take ages to sell as there are always so many available in normal times, now with covid deaths, there are even more than normal.

I don't want to make an issue of it and cause any bad feeling between us, he's so happy that he can do this, and I don't want to rain on his parade, so I thought maybe the best way forward was cold hard facts. I know there are a lot of other costs apart from buying the caravan to take into account and I've heard a lot of sites impose expensive restrictions on when you can sell or when they expect you to buy a new van, so does anyone have any experience of owning a static caravan that you would be willing to share, or advice to offer?

Many thanks for reading

We had one for 5 years and loved it, but the site fees went up every year at a rate well above inflation - think 5-8%. Our site had a replacement rule of every 12 years. The caravan depreciated at a rate of about £4k a year. Site fees and bills were about £4.5k. Total cost every year was £8.5k. So you've got to use it a lot to make that worthwhile. I agree with PPs - try renting for a week on the site you like to see what it's really like.

Persuade him that the right thing to do would be nothing until the money is in his account. That can take a while so best to be prudent until then.

Static caravans are all very well and nice if on a good, well run site with decent people owning them. However you do have to justify the expense of having one by going there quite a lot or letting others use it. We bought one after my mother in law died, hardly used it, the 'garden' became wild; it caused me a lot of anxiety so we ended up selling it for less than a third of what we'd paid for it.

It works for some though.

Good luck whatever you decide - but not yet.

I inherited a bit of money from my Dad. Not a fortune but more than I will ever have at one time again.

I wanted to do something special and not fritter it away on "stuff". Like, new cars, new kitchen...... They are soon old stuff, and the money is gone.

I seriously thought about a static caravan as we had one at a beach all through my childhood and we just loved it. I lived like a beach hobo for the holidays. I wanted the same sort of thing for my kids. I really do like caravans!

However, I know well the crookery that site owners get up to, my DD was a caravaner for 40 years.

They arent cheap like the were back in the day, they cost tens of thousands thousands. But they have no inherent worth. They lose value the moment you own it. They have little second hand value without a pitch. Site owners make you upgrade when a van reaches 12 years old (they get commission from the caravan companies). You have no option but to sell your possibly immaculate van to the site owner for buttons who sells it at a profit through his contacts. There are hidden costs like the "group insurance" that never pays out. Spiralling site fees.......

So in the end I bought a little flat, on a beautiful island. It's an expensive place and our flat was the literally cheapest thing there! .
We have had it 15 years now, basic as anything and we have loved every minute of it. We also did very limited holiday lets when we weren't able to be there during school term and that covered every single cost of owning it.
Actually we loved it so much that 3 years ago we left the city and moved to the beautiful place to live . (Big risk job wise, but it's been OK, and the most brilliant life change but thats a different story)

The gist of all this is, that we had all the fun a caravan would have been. But the caravan would have cost more money than the flat over in 15 years of site fees and costs and would now be worth bugger all.
The wee flat conversely will be worth quite a lot more than it cost, so I really haven't squandered my Dad's money at all.
( We bought our full time house here by selling our city home so we still have the flat. Too fond of it to sell. It's got tenants in now.)

I wouldn’t buy anything until the money is available.

We looked into getting a static, with the cost of the static and the site fees it was essentially as costly as a second mortgage on a small property, but in 15 years rather than having a mortgage free holiday home we would have a static that needed replacing and more site fees.

We’ve bought a van instead that I’m converting into a camper, next year we are going to seriously look into buying a very small holiday home.

Second what many said previously, ongoing monthly costs, being talked into upgrading, having to sell back to the site in some cases, at a lower cost. Has anyone mentioned that some sites shut down and you can’t use from October to March?
I’d check that your husband is aware of what this retirement static will cost him annually and should you decide it’s not for you what are the implications cost wise at the worst.

Everyone who gets one thinks it is forever, but many want to sell sooner than they think and find themselves losing lots of money.

I fairness, our caravan pays for itself. We sublet for twelve weeks to cover costs as we don’t want to be there in peak school holidays anyway. Yes, it costs something in the longer term but not that much, but we’re not likely to want it much beyond twenty years so we probably wouldn’t want to replace it. It gives us and the children a bolthole for spontaneous weekends away.

We have year round access apart from during lockdown - no rentals November to March but that makes the site nicer.