Blog about all things mobile home!

You don’t need planning permission to site a caravans in a garden when the use is incidental to the use of the house (read our full planning guide). However, when siting the very large mobile home caravans that have all the facilities for independent living, the Councils will often argue that a large caravan with extensive facilities can be considered a ‘separate planning unit’ and will therefor require permission.The quandary is that a caravan by it’s very nature must have the domestic facilities that allow habitation! Additionally practically every single caravan commercially available has all the facilities, by their very natures, which allow domestic habitation. The question is whether the Council can refuse a mobile home as being legal because of it’s size. The answer is seems to be No. The general approach of the Courts is that it is the actual use of a caravan that is the determinative factor not the presents of domestic facilities. It’s recommended here, that as a resolution of the incidental use contention, the users of the caravan make a sworn and legally binding declaration, for example in the form of an affidavit, that states that the caravan will not become a separate dwelling house.