A man arrived at a holiday park to spend some time in his late father's caravan to find the static van had been removed, and someone else's property put on the plot.
Mark Robinson's father Raymond spent his life savings on a static caravan in 2019 but sadly died in May 2020. When Mark recently went to stay in the caravan, he found it had been shifted to a temporary location near the park's entrance, awaiting removal.
Mark said: “I should have been given a notice to quit or an eviction notice but I was not." Lyons Holiday Parks in Towyn near Llandudno told NorthWalesLive ownership of the caravan had not been formally transferred, site fees had not been paid and the 20-year-old caravan is now too old to stay on the site.
Mark said: “My Dad just loved to be in North Wales. We would stay in our caravan and I would take him to Llandudno to watch the town band play at night.” The Robinsons had had a van on the site for years and bought a new second-hand one in 2019 for £15,000.
Mark's dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died, aged 88, in May 2020.
Mark Robinson has been sleeping in his American Dodge 'day van' since his static caravan was moved from its plot in Towyn. (Image: David Powell)
Mark said after finding the van had gone, and being told where it was, he found gas bottles had disappeared and his "TV was on the floor". Mark said the family had a previous caravan for 29 years which they kept on Lyons' Towyn park before part exchanging it. He says he tried to pay site fees early last October.
Mark said it was lucky he chose to use his American Dodge "day" van for the 250-mile round trip from the West Midlands to Towyn because he could stay in it when he found his caravan had been moved to a temporary "plot".
Lyons Holiday Parks said ownership of the caravan had not been formally transferred from the late Mr Robinson to his son. Moreover, the caravan is over Lyons' 20-year age limit for a caravan to be on site.
It was allowed to remain for a six month "grace" period but has now been moved. It adds that no site fees were paid for the current year which would have been due on December 1 of each year.
A Lyons spokesperson added: "Mr Robinson was an owner with Lyons Holiday Parks prior to sadly passing away. Usually when such a change occurs with ownership it is standard practice that a next of kin would be in touch to transfer all details over to another party of the family - unfortunately, this didn’t occur.
"The holiday home in question is now 21 years old, we have tried on numerous occasions since November 2022 to contact the owners to advise we would not be renewing the site licence for 2023 as it has reached the 20-year limit on the park. However, we have had no success.
"After further discovery, the details on our system had not been altered from the owners who had sadly passed away hence why we have not made contact. We did however leave the Holiday Home in situ on the park for a 6 months grace period should the owners contact us to open a line of communication in order to resolve the situation. We have since moved the holiday home to a safe storage area ready for the owners to collect, should they get in contact with us."
The spokesperson added: "Within the industry it is standard practice that owners with other holiday park operators enjoy ownership with an age limit between 10 and 15 years, here at Lyons Holiday Parks we do offer a 20-year age limit which gives peace of mind to our values customers.
"We are a family run holiday operator which is nearly 100 years old, of which we most definitely would not remove a holiday home without good reason." Mr Robinson insists he was told he could keep a caravan without an age limit if he bought it from Lyons. But Mr Martin said there is no paperwork to that effect.
