Can you stay in a park home all year? Consent, explained
Two parks can look identical and offer completely different things, because the difference is written on a planning consent rather than on the building.
· 5 minute read
The short answer
If a park holds twelve-month holiday consent, you can book a stay in any week of the year, including Christmas and February. What twelve-month consent does not do is let a holiday home be your only or main residence: for that the park needs residential consent and the home needs a Mobile Homes Act agreement rather than a holiday licence. All three parks taking bookings here hold twelve-month holiday consent.
What is a seasonal park, and how would I know?
A seasonal park holds consent for part of the year, typically March to October or February to early January, and must close for the rest. The gates shut, the water is drained down, and nobody stays.
It is not advertised. You find it by trying to book a date in December and being told nothing is available, which looks like a full park rather than a closed one.
The honest test is to ask the park for the consent period in writing. A park that holds twelve months says so in one line.
If the park is open all year, is everything open all year?
No, and this is where most of the disappointment lives. Consent covers the park, not the swimming pool. Outdoor pools, pizza ovens, entertainment programmes and water sports are seasonal on most parks, including these.
Each park page states which facilities are seasonal and the months they run, rather than listing everything as though it were available in January. The pizza oven at Marwell runs May to September. The hot tub on your own deck runs all year.
Why can I not live in a holiday home full time?
Because the planning consent for the land says it is for holiday use, and councils enforce it. The usual condition is that occupiers must have a main residence elsewhere, and parks are required to keep a register showing that.
This is not a park being awkward. A park that lets a holiday home become somebody's only address risks its licence, and everybody else on the park loses a holiday home with it.
What if I do want to live on a park?
Then the park needs residential consent and you want a Mobile Homes Act agreement, which is a stronger thing than a holiday licence: the right to keep the home on the plot indefinitely, an annual pitch fee review with notice and a right to challenge it, and the right to sell the home on the park with the commission capped at ten per cent.
That is buying rather than renting. Homes UK sells residential park homes on its own parks, and which parks have them for sale changes as plots are released, so the sales site is the only honest answer to where. It is a different transaction from a holiday let and worth reading about separately.
Is a winter stay actually worth it?
In a BS3632 home, yes, and the rates are the lowest of the year. Single-storey, heavily insulated, gas central heating, and a hot tub two steps from the French doors.
The practical caution is daylight and weather rather than the home. Exmoor in December is dark by four and the coast path is slippery. Derbyshire in snow is better from inside than on it.
Questions people ask
Can I book a park home at Christmas?
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Yes, on all three trading parks. Christmas and New Year carry a longer minimum stay, which the calendar applies rather than telling you after you have chosen the dates.
Is there a limit on how long one stay can be?
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A holiday licence sets a maximum continuous stay, usually twenty-eight days, with a break before the next one. If you want longer, telephone the park and ask rather than booking two stays back to back.
Does twelve-month consent mean I can get post delivered?
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A holiday home is not a residential address and should not be used as one. The park will take a parcel at reception during a stay.
Are the parks staffed in winter?
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Yes. Reception hours are shorter and the arrival process is a door code rather than a key handover, which works the same at any hour and in any month.