Caravan storage turned into a building site.

[saint-spoon]

A little while back we were informed that the company with whom we store our caravan was stored was changing names and that we had to change the payments, did all that. The next time I went to pick up the van for a weekend the gate (both of them) were wide open and there was heavy plant cutting up the ground for foundations. It turns out the property had been sold to a developer who is sticking twenty odd houses on the plot. It would have been nice to have been told such things were occurring. Next time I went up the ground was so churned up I had to lock the diff on my Sante Fe and wheel spun the entire way out. Anyway we were told by the builder that he had expected all of the caravans and motor homes off the plot by then but by the latest January 2018, no one had yet been told of this… Importantly there were no checks on who was taking what caravan and the gates were left wide open so I could have been anyone. We are no longer using that facility and are still trying to get the £25 deposit for the security key back…

 

[ProfJohnL]

You may have a case for suing the site operator for breach of contact, and failure to maintain their duty of care.

It is clear the contract to provide the storage facility had been legally accepted by the new owners, as they have been taking your payments for it. Unless there was revised contract included with the request to change payment details, your previous contract remained in force, and you should have received all the same services the previous operator provided under that contract. - However I must point out that unless there is a detailed description with key performance indicators that define how a particular clause will be met, the new owners may still be providing the same service but to a different standard.

 

[Scorpy]

Whereabouts are you? There are spaces on our locked, gated sec lighted sec camered site
We are in Huddersfield area

Mike

 

[Raywood]

Very bad practice and I agree with the Prof on the basic legal position. The operators of the site are clearly in breach of contract and possibly you have a claim for damage. The site should have been secure and in the circumstances if anything happened that was down to the lack of security then I would have thought there would be a good claim against them. Once you were aware of this though I think you needed to look elsewhere for storage and if you did not then you might have been deemed to have accepted the situation.

 

[Scorpy]

Think it may also involve any signs saying 'Caravans stored at owners risk' which some compounds put up to make sure you have your own insurance

 

[Hutch]

Sorry to hear about that SS. I our storage area, The Farmer is changing more to secure storage with another 40 plus outdoor pitches, and some undercover, electric gates etc. So makes me feel secure, Pottersbury, Northamptonshire. Area. 10 miles from Milton Keynes. I can supply details , if requierd through the mods.
Hutch.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Think it may also involve any signs saying 'Caravans stored at owners risk' which some compounds put up to make sure you have your own insurance

Such signs do not protect the service or site provider from being sued if they have failed in their common duty of care towards their customer or their property.

As site provider that claims to offer security, must do so, and be prepared to accept the consequences if they fail in that regard.

 

[Raywood]

The signs do not help site owners when they are at fault as in general when contracting with a member of the public The Unfair Trading Terms Act prevents this. The signs merely restate the common law position that they will not be liable for damage caused by third parties.

 

[PHOENIXFLIER]

What a pain in the backside.Really hope you get your money back....but I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

[Buckman]

Not quite as bad but we are wondering if our storage site is still CASSOA Gold approved. About 2 weeks ago we were sent an email asking if we were still using our storage pitch which was fully paid up for a year ending in April 2018. We replied that we would be using it at end of November.
Just by luck although we were staying at a campsite in Brean until Sunday, on Friday we decided to return. On arrival at the storage site, we found we could not enter as it was full of caravans waiting repair. The owner buys damaged caravans, fixes them up and sells them. Phoned the owner only to be told that we had to use another adjacent site. He came to the site and then had to move other caravans to find us a space. BTW the gate to thsi new storage CASSOA Gold site was wide open. He then left and we unhitched and on leaving went to close the gate and put the lock on. No matter how hard we tried, we could not lock the combination lock so had to phone again to tell him.
We would have been really upset if we had arrived back today when no one answers the phone plus the fact it is snowing heavily. We would have had no choice except to take the caravan to a C&CC site in Malvern and pay for the caravan to be on a pitch there until the Monday and then only if the roads are passable as at the moment we cannot leave our village.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Not quite as bad but we are wondering if our storage site is still CASSOA Gold approved...

Why not ask the site operator.? Or if you feel the site no longer is worthy of being accredited as a Gold site, then contact Cassoa, and tell them why.

If Cassoa tell you the site is not gold approved, then the site operator is trading under false advertising, and selling a service which is substandard, which is in breach of the Consumer Rights Act.

 

[Buckman]

Not quite as bad but we are wondering if our storage site is still CASSOA Gold approved...

Why not ask the site operator.? Or if you feel the site no longer is worthy of being accredited as a Gold site, then contact Cassoa, and tell them why.

If Cassoa tell you the site is not gold approved, then the site operator is trading under false advertising, and selling a service which is substandard, which is in breach of the Consumer Rights Act.

That is what I asked when they were sorting out the spot for us and I was told that the whole area is CASSOA Gold however I could not see any CCTV so suspect they may not be telling the truth. The storage area is in the business area of a farm. In addition, there were a load of new demo cars parked in the compound which means all the drivers will have an access code for the combination lock. Not happy at all and will be looking around for other storage.