A park home is a real asset, and like any asset, you can decide what happens to it after you die. The rules are set out in the Mobile Homes Act 1983, as amended by the Mobile Homes Act 2013, and they work differently depending on who, if anyone, was living with you.
Key takeaways
- If your spouse, civil partner or a family member was living with you in your park home when you die, the pitch agreement passes to them automatically; no park owner consent is needed for that transfer.
- If nobody was living with you, whoever inherits the home under your will (or under intestacy rules if you don't have one) gets the right to sell it, but needs the park owner's permission to move in themselves.
- Site owners can refuse permission for a non-cohabiting inheritor to occupy the home, most commonly on age-restriction grounds, but they cannot remove the home or force an unwanted sale.
- Inheriting a park home doesn't trigger commission, but if your inheritor later sells it, the site owner can charge up to 10% of the sale price.
- A solicitor familiar with park home law is worth involving early; this is a smaller, more specialist corner of inheritance law than most general wills work covers.
If someone was living with you
If your spouse, civil partner or a family member was residing with you in the park home at the time of your death, the pitch agreement transfers to them automatically. They don't need the park owner's permission for this transfer, since it happens by operation of law rather than as a new sale. It's still good practice to notify the park owner promptly so the paperwork on their side is up to date.
If nobody was living with you
If you lived alone, whoever inherits the home, under your will, or under the rules of intestacy if you don't have one, doesn't automatically get the right to live in it. They inherit the right to sell the home. If they want to move in themselves rather than sell, they need the park owner's permission first.
Site owners can refuse this, most commonly where the site has an age restriction the new occupant doesn't meet, and there's no automatic right of appeal against that decision. What they cannot do is remove your home from the pitch or force through an unwanted sale; they can only withhold consent for a new occupant to move in.
Selling an inherited park home
If your inheritor sells rather than moves in, the normal sale rules apply. Inheriting the home doesn't trigger commission, because nothing was bought. Once your inheritor sells, the site owner can charge commission of up to 10% of the sale price, the legal maximum on residential park homes. Your inheritor will still need to keep up pitch fees and abide by the park's rules while the sale is being arranged.
Why a will matters here
Without a will, your park home is distributed under the rules of intestacy, the same statutory order of priority used for the rest of your estate, which may not reflect who you'd actually want to inherit it, particularly if you're unmarried, in a long-term relationship without a civil partnership, or want to leave it outside your immediate family. Naming your intended recipient explicitly in a will removes the ambiguity, and a solicitor can make sure the wording is treated as legally binding when the time comes.
Talk to a solicitor
Park home succession is a smaller, more specialist corner of inheritance law than most wills work, so it's worth finding a solicitor who's dealt with it before, or at least raising park home ownership explicitly when you have your will drawn up. They can confirm how your specific pitch agreement and park rules interact with the statutory position above, and make sure whoever you want to inherit is named clearly enough to avoid a dispute later.