What Is The Age Limit Of A Caravan?

Back in the 'Good Old Days' of the Great British Holiday, there were very few safety checks or standards to a holiday caravan. It either had a leak or it didn't.

Nobody cared how old it was, or how long it had been turning green in the corner of the field. The only rule was that you had fun at an affordable price.

So how is it that as the build quality of caravans has greatly improved, their life expectancy has greatly reduced?

A caravan now comes with a British Standard for safety, efficiency and build quality, commonly advertised as, 'high spec', 'bespoke charm', 'lifestyle choice', ' this caravan will make you look younger', ' this caravan will add inches in all the right places'.

That being the case why is it that the fun is over so prematurely?! A lot of new licence agreements are for only 10 years. On some of the more unscrupulous companies parks, they are issued annually!

You now often hear that a caravan has reached its 'age limitation', whereas in the past they had been allowed for so long that some have been found to still have genuine prehistoric wall paintings on the inside.

Why has it changed? Who introduced it?

It seems to us that since the self appointed, self regulated trade associations (many directors of which are park owners) got involved things have actually improved in terms of the Standards of the Caravans, yet declined in terms of how long they are deemed fit for purpose on their members parks.

It is a big "No No" to have planned obsolescence built into the production of holiday caravans, (for all manner of reasons), yet the BH&HPA and NCC appear to have by passed that 'no no' by developing agreements and codes of practices that have 'planned obsolescence' built in, drastically reducing the 'age limit' of caravans on their members' parks.

The reasons often quoted as being:

Aesthetics.

Improving the quality and look of the park to create a suitable environment fit for the quality of owner we wish to attract, which are no longer you scumbags, as we have fully drained that money pot.

The environment doesn’t recognise a 10-year-old van as being any less appealing than a one-year-old caravan or more appealing than a vintage caravan. What it does recognise is the environmental impact and damage created by this constant churn in the manufacture and replacement of perfectly good caravans, simply in the search of ever more wealth to line the pockets of the park owners. Did we mention that many Park Owners are Directors of the Trade Associations?

Health & Safety.

The need to reduce the risk of fire as a result of the older vans being made out of wood different to the wood that the new vans are made out of. The new wood comes from trees only 3 foot tall as we have used all the wood from the 30 foot tall trees, which being taller would cause a bigger fire.

Health and safety is quoted and used in just about every circumstance where the jobs worth of a Park Manager tries to increase the parks income so that they can benefit from their 30 dirty pieces of silver (commission)., before the move on to the next park and more lambs to the slaughter.

It seems, once it was seen there was big money to be made, the self appointed self regulated trade bodies BH&HPA and NCC governing bodies introduced a 20 year age limit… the reasoning behind that ‘most of the caravans were in seaside locations and the sea air would possibly cause erosion of the chassis.’

Today, those same caravans are still being sold and the year limitations have decreased to 15 years…(and less) so it’s certainly not all about the safety of the chassis!

It is all about the wash&spin of big money! Or as we think more accurately should be described as money laundering.

As many owners have now been bled dry, lots of second hand, or as the Industry call them, 'preloved' and 'pre owned’ and 'it's brand new honest gov'nor' caravans have come on to the market.

But how safe is the second-hand caravan???

How many owners have owned that caravan???

What checks are actually made on the chassis???

How old is it as the chassis number was blown off in the storms of hurricane Katrina???

What checks are made to ensure that Caravan is ‘fit for purpose’???

The ‘Caravan buyer’ has absolutely no idea of the answers to those questions, and buys these caravans ‘in good faith’ based on what they are being told is true. After all, would a professional sales executive lie and say a second hand caravan had only had 1 previous owner instead of 4 or was a 2010 model instead of a 2004 one?

Right now, once again, a ‘lawless’ Industry is making use of the Covid restrictions and the ‘older, ex-fleet’ caravans are having new carpets fitted, (new carpets always make a place smell good… …for a while), and are being put up for sale, with very little or no details as to their previous history as a workhorse for many hundreds of previous partying holiday makers.

‘BUYER BEWARE’ has never been more relevant now, than it is in the Great British Caravan Industry!

Do not rely on 'good will' as that left the industry a long time ago and was last seen working in a Fish n Chip shop along side Elvis.