Mobile Homes Act 2013: Site Licences

Monday 7 April 2014

On 1 April 2014 further sections of the hotly debated Mobile Homes Act 2013 came into force. 1 April 2014 also marked the end of the Government’s ‘mirco business moratorium’ during which the Government sought to reduce the burden that new legislation can impose on businesses. Unfortunately for the residential parks sector the end of that moratorium signals the commencement of Sections 1 – 7 of the Act (in connection with site licensing) and Sections 13 and 14 of the Act (in connection with offences).

Site licensing

The Government states that the purpose behind sections 1 to 7 of the Act is to ‘raise standards in the industry and deliver a more professional service to home owners’.

Previously a local authority was not permitted to charge a fee for issuing a site licence and the Government concluded that this lead to ‘under resourcing’ from local authorities in this area. Section 1 of the Act now allows local authorities to charge a fee for issuing a site licence and it also allows local authorities to charge annual site licence fees for monitoring site licences.

The Act does not outline the fee to be charged and instead leaves that as a matter to be determined by individual local authorities. The Government has published guidance assisting local authorities on how to set site licence fees.

Many site owners will be interested to know that they are permitted to pass on the annual site licence fee in their pitch fee reviews on the basis that the charge is passed on in the first year that the site licence fee becomes payable (i.e. between 2 April 2014 to 1 April 2015).

Section 2 of the Act also provides local authorities with discretion to grant or transfer a site licence. The Mobile Homes (Site Licensing) (England) Regulations 2014 set out the matters a local authority is to have regard to when considering whether or not to grant a site licence. A refused application must be accompanied by reasons and there is a right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).

Offences

Section 13 of the Act increases the penalties for the offence of operating a caravan park without a site licence and obstructing a person exercising a power of entry. Whereas section 14 of the Act provides that where an offence is committed by a company an officer of that company (such as a Director) may be found guilty of the offence too.