A Marina in Cambridgeshire has 45 berth holders living on floating caravans and lodges as well as mooring for vessels including narrow boats and cruisers.  Approximately 100 people live on the Marina as their permanent residence and the majority pay council tax.

The Marina owners purchased the Marina 4 years ago, knowing full well that there were residential berth holders, some of which have a CLEUD (Certificate of Lawfulness for an Existing Use of a Development) granted by the District Council which means the property is occupied as a sole or main residence and not just as holiday accommodation.

In spite of several requests over the years, the owners refuse to give the residential berth holders a proper residential contract stating “we are not a residential marina”.  They insist on giving us a mooring agreement which applies to vessels only stating that they can give us 28 days’ notice to leave if they so desired.

They have now given notice to three berth holders, two residential and one second home owner stating that the pontoon to which the individual dwellings are attached is beyond economical repair and they now must leave.  For the residential berth holders this is their home, their only asset and the Marina will ostensibly make their dwelling worthless and the berth holders homeless.

We collected enough funds to instruct a solicitor and two barristers, one with experience in Land and the other Consumer Rights to give us advice.  They feel that we have a strong case as we come under the Mobile Home Act and therefore are protected with security of tenure and also protected under consumer legislation as to an unfair contract.  Our solicitor wrote to the Marina owners giving them until the 17^th November 2020 to respond, asking for mediation.  They have responded denying our claim.  Without any statutory structure or change in UK legislation for Marinas as a whole, all residential berth holders throughout the country are vulnerable.  This, we feel, is going to go all the way to Court.

 The Marina owners have a very large pot of money to fight these cases, we don’t, this is why we are asking for crowd funding to argue our case.  There are many residential berth holders all over the country who do not have security of tenure and all we ask is for a fair contract which is not loaded in favour of the Marina owners. 

If you feel you could help us, then please donate to enable us and residential berth holders all over the UK to have a secure future with a fair deal. Thank you so much in advance for your support.