Park home or static caravan? The difference, in plain English
The two words are used interchangeably on holiday park websites, and they describe two different buildings at two different standards. One is warm in February.
· 6 minute read
The short answer
A park home is built to BS3632, the British Standard for residential park homes: full insulation, mains gas or electric central heating, mains water and drainage, and a structure certified for year-round occupation. A static caravan is built to BS EN 1647, the holiday-use standard, with thinner insulation and no requirement to be habitable in winter. Both look similar from the outside. In January the difference is about ten degrees.
What does BS3632 actually require?
Insulation values close to those of a modern house, double glazing throughout, a heating system sized for the volume of the building, and a structure and chassis certified to carry it for decades rather than seasons. A home built to it holds a ten-year structural warranty from the manufacturer.
The standard was tightened in 2015 and again since, so the year of manufacture matters as much as the label. Every home on these parks was built after the current revision.
BS EN 1647, the caravan holiday home standard, assumes seasonal use. It is a perfectly honest standard for what it covers. It simply does not promise that the building is comfortable, or cheap to heat, in a cold week.
How can I tell which one I am being offered?
Ask the park for the standard and the year. A park that lets homes built to BS3632 will tell you immediately, because it is the thing they paid for. A park that answers vaguely is answering.
Two other tells. Radiators on the walls, plumbed to a boiler, rather than blown-air vents in the floor. And a mains gas or oil supply rather than bottled gas at the end of the plot.
Size is not a tell. A large static caravan can be bigger than a small park home and still be built to the holiday standard.
Does it change what the stay costs to heat?
It changes what it costs somebody, and on a holiday let that somebody is the park. Heating is included in the nightly rate on every home we let, metered or not, so a badly insulated building is the park's problem rather than yours.
It still changes the stay. A building that loses heat is draughty at floor level and cold in the bedroom furthest from the heating, whatever the thermostat in the hall claims.
Is a lodge a third thing?
"Lodge" is a marketing word rather than a standard. It usually means a larger twin-unit building with a pitched roof and more glazing, and it can be built to either standard. Ask which.
The word that carries legal weight is not lodge but consent: whether the park holds twelve-month consent, and whether the agreement is a holiday licence or a Mobile Homes Act agreement. That is a different question from how the building is made, and it is covered in the guide on staying all year.
Which do we let?
Only homes built to BS3632, on parks holding twelve-month consent. That is the whole fleet, at Marwell Court in Hampshire, Mill Park in Devon and Beechwood Park in Derbyshire.
It is also why the winter rates are not an attempt to shift stock nobody wants. A November week in a well-insulated single-storey home with a hot tub on the deck is the best value on the site.
Questions people ask
Is a park home the same as a mobile home?
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Legally, yes: the Mobile Homes Act and the Caravan Sites Acts both use "caravan" and "mobile home" for a building that could in principle be moved. In practice a park home arrives in two halves on a lorry and never moves again.
Can a static caravan be used in winter?
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It can be occupied, and many parks let them all year. It is harder to heat and less comfortable, and most parks built to the holiday standard close for a maintenance period anyway.
Do park homes have mains drainage?
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On these parks, yes, along with mains water and mains electricity. Chemical or holding tanks are a touring and camping arrangement, not a park home one.
Does BS3632 mean I can live there permanently?
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No. The building standard and the planning consent are separate questions. A BS3632 home on a park with holiday consent is a holiday home, however well built it is.