Park home for permanent residence

[stillvicarinatutu]

In 9 years I will retire at 60 - compulsory.

I will receive a limited pension.

I'm currently renting and that will not be sustainable after retirement. But my lump sum could buy outright a park home .

Can this be done ? Can a park home be bought to live in full time ?

I'm now in process of divorce, but I want the marital home to go to the kids and I don't want to turf my soon to be ex dh of 31 years out of the house - he will not get a new mortgage.
I'm taking legal advice in the whole financial situation but if I do try and take my equity I think it would render my ex homeless and I aren't willing to do that.

A park home seems like a solution and I could live anywhere- I'd be rent and mortgage free , is this possible?
I've seen some beautiful park homes but many aren't year round living . Does year round living in a park home exist?
I could move anywhere. Preferably somewhere beautiful. Lakes? Cumbria? Devon?

Some years ago I had a very brief relationship with a man who made millions, literally millions, out of park homes. He would buy up sites, put the pitch fees up, insist, as he was entitled to do under the legislation, on the removal of what he called 'old nails' and where possible make a handsome profit selling new homes to people who could afford to buy and stay on the site. Those who could not were effectively made homeless. The other issue was elderly people who were really not well enough to live alone. They were removed on a pretext.

Bottom line is that you are at the mercy of the park owner and your home is a depreciating asset.

OP, please get some proper legal advice before you even think about going ahead with this plan.

It's possible but not necessarily advisable because, like a car, it's a diminishing asset rather than something that will grow in value. You buy the park home but you have to rent the pitch from the site. I have a relative who did what you're contemplating and regrets it. He has to pay site fees as well as council tax. He's on a nice site and apparently it costs him £6k pa just for site fees. That includes his water, but it's still very high. The nicer the site, the better the views, the more you pay. The site owner supplies the gas and electricity and they're more expensive than other suppliers. You're not allowed to bring your own gas cylinders onto site.

My relative bought an eight-year-old park home and spent money doing it up, but despite what everyone says they are really just insulated tin sheds. I've helped my relative replace the floor of his home where there'd been a small leak from behind the bathroom basin that had rotted the wood and I was shocked at how basic and how lacking insulation the structure was.

On some sites, when your park home gets to 20 or 25 years old they expect you to replace it, through the site owner, with a new one. If you break the rules or have a falling out with the site owner you can be thrown off and you may have to take the park home with you, to another site. Moving them costs thousands.

My relative says it's the worst financial decision he ever made. He bought the park home six years ago for £108k, spent another £10k improving it and creating a nice seating around outside.Now it's 14 years old it might sell for around £75k — and it has to be sold through the site owner who gets a cut of that. Something like 5% if I remember correctly. My relative also hates the fact that everyone knows his business. The site owner patrols several times a day and wants to know what everyone's up to. It's a quiet site, so every time a vehicle comes in or leaves people tend to clock it. That's the downside. Take lots of advice and read the small print of the contracts very carefully before you commit.

In your shoes I would look for a flat to buy. You're more secure with bricks and mortar. Even if you're compulsorily retired from your work (didn't think you could be compulsorily retired any more) at 60, you'll still have another 7 years to work till your state pension kicks in. So it might be worthwhile investigating a 15-year mortgage. That would improve your choice and perhaps allow you to buy a property that will appreciate over time, giving you more options at 67. At 51, blowing all your money from the marital property on a park home may mean you're effectively homeless in your early 70s, when the park home is falling to bits and you'll have a bill to remove it from the site.

Madness to intentionally deprive yourself of your share of the martial assets. Madness to consider buying a glorified caravan over a proper property. Madness to think this plan will mean the house goes to your kids- ex can marry again and it’ll all go to her. Or need care and it’ll all go to that. Get some decent legal advice!!

Thanks- it really seems this would suit us all.

Dh cannot marry as we are separated but not divorced yet .

He wants the house to go
To the kids as much as me .

I've given him a piece of my mind as I truly sick of being painted the villain in this picture . We need to look at this sensibly.

There would not be enough equity now to fund 2 flats .

The mortgage is paid off in 5 years.

He is quite simplistic in his views - and buries his head in the sand . He thinks it's easy - he stays there and I carry in as I am . Well I ive told him I cannot do that . He appears now to simply be ignoring me . But it's fine . If necessary we can do this via solicitors .
I have paid the majority of debts - his and mine to the tune of around 50k .
This ends very soon , and he will continue to pay the mortgage.

I think it's a case of I'm alright jack thanks so screw me- and everyone blames me for leaving.
The kids say they dont want to be involved so that's fine . I've told dh he's bloody lucky that I being as reasonable as I am and we now need to sort it out . That's one reason I left - he's got no motivation to change anything ever . Leaves everything to me and always has . I have absolutely no desire to screw him over , I just want us both to be comfortable in old age .

I will be taking legal advice,

I think taking good legal advice is very sensible and the right way forward.

If you divorced and reached a fair settlement you wouldn't be screwing him over though? Did you stay at home bringing up children? You paid off his debts from your salary? If you sold the house and cleared the mortgage would there be enough money for you to have a large deposit and take a small mortgage or loan?

You’re not divorced yet but when you are, he could still remarry.
So you definitely need to make sure that the house is at least 50% in the children’s names.
Tenants in common, that’s how my husband and I own our house. When I die my half goes to my children.
Otherwise should he remarry the house would go to her if he died and any children she might have.
Then your children would loose their inheritance.
It happened to my nephews when their Dad remarried and had another child.
They didn’t receive a penny when he died of a brain tumour, he hadn’t made a will,
everything went to his wife and their half sister.

