Key takeaways

• Renting and buying a park home are governed by different laws. Renting can be a tenancy; buying is a pitch agreement under the Mobile Homes Act 1983. They do not mix.
• Section 21 no fault evictions and fixed term assured shorthold tenancies ended in England on 1 May 2026, under the Renters' Rights Act 2025. Every private tenancy is now periodic.
• That protection only applies if your rented park home counts as a dwelling house in law, broadly, if it is fixed in place and could not be moved without being destroyed. A caravan that is still legally mobile falls under weaker protection instead.
• Buying a park home means you own the home and pay a pitch fee for the land. None of the Renters' Rights Act changes apply. The Mobile Homes Act 1983 and its 10% resale commission still stand.

Thousands of people live in park homes across the UK, and not everyone buys. Some rent, some own outright, and the two routes work under entirely different rules. Get the wrong one in your head, and you will misjudge your rights on both sides.

Renting vs buying, at a glance

Renting a park home: what tenancy are you actually on

If you rent a park home to live in, the first question is not what your contract says. It is whether the law treats your home as a dwelling house at all.

That sounds pedantic, but it decides which set of rights you get. The test comes from a House of Lords case, Elitestone v Morris [1997], about a wooden bungalow resting on concrete pillars. The court held that if a structure cannot be removed without being destroyed, it is part of the land, not a movable chattel, and the same logic has been applied to mobile homes since, in cases like Makins v Elson [1977] and R v Rent Officer of Nottingham, ex parte Allen [1985]. Wheels removed or blocked, mains electricity and water connected, no realistic way to tow it away: that combination points toward dwelling house status.

Get a dwelling house, and you are on an assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988, reformed by the Renters' Rights Act 2025. Section 21 ended on 1 May 2026. There is no fixed term to run out. Every tenancy rolls on periodically until you choose to leave, and your landlord needs a legal ground under Section 8 to end it, rent arrears or wanting to sell, for example, not simply because your term is up.

Still a movable caravan in the law's eyes, and the Renters' Rights Act does not reach you. Two protections apply instead, depending on the site. On a licensed protected site under the Caravan Sites Act 1968, your landlord still needs a court order and reasonable notice, and a court can delay possession by up to 12 months. Off a protected site, you are relying on the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, which stops anyone throwing you out without notice and a court order if the caravan is your home, and whatever your written agreement actually says.

Ask your landlord in writing which category your home falls into before you sign anything, and get independent advice if the answer is vague. It changes what happens if things go wrong.

Buying a park home: a different law altogether

Buy a park home and none of the above applies to you. You own the home outright; you do not own or rent it as a dwelling house under a tenancy. What you are renting is the pitch, the plot of land it sits on, under a written agreement covered by the Mobile Homes Act 1983.

That Act sets the ground rules: how the site owner can raise your pitch fee, what notice they need to end the agreement, and what happens if you want to sell. Sell up, and the site owner is entitled to a commission, up to 10% of the sale price, a rule that has had its own government review, covered here. None of it moves because of the Renters' Rights Act. Different law, different homeowner, different set of protections.

Financing works differently too. You cannot get a standard mortgage on a park home, since it is a chattel rather than land, but there are dedicated park home finance options built around that.

Costs, side by side

Renting asks for less upfront: a deposit and ongoing rent, no five or six figure purchase. You do not carry the risk of the home losing value, and you are not on the hook for major repairs if your agreement puts those on the landlord, check that in writing, because it varies.

Buying means a real capital outlay, plus the ongoing pitch fee once you own. Resale values move with the market, and that 10% commission comes off whatever you eventually sell for. Against that, you own an asset, you are not exposed to rent increases beyond what your tenancy agreement allows, and you get a say in how the home looks and who lives in it.

Flexibility

Renting suits anyone who is not sure this is permanent, or who wants an easy way out. Buying suits anyone planning to stay years, who wants to shape the place without asking a landlord first, subject, always, to what your pitch agreement allows.

FAQs

Weighing up renting against buying on a specific park? Search residential park homes for sale and see what is actually on the market before you decide.