WHEN Katey and Pieter Strydom left Mpumalanga to retire to their brand new park home on land leased from a Melville camping park, in March 2006, they made one big mistake.
Although they claimed the previous owner of Lalanathi Caravan Park said that they could live there for as long as they liked they did not obtain legal agreements and documentation to make sure this would be the case.
Last year they and the owners of three other park homes were devastated to learn from a lawyer, acting on behalf of Lalanathi Caravan and Camping Park owners Barry and Charlotte Langston, that they would have to pack up and leave on February 28 when their current 12-month lease expired. The piece of ground on which the attractive caravan park is built belongs to Spoornet. In November 2011, the Langstons bought the goodwill and took over the Spoornet lease, which runs until 2021.
They told the South Coast Herald that giving the four permanent residents six months’ notice to vacate the park was strictly a business decision. It was a hard decision based on the need to make changes that would allow them to survive the economic downturn that was having such a negative impact on tourism-related businesses.
“We have beach access and the lovely park is very popular with holidaymakers and has amazing potential. It is usually packed during the December holiday season. This year, though, our occupancy rate was down to only 70 percent,” said Mr Langston. However, this fact is of little comfort to the affected permanent residents who are afraid that they will be left homeless and destitute.
Although it is theoretically easy to move a park home the Strydoms, Richard and Martie Esterhuizen and Alta van Rooyen all told the South Coast Herald that they had invested heavily in what they believed would be their permanent retirement home. Mrs van Rooyen has added extensive wooden structures to her park home, even transforming it into a double storey building The Strydoms said they had spent thousands of rands transforming their basic unit into a dream retirement home.
“We spent R25 000 on plants alone when we moved in,” Mr Strydom said.
Before they could move in they had to level the site and prepare it for the placement of the park home, which was moved into position using a massive crane from Durban harbour. This was an expensive exercise,but that was just the start of it.
To build their pretty little garden and to secure the site, they had to build an extensive retaining wall. They also had to outlay a great deal of money on infrastructure, including the sewage system and conservancy tank, a pre-paid electricity meter, a water storage tank and a pump to ensure there was enough water pressure for domestic use.The Strydoms finished it off with an attractive timber deck, a car port and a tool shed.
Mr Strydom said they had invested most of their retirement nest egg on what they expected would be their final home. Mrs van Rooyen and the Esterhuizens said the same.
“Although we have been offered the use of an alternate piece of land, we don’t have money to take this all down and to rebuild it elsewhere,” Mrs Strydom explained.
However, the distraught park home owners are not the only ones who have invested heavily in the park. Mr and Mrs Langston said they had sunk their life savings into their dream of building up the park into a viable family business. As they informed the permanent residents when they took over the business, their intention was to grow it and to maximise its use. Unlike the unfortunate park home owners, they have tied up legal matters to ensure they will have suitable options when the Spoornet lease expires.
“When they first moved in the permanent residents didn’t seem to consider the ramifications of the Spoornet lease possibly not being renewed in 2021,” Mrs Langston pointed out.
When the new owners took over they sent polite, friendly letters to the permanent residents saying that all existing arrangement between them and the previous owners would be taken into consideration and reviewed. The permanents were invited to discuss this matter with the Langstons. At first, all went well, but there has been disagreement over fairly petty, but troublesome issues and some friction between the permanents and the park owners. Both parties agree that this has accelerated recently.
However, Mr Langston was adamant this had no bearing on the leases not being renewed.
The four park home owners rent fairly large stands for a little less than R2 000 a month. However, the Langstons explained that this did not go straight into their pockets. With costs of water, the Spoornet lease, rates and many other running expenses, the profits from the lease of these pieces of land were small. To make ends meet they would need to expand the tourism side of their business. For this they needed to create more caravan sites using the section of the park where the four permanent homes were currently placed.
In the meantime the Strydoms are having sleepless nights. They have contacted their lawyer, but are terrified they might end up with nowhere to go.
“Park home owners should be warned by our situation,” they said. They advised owners to make sure that all agreements about long term leasing were given to them in black and white.
