Site Rules

Most tight-knit communities like ours have rules to maintain community cohesion and neighbourliness. However, some people are ignoring them and it's got to the stage where the landlord needs to have a crackdown.

It’s an unenviable task for Lisa but an important one to maintain that community cohesion. Some of the things she's dealing with at the moment are overheight hedges and fences, vehicles and pets.

We've had several questions about rules so here's a quick Q&A.

1. I have lived at Dunton 30 years. We didn't have the same rules when I moved in so do I need to follow the new ones?

Yes you do. The Mobile Homes Act 2013 made previous site rules obsolete. From 2013 site owners had to refresh their site rules and deposit them with the council. These are the rules we're all bound by.

2. Why have I been told to cut my hedge? Where they form the boundary between adjacent homes, hedges/fences must be a maximum of 1 metre high for fire safety reasons. This is part of the site licence from the council and it’s all about minimising the spread of fire between homes.

3. I don't use my car these days but it's still my car so would I have to remove it? Whether you use your car or not is irrelevant. However, all vehicles kept on site must be taxed, insured and roadworthy. If it's not then the landlord is entitled to ask you to remove it.

4. I've been told my van is oversized but previous management said it's fine? The rules state no ‘commercial vehicles’ with a weight exceeding 1.5 tonnes. If you had verbal assurances from previous landlords then Regency would probably need to resolve this at a tribunal. This would give the residents involved the opportunity to put their case and have it heard by a judge and for a decision to be made as to whether a verbal agreement could be seen as binding.

5. I hear that the office is having a crackdown on dogs? Yes, the park rules are very clear that we're a no pets site and this has been the case for many years. This is common practice to minimise the risk of nuisance pets can cause in close communities like ours. However, there is one exception to this rule and that's assistance dogs. This exception is because the Equality Act makes it illegal to treat a person with an assistance dog differently.

The definition of an assistance dog is set out in the Equality Act itself.

“assistance dog” means —

(a)
a dog which has been trained to guide a blind person;

(b)
a dog which has been trained to assist a deaf person;

(c)
a dog which has been trained by a prescribed charity to assist a disabled person who has a disability that consists of epilepsy or otherwise affects the person's mobility, manual dexterity, physical co-ordination or ability to lift, carry or otherwise move everyday objects;

The association gets lots of messages from people looking to move to Dunton saying they need their pet for emotional support so if they get a letter from their doctor would this be acceptable?

The governing body for assistance dogs makes it clear that an emotional support dog (which some people need for comfort and companionship) is not an assistance dog. Emotional support dogs are not covered in the Equality Act so businesses have no obligation to allow them. In a nutshell, the only dogs which are legally exempt from 'no pets' rules are assistance dogs as described in the legislation above. The governing body says there's a clear distinction between a pet dog and an assistance dog. The latter are not pets as such, they are dogs trained for a specific purpose and supplied to someone.

It might sound harsh, but to be fair to the landlord, the rule is very clear that the only pets allowed are 'assistance dogs' so if your dog doesn't meet that definition we wouldn't be able to support you.

If residents have further questions on park rules you can drop us a line. We support the landlord having a clampdown because without rules being maintained it’s chaos and everyone doing what they like.