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We watched the item about pitch fees on catch up last night – there’s been an extensive amount of discussion about this across social media.
Simon Calder gave a very definitive opinion about something that is, in our opinion, far from definitive. He's not considered the contractual implications for people.
He’s taken the CMA’s guidance and set it against the caravan park industry as if you’re paying for a service that the park cannot provide.
Many park owners have said that the pitch fee is for the provision of the pitch.
The contract may be specific about other areas of service provision, that have been affected.
However, you may not have a contract.
There’s many sides to this issue and, in our opinion, you can’t just make broad statements like that regarding pitch fees. It’s irresponsible and may see some people evicted from their pitches losing thousands of pounds. I’m sure that Mr Calder won’t be around to assist with that?
We’re taking guidance from our advisors.
We’re in discussion with BH&HPA and NCC.
Our advice is to speak to your park owner before you do anything.
If you can’t make any progress, proceed with caution. We whole heartedly believe that consumers should be treated fairly and pro-rata refunds taking into account the park’s running costs is the fairest way to deal with this. We’ve already seen this approach taken by many, many park owners across the UK.
If your park owner won’t engage in constructive discussion, or has flat refused to entertain any form of recompense or gesture of goodwill it seems very unlikely that they’ll just accept you not paying their pitch fees.
Watch this space…
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Published on 05 May 2020 By Dan Ellacott