Dh is 56 and the woman he is seeing is also 56 so there will won't be more
Children plus he had the snip .

It's a fairly casual arrangement from what I can tell but he also has said he isnt wanting to remarry.

I've said when we sorting everything we need new wills .

We've been separated 8 years and he's never done anything about it - it will be up to me . We jointly own the house .

Part of the reason we split is he left everything to me - it started to drive me mad . This will be the last time I sort anything out but if don't, it won't get done .

Whether he's 26 56 or 86 - if you let him have the house you won't be able to control what he does with it. He could leave it all to the dogs home . If he wanted.

So he is 'poor old Dad' whilst you are the difficult interfering mum. Well I'd have no time for that - I'd wait until he was out of the house and move in and get the locks changed. Force him to make some changes.
And if the DCs have that attitude - that you are the difiicult one I can't see them rushing to help you once he has rewritten his will in favour of his partner and your park home need expensive repairs.

Yes , there is a place near me where people live in them but they are hundreds of thousands ! Like £350k! Not sure about the haven ones as they are heavily discounted as you let them back out to make money etc

@stillvicarinatutu
You say ".......... he isn't wanting to remarry."
He might change his mind.
His new partner might really want to marry him and have a nice house to live in.

I'm glad you have decided go get legal advice.

I hope you are feeling much better.

I 'know' you from when it was all fields around here and I'm not surprised your putting yourself last.

Park homes can be lovely but most have a covenant that you can only live there for 11 months of the year so watch out for that.

I would pick Devon, cornwall or North Norfolk.

I would say the first thing you need to do is change the marital home from being “joint tenants” to “tenants in common”. Then make a will leaving your half to your children. Then whether he remarries etc that half is protected. This can be done without your husband’s agreement and the first he will know about it is when he gets notification from the Land Registry.

Then go and look at some park homes. My cousin lives in one and it’s lovely, but the site closes for 6 weeks in the winter. One near me is more residential, but still closes for 2 weeks. I do know of someone who bought one in panic after being widowed (and discovering their gilded lifestyle was built on huge debts), didn’t do her homework and found it closed for 6 weeks etc, plus lots of other unexpected costs.

The first few months of any break-up are incredibly difficult and I certainly wasn’t thinking straight to begin with (and I was also horribly mean and nasty to poor darling daddykins). Take legal advice and some breathing space and things will look clearer. But I could happily live in a park home so don’t dismiss it altogether, but do do your homework very thoroughly.

The Maguires Country Parks residential ones are lovely.

I lived in a residential mobile home when I first married. It was beautiful, all new with nothing to buy or decorate. However it was very cold in the winter, despite central heating and unbearable during hot weather.
We paid for electricity and ground rent to site owner. We decided it wasn't for us after a few years and decided to sell up and buy a house. We were very young and green and hadn't realised we would have to pay the site owner 20% of whatever we sold it for! We were very upset as it was a considerable sum and would have helped us so much with our house purchase. Hopefully the law has changed but make sure you check any contracts etc, very carefully.

Sounds like you are trying to leave without guilt. Why do you need to feel guilty? You need to maintain your interest and share in the house. Your ex could remarry and the house would not go to your children or he could need care and it would be lost that way. What if you need care? What money would you use? If you want to help your ex that's fine but not by disadvantaging yourself to such a degree.

Are you over 55? What about something like this? No rent on shared ownership portion, very local to all amenities but a bit more permanent structure than a park home. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/85895049#/?channel=RES_BUY (picked random area but am sure they exist at this sort of price in many areas of the country.

@stillvicarinatutu some people are getting confused with park homes and holiday homes. Different rules apply and Park homes tend to be built to last a lot longer than holiday static caravans.

It’s worth getting in touch with these people for advice. There are various issues that come with living in a park home. This will help with your research www.naphr.co.uk

But the DC are - as the OP said she’s completely alone and had no help when she was ill recently.

Park homes often require site fees.
They are freezing in winter and park may close for so many weeks a year.
Sites limit how old homes can be and issue contracts forcing you to either move or replace you home after so many years.

My relatives bought a park home for retirement. Lasted 5 years before getting an oap council flat.

I have read the whole post and can sort of understand your thinking. I don't agree with it but there you go.
Just be aware that site fees for a park home, especially a nice one on a good site can be as much as it would cost you to rent a flat or small terraced house in many areas.
If it was me, I would use the lump sum to buy a small house, either to live in or rent out and live somewhere nicer.

Park homes are often 50+ and strict rules, they are not cheap and suit couples with no children to consider, same with retirement apartments strict rules and you loose a lot of money when you leave.

There are problems with your plan. You need proper legal advice.

If you transfer the house into dc names you will be liable for Capital Gains Tax. It could still be viewed as deprivation of assets if you/exdh later needed care.

Exdh could stop paying the mortgage, you would still be liable.

If you or exdh needed care the house would be used for this if still in both names.

Exdh could change his will to leave his half of the house to his gf. Or you die first and the house goes to him, he then leaves it all to his gf.

It would be safer to divorce and work out a financial settlement that have you both a clean break. All assets considered - equity, savings, pensions.

I think what @Molecule has written is very sensible OP. At least sort that out, so that your half of the house can be inherited by your DC.