living in a mobile home

 i was looking at moblie homes in spain .is anyone out there liveing in one  who can tell me  a bit about it many thanks

This may be of no help at all & if it isn't, I apologise:

I bought a mobile home in France, very easily & cheaply mainly because camping sites are required to replace them after a defined period -- usually 12 years there -- with the intention of parking it out of view in a barn & living in until the tenants moved out of my house. It's a rural & big property, nearest village of 700 inhabitants 4kms away but within 2 hours of the truck arrival, the village mayor turned up at said barn. The legal situation, he said, is that a mobile home is considered a normal building for habitation (unless located on an official campsite, where there are anyway restrictions e.g. one cannot live in one for 12 months a year) and therefore require the usual permits (planning permission, habitation certificate, ....). Being French, a solution the problem was easily found & the deal struck was I'd apply for said permissions, the application would be refused (as they always are for mobile homes there), but he'd take 3 months to issue the refusal thereby giving my tenants time to get out of my house & me back in it. And that worked just fine but I still had problem though; no permission will be given to even park/store empty mobile homes on your property so I gave away what I paid little for.

Only exception to this, mayor said, is during construction of your house, when you're living on site & house is not habitable but soon as it is, the mobile home must be removed. And they vigourously enforce these regulations because, he said, after a mobile home has been in one location for a defined period -- I believe 4 years but he wouldn't confirm -- it is considered as having the required permissions to be there. 

Incidentally, having investigated siting a mobile home on agricultural land in Croatia, and working 5 months in N. Wales (surely Europe's mobile home capital?) I know the above regulations are very similar/identical to France so I suspect they are Europe-wide.

OK, that (may be) the legal situation; what about in practice? Well, it seems our society today favours the "if he does it, why not me and if I can't he won't either" so I'd advise having a word with the local Ayuntamiento first.

Hi

I have a mobile home on a small site about 20 mins from Malaga. Although at the moment I use it as a holiday home which I try and visit every 6 - 8 weeks I will be moving out there more permanently on about 10 months.

Mine is an English home and I purchased it through the site as they then dealt with everything. It has every we need and is really comfortable when inside you would think you were in a small bungalow with all mod cons. We were used to touring in our caravan so this helped us settle into this lovely way of life. We have a great community and we all look out for one another. and socialize together.. My husband and I really love this outdoor type of life.

At least if you do not like where you are you can have your home moved to another site something you cant do with bricks and mortar. I would highly recommend buying a mobile home in Spain its such a relaxing way of life.

Hope this helps

Hello there

I haven't lived in one but I have visited people who did... you need to pay great attention to insulation - fantastically hot in the summer sun & equally cold at night in winter... white caravans best in these situations - reflect heat etc... but if possible have an awning over it in summer.

My friends only syaed in theirs for a year then got a house.....

Chris

 Hi if its any help we have looked long & hard into doing this & spoken to many people who are doing it now or have done it & we found yes it can be done but its not a cheap way of living as during the summer when its very hot your very uncomfortable or you spend a fortune on aircon & in winter its the opposite but we found after doing our research that to buy a good mobile in Spain it would cost from £18,000 to £160,000 to buy but once you bought it its value would only go down while your site rent always goes up its around 330 Euros a month currently on most average sites & this is what put us off as you can rent a good 2 bedroom 2 bathromm apartment/flat/house/bungalow/villa/townhouse for not much more per month with no worries or bills to pay just to enjoy life, so thats what were doing now as our capital stays in the bank earning some interest so its renting for us until we find a place of our own to buy. Hope this helps but its your own decision at the end.  

In our home we have central heating for the Winter and airconditioning in both main bedroom and lounge for summer or you can use as heating in winter so we do not have any problem with the climate. I know most Spanish homes do not have central heating but they are better insulated so they are warm in winter and cool in Summer our friend has one and if it gets really cold which it did at times this winter he just used the air con heater for a short while.

I suppose it depends what sort of life style you are looking for. We enjoy the outdoor life style with a great social community. Yes you do pay ground rent which on our site is £350 per month which is a little dearer than most but the site is well maintained kept  lovely and clean, we have a lovely swimming pool and bar/restaurant which is cheap and we also have a nice size plot with small garden. As for the value depreciating most of the homes on our site hold their price well but there again they are all looked after well.

hi bazzs,

I have sent you a private message.

good luck

Why not do what the scandinavians do?  All the Scandinavian mobile homes we saw in the Alicante area, whilst we were there, had solar panels on the roof! 

There didn't seem to be a problem re parking one at the roadside either (as long as it's a side road, of course) as we knew of one guy who left his outside his apartment block for the whole six months he was there in the winter, something he does every winter as he and his wife travel around Europe for the rest of the year, catching up with family and friends.

 Would not recommend it. As property rental prices now rock bottom, much cheaper to rent a village house. Mobile home

sites charge minimum of 3500 euros/year. On top of that you pay for electricity, water and gas: and with insulation on the

vans almost nil, they cost a lot to heat in winter and even more to cool in summer. If you want to sell the unit, big problem,

as no-one is buying. Stick to bricks and mortar, plenty good houses to choose from.

 Also

 I have also been looking at mobile homes for long term rental. Can anyone recommend some good sites on Costa Brava or del Sol?

Thanks

Hi i dont think u will find many mobile homes up for long term rental as on a lot of residential sites you are excluded from renting out unless to family & friends only. But the same things apply here no one is going to rent out a mobile home cheap as they need to at least cover there site charges etc which makes renting a property a better prospect as there are less restrictions & better facilities & more choice. Im not knocking the mobile lifestyle as we have tried it & enjoyed it but it has its problems as does renting property thats why its important to do your research thouroughly or it could cost you a lot of cash & heartache.

 Grateful for the advice.

Many thanks

A Cautionary Tale

A relative bought a new mobile home from the site owner (north of Malaga) 5 years ago. He 'bought' the land so that he did not have to pay rent. But did pay a maintenance fee. After about 2 years the site owner appears to have run out of money and asked that all owners pay rent. An increase of 200-250 euro a month. (Ignoring the fact that about 30,000 had been paid up front for 'rent free' for life). A court case is ensuing against the owner, in retaliation he has cut the electricity and water off (no services for more than 2 years!!!), dug trenches, ripped up paving and fencing, and attempted to dismantle one of the homes. Blocked the sewage system etc etc.

The legal case has dragged on for a couple of years, thousands have been paid to lawyers. The police have been called to the site numerous times, but they seem to side with the owner. Possibly because the owner has been bribing the mayor (allegedly).

All in all a total disaster, my relative no longer stays at the mobile home which was used for holidays only (camping would be easier) , other residents of the site are on a war footing, and the tranquil peace of the area is killed by the drone of generators.

However on the plus side if you want an almost unused mobile home at a bargain price pm me, and I will pass the details on. But please note you would need to move it from the Stalag it is in at the moment.

I appreciate this is exceptional, but it is not the first time such stories have emananted from the area of mobile home living.

Be careful. and good luck.

Mac

Can anyone recommend a mobile home site in Spain

Ollie

Hi Ollie

take a look at this site

www.mobilehomesmarmenorspain.com

you can buy or rent

everybody is friendly and helpful

Saninspain what ever gave you the idea that Spanish properties are well built  with high insulation values they are built out of concrete and single skin clay blocks with absolutely no insulation they are absolutely freezing cold in the winter and you sweat your balls off in the summer I no I own one they look pretty and that where it ends.