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?

Legal advice is sensible. Be aware that if you ever need care in a home, you may not be able to leave an inheritance to your children. Passing them your house or money before you die could result in 'deprivation of assets' and the council can take back any money or property you've given your children.

Hi OP,
I just wanted to point out some possible downsides to putting the house into your kids names. Food for thought really.

If your kids don't yet own homes they would lose first time buyer perks and have to pay an extra 3% on their stamp duty when they buy as they already own property.

For any of these reasons the house may need to be sold to release their money (obviously resulting in your ex not having a home):
Kid goes bankrupt
Kid gets divorced (their chunk of your house is counted in the pot of assets thar are divided up)
Kid dies and their estate needs to be sorted
Kid is out of work/ill/unable to work and can't claim benefits as they own property that they don't live in
Kid simply feels they want their money out of the house.

Your kids will owe capital gains tax from value when given the house to value when sold. E.g. If they are given a 100k share that grows to 200k by the time it's sold they owe capital gains tax on the 100k gain less their annual exemption which as you have seen in the recent budget is falling from 12 odd k to 3k ish.

If your ex gives the kids the house but continues to live there without paying the market rent the house is treated as not truly given away for deprivation of assets and can be used for care costs. Ex moving out or paying market rent avoids this issue.

I think it's probably best to put the house as "tenants in common" and will your half to your kids. You can give your ex a lifetime right to reside if you want. You can't control who he leaves his half to.

I have heard a lot of park home horror stories. I expect you could buy a small house somewhere for the cost of a park home.

Also I think you really need some legal advice.

Thanks for all the advice it's really appreciated.

Lots to look into .

There are residential parks this is a large operator close to us, but the prices are not cheap

www.allenscaravans.co.uk/residential-parks/wootton-hall/

I don't know your budget but I know someone who lives here.
It's a nice market town about 20 minutes from a city. Lovely parks and nature reserve nearby. No idea what they cost or what the fees are.

My parents used to spend their retirement caravanning. When my father died and mum was too old to travel she yearned to live in a park home!

Is spending £165k on a property on which the OP will have to pay high site fees, and which won't give her much security in the long run really worth it? In the nearby village she could buy this:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126345140#/?channel=RES_BUY

At least she could sell it for £100k+ in five or ten or 20 years' time.

Hi just came across this post and wondering what you did, so many uneducated people commenting, who have no idea how residential park homes work, I Hope you found somewhere as its an amazing life , if your still looking, just makesure the park is fully residential you can also gift your home to your kids,and just to inform others, you should not need to replace your home, unless you buy a really old one that's falling apart

I'm not uneducated, I actually work in a field which means I know an awful lot about the law and management of park homes.

I wouldnt choose one unless I had no other options. And even then I'd check again to see if I really had no other options

I realise this is an old thread, and I hope the op is sorted now but I really wanted to put my experience out there! I would avoid park homes for many of the reasons stated above, and I would particularly avoid tingdene.

I very nearly bought one earlier this year. I put down a £1k reservation fee and a 10% deposit. Then one of my adult dc became critically ill and returned home to live with me - this meant a park home (or "lodge" as they were called on this particular development) would not work for us.

Coincidentally, 2 days before he came home, I'd been wandering round the development again and got chatting to 2 residents. They told me to be sure when I got round to insurance that I told the house insurance company I was an owner and not a resident because, strictly speaking, there were 2 weeks a year we were not meant to live there. This upset me hugely as, before even viewing, I'd asked the question about were these permanent homes. I'd asked it several times and had been categorically told, in writing, that they were.

Long story short - when I said I had to pull out for the above 2 reasons, tingdene refused to return my £50k deposit, despite having done nothing preparatory to installing a lodge for me. I had to get lawyers involved and fortunately got the £50k back very easily once I had the law fighting my corner. But it was a costly mistake what with losing the £1k reservation fee and legal fees.

They didn't fight their corner at all once I got lawyers involved which tells me that they were just chancing their arm. I know I shouldn't have been surprised that a commercial company were out to make a profit, but I had become friendly with the sales staff over the months - or so I thought - and they knew that I was recently widowed with a son who was ill. And who became critically ill.

I'm so sorry you had that experience @Cliffest . It must have been horribly stressful (and I am sorry about your child as well I hope they are doing ok)

Thank you for your lovely message @SweetSakura, that's so kind of you

@user58202018484482910ugog19293843910 she's not buying a holiday unit a park home is very different.

Only got to read the Trustpilot reviews for Tingdene, shocking.

Tingdene are ruthless, they have no qualms about turfing people out and ripping them off.

I just realised that the OP is only 51 at the start of this thread (52 now, I guess). I dont understand why she is talking about herself as if she is 70/80? OP you could meet someone and have a new relationship, also it amy be a littl dull for you in a retirement complex as the rest of the people will be so much older.

My mum is in a park home community in Sussex. It's quite large (maybe 200 homes??). It's all very well maintained, there's a small shop, post office, pub and hall that's used for loads of societies, as well as tennis and bowling facilities. It's rural but got a bus that stops outside. As it's all maintained well there are restrictions on things like when to have your washing out and it can be a bit 'nosing behind the net curtains'. But there is a genuine sense of community - everyone knows each other - which I think is so healthy when you're older and on your own and it gets more difficult to get out and about.

In terms of finances etc, the homes go between £100k and £300K. There's always a bunch for sale on rightmove (not to be gallish but you'd expect a relatively high turnover as people move in late in life) so supply is not an issue but retaining equity is as the park is insistent on building its own new homes all the time, which if pitched just above the older homes are obviously more attractive. As you say, equity isn't an issue so that's fine.

In terms of build quality etc - the more modern ones are excellently built - better insulated than my house. They're on stilts but honestly think they'll last 50 years+, more with maintenance.

The horror story I'm aware of is around having to continue to pay (very high) site fees until a site is sold, and given they can be slow to sell when older, this leaves your bereaved with heavy costs that they might not get back on the sale of the property. So that's the bit to really look into from my perspective - if you keep an eye for months on a particular site on Rightmove you'll get a sense of how quickly/slowly things are moving.

I think it sounds a great idea xx

You need to be very careful. Some sites are well run, others are not. And a good site can be bought out by a dodgy new owner. I'd only consider one as an absolute last resort.