To not expect to pay excessive amount as we're family.

[Boop1e]

In laws brought themselves a caravan on a haven site a year ago. Decided to spend some pension money on it.
the site fees have renewed and have gone up just like everything else in life.
They don't rent it out and we only use it as family.
Anyway father in law has just charged his own son £75 for 3 nights to use it. He owed me money for ordering him a new tablet and doing him a favour so took the money out of that which I couldn't afford to lose.

Before the season started he mentioned charging £25 a day but nothing else happened and no mention of it again before we went.

He's also charged brother in law £150 to use but they paid upfront.

Am i being unreasonable to feel this is a lot to charge your own children and £10 or so a day would be sufficient. I'm not convinced I spend £25 a day heating and lighting my 3 bed home. They get their passes included with the caravan for 10 people.

Husband won't challenge it because it won't make any difference.

Here's an idea, if the op isn't happy with £25a night Inc entertainment passes. They could holiday elsewhere.

I think it's reasonable to be willing to loan your caravan to family without being out of pocket.

It’s their son, daughter in law and grandkid(s)!!!

I wouldn't charge my DC but that's me. Even if most people wouldn't charge their children that wouldn't mean it's not ok for FIL to do this. Ideally he could have said again, but FIL did tell you before the season started that they were going to charge 25 a night. You should have checked beforehand. If it's too much don't use it again.

We have a haven caravan and the fees for everything has gone up. Not just ground rent, but has cannisters have more than doubled, cleaning services both provided by site and by private company, ground rent, and all the other small bits and pieces you don't think about.

We also primarily use it for family and therefore don't let it out, however because of the increase in fees our choices are start charging family, or sell up.

To boot the quality of service at haven sites has not improved. The entertainment is still crap, the restaurant quality of food and customer service is actually getting worse, and the motivation to keep the van is dwindling, therefore, for us to keep it there needs to be an incentive, and a small financial incentive, which wouldn't be a profit but just a contribution to costs is the only thing stopping us selling.

I don't blame your family for charging.

I have paid £1650 for a Haven van during school holidays, they’re not cheap

Go to another Haven site and pay more than quadruple what they asked - that'll... teach them?! Yeah. 🤔
Those are your options really, accept a much lower rate and drop the entitlement, stay at home, or pay a lot more holidaying elsewhere. Whether they need the money or not, you aren't entitled to use their caravan for free and they've made it clear that they expect payment. It is what it is.

That's so cheap, I can't believe you're complaining about it.

@Boop1e you said "voluntary contribution that's appreciated is better.". You've used the caravan twice previously. What did you offer to pay then? I'm guessing nothing? Sounds like you've left them with no choice but to set a reasonable amount per day. As someone said above a consistent amount will stop any bickering about why someone paid more than someone else.

I wouldn't charge my dc personally but I wouldn't buy one in the first place. Unbelievable that Haven and the like sell them as 'investments.'

How are they finically? We use my parents and in-laws holiday home and don't pay but they are finically comfortable and in-laws are loaded. I always offer to pay whatever it costs them but they always decline (although my dad would happily accept). £25 per night is still very reasonable.

We have a caravan. No one stays there except me really but if they, no I wouldn’t charge.

So. He can charge for it if he wants. Duh. You don't have to stay there. That has been established.

But I'd question why he is doing it, if they weren't renting it anyway they aren't losing money by letting you use it. I guess they don't need the money else they wouldn't be out buying caravans. Maybe just trying to make a point? What point exactly I don't know, "things don't come for free" is a bit petty but might be what they want to say. Like, teaching the value of money is what you do to child kids not adult kids so it seems a bit heavy handed. But maybe that's what they want. Maybe they're worried about being taken advantage of (which might be a real risk idk) but in trying to defend themselves they're just coming across stingey.

I don't think they should have set off actual money that you had spent on something for them against money they had basically already spent and wasn't owed to them in the first place. Did your DH agree that was okay?

It does seem a bit petty and odd but it is still a good deal, if you can put up with the family over it. Not sure if there's more going on here. Sometimes stuff that is free or cheap but optional turns out not worth the hassle.

How would they not lose the money for energy that's been used or wear and tear?

Sounds OK to me

I was gobsmacked by how expensive caravans are.

My friend bought one for £150k at a park on the south coast. I can't remember the exact length of the lease (something 15-20 years) but it reverts to the park owner at the end of the lease.

So that's an annual depreciation cost of £7,500-£10,000. Annual site fees were £10,000 so the yearly cost was about £20,000. (They chose not to rent it out).

They wanted to sell but it wasn't easy to sell to an individual rather than the park owner who made a lowball offer. Think they ended up getting something like £50k back after 5 years in.

In the end, that 5 years cost £100k in the drop in value and £50k in site fees, so £30,000 per year (excluding maintenance). That buys a lot of nice holidays elsewhere which is the conclusion they came to.

It sounds like the fee your FIL is charging is just enough to cover costs.
Site fees, insurance , gas, electric water, boiler servicing, safety checks, maintenance, depreciation, cleaning.
Are you taking your own bed linen.
Pay or holiday elsewhere. It really is a fair price .

Where else do you think you’d be able to stay for £25 a night? Maybe a homestay in SE Asia, but then there’s the flights. Before we could fly due to COVID we often stayed at a B&B for £100 a night, there was nothing cheaper. I checked out the caravans too & it was the same price.

Yup the bottled gas and the electric are totally free. Doesn't cost a penny to heat the caravan, heat the water or use the fridge, freezer or cooker. Duh!
And as previously explained if you'd bothered to read the earlier posts these caravan parks supply the gas and electricity at a higher cost of usage than domestic costs. That's because they are a business and don't have the domestic cap on energy so it costs the van owners a small fortune in energy costs. So the in laws have to pay for the energy. Still think the OP should pay nothing?

YABVU

I would love to have the option of taking DC somewhere like that for £25/night! I would want to cover costs in any case and that is so cheap for a while family with access to all facilities too!

Well I still think they don't have to charge, or should sell the caravan if they can't afford it, and I have a caravan and pay the bills.

Compared to the overall costs, if you can't afford the small amount used from the gas bottle, you can't afford your caravan.

Some of you are really overpaying on your Haven holidays btw!

haven.com/offers/best-value?utm_source=GOOGLE&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Generic_Sun+Newspaper_Exact&utm_term=sun+9.50+holidays&utm_content=sun+9.50+holidays&utm_id=p68255215733&ds_rl=1295895&ds_rl=1295895&gclid=CjwKCAjwrdmhBhBBEiwA4Hx5g32JBLXwF40

But aren’t those offers outside school holiday times?

@ArcticSkewer you do realise that responsible parents don't take their children out of school for Haven holidays?

🙄