Paying the price for utilities.

The cost of paying for utilities is a subject dear to us all not least at the time of writing as energy costs are massively escalating.

When buying your park home you need to fully understand your options with regard to who you will be able to purchase your gas, electricity, water and waste disposal services from.

Mobile home parks have been developed in many different ways.  Recent developments may have been green filed sites where all the infrastructure is new, whereas older established parks may had started out as part of a farm or small holding or may have been once a holiday park with static caravans, bottled gas, chemical toilets and septic tanks. Electricity might well have been connected to the farm's supply by the farmer.

Even though a park might look spick and span on the surface, the legacy of substandard cabling and pipes remain hidden.

Some parks have developed with regard to the number of homes stationed on them without the attending to the matter of these services.  

Here are some examples.

Water.

The site could have an ancient water supply feeding it, perhaps from the time when the site was a simple holiday park with a few tents and statics being serviced from standpipes located around the field.

The supply from the water suppliers distribution network terminates at a single meter after which the distribution on the park is in the ownership of the park owner.

Whilst there are legal requirements for the supply and installation of potable water, these are hard to enforce where the park is classed as private and inspection would require excavation to  reveal the full extent of any poorly implemented water distribution.

The size of the water main may well have been adequate to serve a few caravans and tents where usage may have been limited to drinking and washing up.  Park homes have washing machines, Baths, showers, dishwashers and the like.  The domestic usage pattern is quite different and demands are significantly higher.  As more park homes are sited, it will not be long before the flow from taps becomes less and issues occur with domestic appliances and central heating systems.

Gas.

The same scenario exists here too.  Probably any holiday statics would have had LPG gas bottles so there would have been no distribution infrastructure around the site.  The mobile homes therefore might be forced to continue with this very expensive and inconvenient method of supply.

Other parks might have invested in a bulk LPG storage system and provided underground distribution to the homes.  There is no legislation which limits the amount LPG can to be resold for so home owners could be paying significantly more for this method of supply.  The bulk tank may be rented from the gas supplier and part of this 'service charge' cost will almost certainly be passed on to the residents.   

The best solution is of course is where the park is supplied directly with natural gas to a meter at each home.  Newer parks could have this arrangement.

Electricity.

A number of situations can occur with electrical supplies.

This can be similar to the gas scenario where a new park has been connected to the grid through equipment owned by the distribution network operator (DNO) and where connection to each home is to an electricity company fuse (also know as a house service cut-out).  This means the resident can choose who is the suppliers of their electricity which can be different to the DNO company who own the house service cut-out.

The site however may have a supply from the DNO only to the park and not to each home. The park owner will be the suppliers customer and he will have to resell the energy to each park home resident.  You may have a meter, you may not.

In this case, the chance of being able to choose a supplier may be very slim.  As the park is owned by the park owner, being able to install new cables and other infrastructure to allow a DNO to connect to your home is very unlikely.   Even if this were possible, installing a single connection to your home may involve significant costs which the DNO will charge you amounting to many hundreds of pounds if not thousands.

Parks should have their electrical systems inspected regularly for safety.  Unfortunately safe does not go hand in hand with reliability.  An old site might suffer lengthy power outages if you have to wait for a contractor to try to fix a problem.  That is if the components are still available for the old installation.

Waste water.

Somewhere or other there will either be a connection from the park's waste water drainage system into the local water companies sewer, a connection to a cesspit or septic tank or to a private treatment system.  This will depend on the age and location of the park.

This is an area with countless potential problems but it is as well to simply list a few here.

The park may appear new but there is no guarantee the pipes underground are in good order.  Old stone glazed pipes can move or be blocked by roots from trees and hedges.

Inspection covers and man holes are seldom lifted and older chamber constructions will be made of brick which over time can fail restricting the flow.

The outfall into any water company sewer system could be too small for the number of homes on the park.

If the park is on a hillside or other sloping ground it may well be the waste water systems will regularly block if not correctly installed to industry standards.

If your park has a private sewage treatment system this may be poorly maintained and become unreliable.  If it is maintained there may be attempts to add significant increases to the pitch fees to pay for this. 

Ground drainage.

For clarity the matter of drainage is kept separate from waste water.  Surface water and gutter downpipe discharges might well be routed to the waste water drainage system but as a levy is  charged by the water companies where this is the case, it is unlikely a park owner will want to do this or possible make this known if it is the case.

 In the normal course of housing development builders are likely to provide a soak away which should be located at a distance from the home and certainly away from any foundations.  In many cases housing estates are now having to provide SUDS (SUstainable Drainage Systems) to manage roof and surface run offs.

As you may have guessed, mobile home parks are not governed by such sensible measures and park owners seldom make proper provision for this important aspect of the installation of a home.

As an example the picture above shows a ground drainage pipe found next to the base of a park home.  This pipe is perforated and is designed to be buried some 750mm deep and should be bedded onto and covered by a layer of shingle. Then the pipe requires connection to a means of drainage.

Here the pipe is not buried and clearly the water is not going away as the puddle clearly shows.  In short this pipe is doing nothing.

If we consider how much water might run from a roof, in the case of a 40' x 20' mobile home this would be approximately 500 gallons for 1 inch of rainfall.

For a home with say four down pipes, this will equate to 125 Gallons per drop. If we add to this the possible run off from paths and patios the total water runoff could be considerably more.

So what is the problem?

Depending on the type of soil and overall permeability a number of things might occur.   The water could just flood the ground and show as large ponds on lawns and driveways.  The water could over time wash away the ground under the slab on which the home is stationed with the eventual cracking of the concrete or  subsidence.  Of course, if your home is lower that those neighbouring it you may well be be on the receiving end of many hundreds of gallons of water. 

Summary.

In essence the matter of utilities is as fraught with danger as most other aspects of park home ownership.  In many cases the owner will not know much about the utilities infrastructure on his park many others probably couldn't care less.