Buying or renting a mobile park home

Before buying or renting a mobile park home, check that you have somewhere to park it. You’ll usually need to pay pitch fees, even if you own your home.

A mobile park home is usually a:

• caravan

• trailer

• motorhome

• prefabricated bungalow that is kept in a park

Buying a mobile park home

You can:

• buy a home that’s already pitched on a site

• buy a home from a manufacturer, then find a pitch for it

Before you buy a mobile park home, make sure it is safe to live in. Check that the home has a warranty.

Get a surveyor who specialises in mobile park homes to look over the property and the site you want to park it on. Find a surveyor on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Get a solicitor to check over any agreements before you sign them, for example the terms of purchase, or pitch rental agreement. Search for a solicitor on the Law Society of Scotland.

Check our advice on your rights if you own a mobile park home.

Paying for a mobile park home

You cannot get a normal mortgage to pay for a mobile park home. You might be able to get a loan from a specialist lender, but these usually have high interest rates.

You'll have to pay pitch fees, unless you own the land. You’ll usually have to pay council tax. 

Renting a mobile park home

Before you rent a mobile park home, check if: 

• the landlord is allowed to let the home to you

• the home is safe to live in

• the home is already pitched somewhere

• you’ll be responsible for paying the council tax

• bills like utilities or pitch fees are included in the rent

Check our advice on your rights if you rent a mobile park home.

If you need help paying rent

You could get Universal Credit or Housing Benefit to help pay your rent and pitch fees.

To check if you can get benefits, use the Turn2Us benefits calculator.

Choosing a site for your home

If your mobile park home is not already pitched, you will need to find a site to live on. Some sites have rules about who they allow to pitch there. 

Before you agree to rent a pitch, check:

• whether it is a protected site, which means it is licenced for residential use and has planning permission

• that you agree with the rental agreement and park rules

• what safety precautions they have, for example fire safety rules

• how much pitch fees are, and how often they increase

• how much the charges are for electricity, water and sewage

Check if the person who is renting you the pitch owns the site. If they are renting it from someone else and that agreement ends, you might have to leave.

If the site is not licenced

This is sometimes called an unprotected site.

Holiday sites are usually not licenced for residential use. This means you cannot stay there all year round.

It is risky to stay on an unprotected site permanently. You'll have limited rights, and you can be evicted easily.

If you own your own land

You can park your mobile home on it. You’ll need to get planning permission and a site licence from the council.

Find your local council’s planning authority on mygov.scot.