“…as long as you have full NACO membership, our advice team is available to you ”
We thought it would be a good idea to introduce a round-up of enquiries that have come into our office seeking assistance from our advice team…
There is undoubtedly a groundswell of interest in the static holiday caravan sector engendered by the high-profile Holiday Park Action Group campaign, which has provoked a BBC investigation as part of their Scams & Scandals series. While these grab headlines, NACO continues to provide a one-to-one advice service based on decades of industry experience, assisting members in resolving disputes at their park, or simply explaining the situation that the caravan or lodge owner finds themselves in. The ideal outcome being to prevent a dispute arising in the first place.
Over the years that we have supported static holiday caravan owners, we have striven to use the voice of reason that we have consistently applied to enable us to adopt a mediating role when things go wrong. Of course, this isn’t always possible, but there is an informal coterie of park operators who, to their credit, recognise that if we alert them to a potential problem, then it’s probably worth them investigating and nipping it in the bud.
So, what’s been going on?
The beginning of this year saw us picking up from 2024, dealing with the impact of the fallout from the failure of 29 Royale Life holiday parks, run by the Royale Parks company. Obviously, the collapse of an operator with a portfolio of that size sends shockwaves through the owners of customers on those parks. Faced with this kind of situation, customers react in a variety of ways, based on personal circumstances, so our advice is tailored to the individual NACO member.
Lifestyle Luxury Lodges Limited was another firm which got into financial difficulty and went into administration. Again, different scenarios played out at each of the nine affected parks. We managed to intervene successfully at one park, keeping the existing agreements in place, but things became more difficult after that. These high-stakes occurrences are rare, however, and the bread-and-butter enquiries to our advice team mainly concern pitch fee increases, water/sewerage services & “local authority rates,” and members looking to sell their caravan or lodge.
There has recently been a spate of enquiries (possibly prompted by the BBC investigation) in which our member is aggrieved at the amount their park has achieved from the sale of their unit when the park purchased it from them for a fraction of that figure. It’s emotive and galling, but ultimately, once the park has bought the caravan or lodge, they can do what they like with it.
