Park Home Owners petition the government over loopholes in the law.

12.00.00am GMT Thu 21st Jan 2010

Petition leader Sonia McColl with Annette

Today Annette Brooke, MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, joined a group of park home owners led by Sonia McColl to present a petition to Downing Street signed by over 8500 people. The petition calls on the Government to change the Mobile Homes Act 1983 to give protection to park home owners when selling their property.

Along with the petition presented to the Prime Minister, a packed meeting was held for park home owners and interested parties afterwards in the House of Commons to allow those present to talk about the problems and possible solutions. Sonia and Annette spoke to a cross party group of MPs and Peers and listened to many of the problems that park home owners face when trying to sell their property.

Handing in the petition at Number 10

A minority of unscrupulous park owners are able to abuse their position to interfere with the process of selling individual homes. A loophole in the 1983 Act means that prospective buyers can be interviewed by the park operators, who can use this opportunity to put off and intimidate the potential purchasers. As a result the property is not sold and can be bought up by the park owner at a fraction of its true value. The petition calls upon the Government to amend the Act to include provisions for a lawyer to be present when the interview takes place. This, supporters hope, will help resolve the problems faced by many when wishing to sell their homes.

The petition was put together by Mrs Sonia McColl, a resident in a Park Home site in Dorset, who was moved to start it in response to hearing of the terrible situation many residents were put in when trying to sell their homes.

Annette addresses park home owners and MP's.

Commenting Annette said: "I think it's a massive scandal that this fraud is occurring and the law seems powerless to stop it happening. The majority of park owners are law abiding and respectable but the odd few rogue owners are in danger of giving the industry a bad name.

"I was delighted to see that so many people had travelled from around the country to be here today. It is testament to the hard work that Sonia has put in that the day has been such a success. I think we all felt that it was an excellent opportunity to illustrate to the Government the strength of feeling behind this petition."