Gypsy and Traveller communities and mobile homes sites

Many 'travellers' sites' are owned and/or managed by private individuals and companies rather than by local authorities. Members of Gypsy and Traveller communities themselves operate some private sites. The legal provisions on those sites are exactly the same as for other mobile homes sites, provided that the lack of a written agreement does not reduce those statutory rights. For more information, please see the section on mobile homes.

Some members of Gypsy and Traveller communities buy their own land to use as a caravan site. They normally need to gain planning permission and then a site licence. For more information, please see the page on planning permission.

Local authorities have a general power to provide caravan sites. [1] These can be Gypsy and Traveller communities sites, although the present legislation contains no reference to this specifically. Scottish Office/Executive capital grants to establish and maintain such sites were discontinued in December 1998. Most local authorities operate Gypsy and Traveller communities sites, although there is still a shortage of provisions. Some local authorities provide seasonal sites for Gypsy and Traveller communities.

Local authority sites do not require a site licence. Residents thus cannot enforce any site licence conditions should conditions deteriorate. Residents may also be concerned about other management issues, including issues relating to the access to the site.

If there has been a breach of contract between the site owner and residents, one legal remedy open to residents in this situation is a compensation claim. A solicitor will be required if the sum claimed is for more than £3,000, that is, if it is not within the limits of a small claims action. This remedy will be relevant only if the contract makes any reference to the disputed matter, for example, the site conditions.

It is unlikely that residents could try to enforce any contractual conditions that may apply to site conditions. This would have to be done by raising an action for specific implement by way of summary application. This procedure has never been used in this context. It has not been used successfully in the context of tenancy law for more than 120 years.

Advisers may look at other ways of putting pressure on local authorities to maintain Gypsy and Traveller communities' sites in a decent condition. This could involve contact with elected members, meetings with council officials and, if necessary, using the council's complaints procedure. Other relevant organisations and agencies could also be involved. A complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman would be considered only in cases of maladministration, for example, where the local authority had failed to follow its own procedures.

Management decisions that adversely affect the welfare of children could be challenged, ultimately through judicial review, under the terms of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. Discriminatory decisions can be referred to the Equality and Human Rights Commission or to race equality councils.

Any resident who takes action with regard to the management of a site should have full information on her/his security of tenure.

Advisers will first have to establish whether a local authority site is a 'protected site' for the purpose of the mobile homes legislation. It will be a 'protected site' only if it has planning permission for residential use all year round. No site licence is required for local authority sites. Advisers then need to establish whether the caravan/trailer qualifies as a mobile home: it qualifies as a mobile home if it does not exceed specific size criteria and does not consist of more than a twin unit. For more information, please see the section on mobile homes.

All members of Gypsy and Traveller communities who live in a mobile home on a protected site will have basic protection under Part 1 of the Caravan Sites Act 1968. This applies to owner-occupiers as well as to people renting a caravan (for example, from another resident).

Those provisions were extended to Scotland by the Mobile Homes Act 1975. Residents must be given notice to terminate the agreement and a court order must be obtained before eviction can take place.

The council (site owner) must give four weeks' notice to terminate an agreement. The Act does not state in what form the notice should be, or if it should be in writing. It could be argued, from common law, that a notice also has to be served so that it coincides with the earliest date at which a common law lease could be ended. There is, however, no precedent on this in the context of mobile homes.

A person is guilty of an offence if:

• s/he unlawfully deprives the occupier of her/his occupation on the protected site of any mobile home which by contract s/he is entitled to occupy

• after termination of a contract s/he excludes the occupier from the protected site or from the mobile home or removes or excludes a mobile home from the site without first obtaining a court order.

There is a defence to unlawful eviction if the site owner can prove that s/he believed, with reasonable cause, that the occupier had ceased to reside on the site. [2]

The court has no power to suspend the court order for eviction where the proceedings are taken by a local authority in respect of a site leased or managed by it. Thus members of Gypsy and Traveller communities facing eviction from local authority sites cannot ask the court for more time before they are evicted.

For more information on challenging evictions from sites, please see the section on the Human Rights Act 1998 and the section on the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. In some cases, a local authority's decision to evict somebody from a site could be challenged by way of judicial review, for example, if the decision was based on unfair procedures or conflicted with duties under other legislation.

The Mobile Homes Act 1983 confers various rights, including strong security of tenure, on all owner-occupiers of mobile homes who live on a protected site. [3] For more information, please see the section on mobile homes. However, it is generally held that residents on permanent local authority Gypsy and Traveller communities' sites do not have the same rights as residents on any other protected mobile homes site.

Members of Gypsy and Traveller communities who live on seasonal local authority sites have no security of tenure. They are not protected by the Caravan Sites Act 1968 or by the Mobile Homes Act 1983, and have no statutory rights at all. The same applies to members of Gypsy and Traveller communities who live on permanent local authority sites, but whose caravans/trailers exceed the size criteria of a mobile home. For more information, please see the section on mobile homes.