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28 October 2014

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Inside Out

Inside Out - South: Monday October 25, 2004

MOBILE HOME EVICTION

Chris Packham meets evicted mobile home residents

Inside Out exposes the owner of a Hampshire mobile home park who has been persuading vulnerable people to sell their homes for a fraction of their true value.

Inside Out reveals how Michael Wenman has bought 76 homes at knockdown prices.

Mr Wenman, who owns the Redhouse Park in Whitehill, tells residents that their homes are worthless.

He then threatens them with expensive court proceedings if they refuse to sell their properties.

Threatened

"It was threats all the time and at my age I just didn't want it."

Dick Barton, 97-year-old resident at Redhouse

One of the first to leave Redhouse was 97-year-old Dick Barton.

He had been living happily on the site for 32 years, but he abandoned his home after Mr Wenman told him it would be removed.

"I couldn't stand the harassment anymore. It was on my mind and it was getting me down."

Dick still owned his home, but it was demolished the day after he moved out, with some of his possessions inside.

Mr Wenman later paid him just £500 compensation.

"I never saw the bed, the chest of drawers or my washing machine. All of that went. I suppose he included it in the £500 he gave me."

Vulnerable residents

Many of the Redhouse residents are elderly or disabled.

Mr Wenman refuses to be interviewed

They have a legal right to stay on the site, but Mr Wenman threatens them with eviction for breaching park rules.

This can be for trivial reasons, such as having leaves in their gutters or rust on the chassis of the mobile home.

Some of these cases have been thrown out by the courts, but other residents leave because they cannot afford the court costs.

Cut price

Normally, they would be able to sell their homes on the open market. But Mr Wenman puts off potential purchasers so that he can buy the homes cheaper himself.

Leyanne had found a buyer for her mobile home

Leyanne McNeice tried to sell her home three years ago, when Mr Wenman was still finalising the purchase of the site.

Leyanne had a buyer who was prepared to pay £28,000.

"Mr Wenman said he wouldn't allow the home to be sold to her and he was going to remove it anyway, which obviously put her off as a buyer.

"He then offered us £2000 for our home. Bearing in mind we had an offer of £28,000, we really weren't going to accept that."

Standing firm

The remaining residents are determined to stay on Redhouse.

"There's no way he can frighten me off site. I am staying. This is my home."

Dorothy Jones, resident at Redhouse

Dorothy Jones has endured several visits from Mr Wenman, but she is still refusing to sell.

"I used to be frightened of him, but I am not anymore."

Mr Wenman wants people to leave so that he can redevelop the site.

He plans to move new mobile homes on to Redhouse, and they can sell for anything up to £150,000 each.

Mr Wenman declined to be interviewed for the programme and refused to answer any questions about the way he has treated residents.

Readers' Comments

We are not adding any new comments to this page but you can still read some of the comments previously submitted by readers.

Michael Collins
As a Consultant for one of the National Residents Associations I was very impressed with the exposure of the activities of what are known to us as UPO's (Unscrupulous Park owners)This type of harrasment is far more prevelant than many people realise and one of the main reasons is that residents do not know their rights under the 1983 Mobile Homes Act and are extremely vulnerable due to age. The action of picking on the oldest resident is typical of the methods used. Unfortunately the licensing authorities have been reluctant to inspect sites to ensure site licence conditions are met thereby allowing sites to become run down and ripe for abuse by the UPO whose sole motivation is profit. With new homes selling at up to £200,000 pounds sited there is a very high profit margin as most homes have an ex works price around £50 -£80 thousand pounds. Transport and siting is the only cost involved. We need more programs like this on National Television to bring this situation fully into the public eye.

Michael Wylde
As a former operator of 2 mobile home parks I am ashamed that there are so many unscrupulous people still in the business. They are in the minority, but there are too many and they cause a lot of misery. Residents who feel threatened should remember that there are absolutely NO circumstances which allow a park owner to remove a resident's home on a licensed park without first getting a County Court order. Applying for one involves the park owner in significant expense, with negligible chance of success unless the resident is in very serious default or the home is totally unfit for occupation. Even then the Courts tend to put long delays on the orders. Residents do in fact have a lot of legal protection, but too many vulnerable people are unaware of it or unable to use it without help. Unfortunately local councils, which are responsible for licensing parks, do not seem interested in taking up serious matters like this.

Kenneth Taylor
I thought your program was very good reporting as an expose on what is happening to that site, but do you realise that this kind of greedy practise is occuring on a awful lot of Parkhome sites,as it is on ours. This man frightens old people into selling to him and then puts £150000 homes on the site which he makes approx £100000 profit.

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