Excessive storage fees/increases

Paul and Lisa P replied on 25/11/2020 12:12

Paul and Lisa P

Posted on 25/11/2020 12:12

Does anyone else think that the club is charging excessive fees for caravan storage and that a 11% increase in storage fees for next year is EXCESSIVE IN THE EXTREME after a year when people,at best received 80% of their pay?

I called to ask for the reason for this and was told the increase was inflationary! What a crock; inflation is 1.7%.

I store in Ashwell in Hertfordshire and after the price hike last year, many caravans were taken off storage. The temporary warden told us that they had 'hemorrhaged' storage pitch members, so why another incredulous increase? It's not as if the storage compound is on decent ground either!

This is meant to be a club, run for the benefit of the members, but how they expect members to keep finding extra money when they are on fixed pension incomes is a mystery to me!

To top it all, the latest magazine has the AGM notes in it, which proudly states the £m's that the club has made in the last year.

There are NO grounds for the pure greed of these latest price hikes.

so after 15 years of storing on a club storage compound, I am going to take my caravan off storage and hope other members following suit if they are able to.

I will no longer use club sites either as they cost for these has become prohibitive while the pitches have got smaller.

27 replies

JVB66 replied on 20/01/2021 17:06

Member

JVB66

Campervanner from Hertfordshire

Posted on 20/01/2021 16:08 by Thetraveller5

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Probably over reacting to losing the great people who ran the park before who always put their customers first. Now larger more commercial owners who if like their other sites will charge for everything possible.

Posted on 20/01/2021 17:06

any name of compay involved

nelliethehooker replied on 20/01/2021 20:07

Member

nelliethehooker

Caravanner from Cumberland

Posted on 20/01/2021 16:08 by Thetraveller5

Thanks for your thoughts on this. Probably over reacting to losing the great people who ran the park before who always put their customers first. Now larger more commercial owners who if like their other sites will charge for everything possible.

Posted on 20/01/2021 20:07

You could contact the club's legal department and see what they say. Just a thought!

DEBSC replied on 21/01/2021 10:32

DEBSC

Caravanner from Devon

Posted on 20/01/2021 15:07 by Thetraveller5

We are on a privately owned park which has just changed hands and the new owners want us to renew our storage contract to start from 1st Feb on their new more expensive terms. Our present contract is due to run until July, and they have sent an invoice making an adjustment for the time we have already used. Can we decline to sign a new one until our present one runs out? We would like the time to judge whether we like the way the park will be run and whether it is worth keeping the c/van there.

Posted on 21/01/2021 10:32

Your contract finished when the business changed hands, unless the new people agreed to extend it, only they will know this. This happened to us, lovely farmer there for years and then he retired. The price didn't rise too steeply but the new owner moaned every time we told him we wanted to use our caravan and he had to get it out of the barn. We didn't use it for just weekends only long holidays, all of the other van users also became tired of his complaining about people wanting to use their vans. Why do people run a business when it's not for them. It was one of the reasons we gave up and bought the static, along with the increasing cost of pitches. When I asked him to get it out the last time and he went off on one I took great delight in telling him it would be for the last time as we had sold it!

MikeyA replied on 21/01/2021 12:48

MikeyA

Caravanner

Posted on 20/01/2021 15:07 by Thetraveller5

We are on a privately owned park which has just changed hands and the new owners want us to renew our storage contract to start from 1st Feb on their new more expensive terms. Our present contract is due to run until July, and they have sent an invoice making an adjustment for the time we have already used. Can we decline to sign a new one until our present one runs out? We would like the time to judge whether we like the way the park will be run and whether it is worth keeping the c/van there.

Posted on 21/01/2021 12:48

Your main decision is whether you want to continue to store your caravan there. If you don't then I would sue the previous owner through the small claims court for breach of contract.

We had a similar situation 3 years ago where the storage owner sold up and the new owner did not want to continue with storage. We had around 9 months left of our paid storage. Out of the 40 van owners only 2 of us pursued him through the courts for our refund. He paid up when we signed the final court papers.

GarethLJ replied on 31/01/2021 18:12

Member

GarethLJ

Caravanner

Posted on 31/01/2021 18:12

My storage site fees at a private facility have increased by 15% this year with an explanation that the increase is for extra security cameras etc! The fees have been going up progressively over the past 3 years but I either pay up or move to another storage site! Caravanning is beginning to become an expensive hobby and with the electric car issue here to stay I shall hang on to my diesel 4x4 until it falls apart!

holymoly replied on 01/09/2021 23:06

holymoly

Posted on 25/11/2020 12:12 by Paul and Lisa P

Does anyone else think that the club is charging excessive fees for caravan storage and that a 11% increase in storage fees for next year is EXCESSIVE IN THE EXTREME after a year when people,at best received 80% of their pay?

I called to ask for the reason for this and was told the increase was inflationary! What a crock; inflation is 1.7%.

I store in Ashwell in Hertfordshire and after the price hike last year, many caravans were taken off storage. The temporary warden told us that they had 'hemorrhaged' storage pitch members, so why another incredulous increase? It's not as if the storage compound is on decent ground either!

This is meant to be a club, run for the benefit of the members, but how they expect members to keep finding extra money when they are on fixed pension incomes is a mystery to me!

To top it all, the latest magazine has the AGM notes in it, which proudly states the £m's that the club has made in the last year.

There are NO grounds for the pure greed of these latest price hikes.

so after 15 years of storing on a club storage compound, I am going to take my caravan off storage and hope other members following suit if they are able to.

I will no longer use club sites either as they cost for these has become prohibitive while the pitches have got smaller.

Posted on 01/09/2021 23:06

Found this old post but have to agree with the price hikes - van is stored on the same pebbles as 4 years ago so nothing had changed. I called the club to ask where was their storage revenue in their end of year accounts and was replied with the staggering amount. Seems to me if you want to store within/around the m25 you suffer the costs, we don't all live in a rural area.