Today we have at last got the theft of the mobile home of Sonia McColl OBE into the national media, with a brilliant report by Melanie Abbot on BBC R4 You & Yours.
The item can be heard at below at 19.22, and LKP thanks Melanie Abbot for this report, and many others concerning leasehold issues on You & Yours.
Living standards, Wine awards, Michelin stars, You and Yours – BBC Radio 4
Young people who start work during a recession may feel the effects on salary for a decade
The mobile home of Sonia, 70, a widow, was stolen last Wednesday night while in storage and was uninsured. It means that she has lost the home, worth £30,000, which was waiting to be delivered to a discreet location at the weekend.
Sonia is convinced the theft was premeditated as her campaigning for justice for park homeowners – often vulnerable pensioners – has made her many enemies.
Indeed, she told the BBC of death threat phone calls and even a night visit to her home after her husband died.
“Over the years I have covered really quite horrific stories,” Melanie said on You & Yours. “People are being terrorised by rogue site owners. There have been arson attacks and other examples of bullying all because site owners have too much power.
“Now a campaigner for others has been forced from her home.”
Sonia, who is widowed, talked of “feeling really quite ill” because of the theft.
“When I heard of it I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”
Most of her savings are now gone.
Both the Daily Mail and the Sun have reported the story on their websites today.
Thieves steal widowed mobile home campaigner’s £30,000 STATIC CARAVAN
Sonia McColl, 70, had her home in Willand, Devon, broken into by crooks who lifted the fully-furnished 40ft mobile building off its base and put it into a lorry Ms McColl, who was made an OBE for her tireless campaigning to protect home owner rights, said she was devastated to
Widow’s horror after thieves steal her entire MOTOR HOME
A WIDOW has had her £30,000 motor home stolen, left with just the curtains she was hoping to install in her new home. Sonia McColl, 70, said she had been left feeling vulnerable after finding out the new home she had purchased had been nicked from a haulage company’s yard, with the 10-tonne home, sitting on a 40ft trailer, disappearing without a trace.
Related posts:
APPG to protect park home owners has as secretariat the site owners’ own trade body!
Park Home champion Sonia McColl OBE has her mobile home stolen … ‘after death threats’
Park home champion Sonia McColl OBE thanks all for help over stolen home
LKP helps raise £14,682 for park home champion Sonia McColl OBE
Appeal: Home for Sonia McColl OBE
Park Home champion Sonia McColl OBE has her mobile home stolen … ‘after death threats’
I suggest you invite “Sunday Telegraph Money” , “Mail on Sunday” and Sunday Express to report this story.
Also ask their readers for a £2 donation ( less than a latte at Starbucks ) to help buy another mobile home for the one stolen..
I agree, we should start some crowd funding to assist this lady in a practical way, till the police find the culprit(s).
This is a shocking and most disturbing story. It seems obvious to me that this was a planned theft and carried out as a punishment.
I do hope that the police are talking to site owners to see if they can assist with their enquiries. . This is a scandal.
The Residential property Industry” Whether they manage Mobile home sites or other is attempting to silence homeowners by intimidation and threats. We must not allow this to continue.
To give balance, and in the absence of Stephen, I feel bound to give the other side of the story – Has anyone given thought to the disappearance of this woman’s home being down to the monetisation of a deferred consideration? It is alleged that modern ground rent is outstanding and the only remedy available to those owed a considerable amount of money was sequestration of an asset.
Personally I do not support this proposition but for the sake of balance I have placed it in the public domain. Me, I think it is down to some thuggish tinkers out for revenge. Such types lack the sophistication of those in suits who are equally thuggish.
Dear David,
I would rather tussle with some thuggish “ oirish “tinkers than deal with rogues In cheap brogues in The Residential Property Industry.
I believe the former to be an more honest type of thug.
I know very little about park homes. Who generally buys the land, is it travellers or the offshore bunch?
Kim, anything I said about the traveller community would be based on limited personal experience and hearsay, none of it good.
I made reference in a previous post to flirting with the idea of buying on a mobile home site many years ago. The guy (not a traveller) who owned and ran that site was a 24 carat twat, and I came to that conclusion after talking with him for a mere twenty minutes. The problem at that time was there was no regulation, no rules, no nothing. .Anybody could buy a piece of land and turn into a residential site and make their own regulations and rules – it seems that little has changed from those days all of forty years ago.
I love the word “entrepreneur”, I love that we live in an ordered country with laws and officers who enforce the laws. I love that we are a democracy with representatives who serve us and the common good, I love it that there are people who put aside self interest to engage in public service.
David
Please for one moment do not think that I was virtue signalling about travellers!!!!
I too love that we live in an ordered county and everything is beautiful in its own way- Oooh I feel a song coming on.
Do you think that the Adriatic’s et al buy up land for these park sites? They are certainly not going to allow some oirish tinkers to grab the spoils are they?
Kim, ever since I bought my bungalow – 20 years ago – I have puzzled my head about leasehold and ground rent, but never achieved a satisfactory answer. Earlier this year I came across LKP and sent an email to Sebastian O’Kelly, at last I got an answer to leasehold and ground rent. And that answer confirmed my suspicions that leasehold is the most almighty scam. Only since then have I become aware of an entire industry living off this scam. To ask me for insight on this industry and if they are involved in residential mobile home sites is unfair, I am still at kindergarten, better people than I can perhaps answer that question.