North coast caravan park residents face homelessness amid crackdown on leases
Army veteran Roger House said he will be facing homelessness if he has to vacate his holiday van. (ABC Coffs Coast: Charles Rushforth)
In short:
More than 130 casual lease agreements at four holiday park sites on the NSW north coast have been terminated.
Holiday van residents in Iluka, Minnie Water, Brooms Head, and Wooli are affected.
What's next?
Clarence Valley Council will offer lease extension of up to a year to affected residents on a case-by-case basis.
In 2016 military veteran Roger House used his life savings to purchase a holiday van at Minnie Water Holiday Park.
On March 15 his lease was terminated by the Clarence Valley Council, giving him 120 days to vacate.
He is now facing the prospect of having nowhere to live.
"The prices of rentals these days … you can't get a decent place to live on your superannuation and your pension," Mr House said.
"I'll be homeless. I've got no family close by where I can go and live.
"What am I going to do, pitch a tent?"
Some holiday vans have decades worth of extensions. (ABC Coffs Coast: Charles Rushforth)
He is one of 131 casual lease holders across holiday parks in Brooms Head, Iluka, Minnie Water, and Wooli issued with notices to vacate by Clarence Valley Council.
While most casual lease sites stipulate occupancy of 180 days or less, Mr House presumed his lease allowed him to live onsite if he had no other permanent address.
His neighbour, pensioner Brian Chevalley, remembers arriving with the first caravan at Minnie Water Holiday Park more than 41 years ago.
Pensioner Brian Chevalley outside of his holiday van at Minnie Water. (ABC Coffs Coast: Charles Rushforth)
With his lease also terminated by the council he plans to be the last to leave.
"I've really got nowhere else to go,"he said.
"To rent something in town, just on the pension, it's impossible."
Different leases
Permanent extensions added to a caravan at Minnie Water Holiday Park, which makes the van difficult to move. (ABC Coffs Harbour: Charles Rushforth)
Two different leases govern tenancies of caravan parks, and Affiliated Residential Park Residents Association CEO Gary Martin said the lines between the two were often blurred.
"The Residential Land Lease Communities Act is a residential site agreement that allows the home owner to live permanently in that type of dwelling," he said.
"The second one is called the Holiday Parks Act, and that is essentially a holiday home where the occupant has the right to stay for up to 180 days at a time."
"What we have been seeing more and more is that there's a grey area where people no longer have that second place to live and have become permanent residents by stealth,"Mr Martin said.
"A lot of operators, including councils, have not done their due diligence, and they haven't been able to delineate where the person is actually living."
GM to 'sort out' legacy issues
Clarence Valley Council is terminating leases covered by the Holiday Parks Act, and in a statement on its website general manager Laura Black said the move was in response to growing demand from visitors for tourist sites.
"These sites are on public land and it's important that all visitors to the holiday parks have the same opportunity to use these sites when holidaying with their families and friends," she said.
"We've been able to accommodate casual agreements for some time, but with greater demand we have made the decision to return these sites for all to use."
Ms Black said people who stayed at the casual holiday sites should be aware of the conditions of their lease.
"The agreement that the holiday van occupiers or owners sign … does talk about the fact that the agreement is for 12 months," she said.
"We have an expectation that the people signing it understand what they are signing."
Some residents said holiday vans were sold to them with immoveable kitchen and bathroom extensions. (ABC Coffs Coast: Charles Rushforth)
Ms Black acknowledged some leaseholders had been allowed to live at the parks by on-site managers.
"Historically, local governments haven't always managed compliance well," she said.
"When I started at the council part of my remit was to sort out some of these legacy issues."
One-year extensions
Clarence Valley Council recently voted to extend lease agreements by a year to affected people on a case-by-case basis.
That is cold comfort for Andrea and Rod Stone who live in the Iluka Riverside Caravan Park for six months of the year and couch surf for the remainder.
"The stress amongst people here is terrible. I can't sleep, I'm so distressed," Mrs Stone said.
Andrea and Rod Stone have poured their life savings into their van at Iluka Riverside Caravan Park. (Supplied: Andrea Stone)
The couple used their retirement savings to buy into the park five years ago after leaving a rental property due to financial stress.
"We'll lose $120,000. We'll walk away with nothing," Mrs Stone said.
Ms Black said the council would work with residents who had no where else to go.
"The intention of this is not to make people homeless,"she said.