A formal resident’s association is a useful forum for all residents on a park site. It provides a platform where residents can voice and discuss any concerns they have and not to mention can serve to bring communities closer. A formal association is also the most effective way to approach a site owner to ensure that residents are heard.
If your site does not currently have a formal association in place, it is worthwhile to consider setting up an informal association to provide the opportunity to harbour a collaborative approach for residents to resolve or address any site issues. However, it is important to be aware that with an informal set up, the site owner is not obliged to address any issues raised to the residents about park operations and management.
Setting up a Qualifying Residents’ Association (QRA)
There are certain criteria to be met for a QRA to be formally recognised. It must include at least 50 per cent of homeowners on site. It is important to note that residents who rent their homes cannot join the QRA formally. When calculating the percentage of park home owners, each park home shall be counted as one resident/member and, in the event of there being more than one resident of a park home, the resident whose name first appears on the agreement/written statement is to be taken as the main resident for the QRA.
A QRA is required to retain certain records and documents, for example:
• an up-to-date list of members
• a constitution
• any other rules of the association
A QRA member is required to elect individuals for the following roles:
The chairperson, secretary and treasurer are permitted to make administrative decisions. Members should vote on all other decisions, and there is only one vote assigned to each park home.
The association must request formal acknowledgement from the site owner in writing addressed to the secretary stating that the association is recognised as a Qualifying Residents' Association. In this notice the residents should also explain how they have met the conditions required. If the site owner fails to accept, an application to the Tribunal can be made. The Tribunal can order that the QRA is recognised in the absence of the site owner recognition.
It is important to note that the QRA is independent from the site owner, therefore anyone who is an agent or employee of the site owner is excluded from membership.
Case law on QRA Matters
The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) has repeatedly emphasised that the question of recognition is not discretionary in a broad sense, but instead turns on whether the prescribed statutory criteria are satisfied. In that regard, the decision in Wick Farm Park Residents’ Association v Cotswold Country Estates CAM/38UD/PHK/2023/0003 confirms that once those criteria are met, the Tribunal will ordinarily grant recognition, even in the face of procedural imperfections or resistance from the site owner. The Tribunal there adopted a pragmatic and purposive approach, focusing on substance over form, and recognising that the legislative intent is to facilitate collective representation rather than frustrate it by technical objections.
Conversely, the decision in Yarwell Country Park Residents’ Association v Leisure Parks Luxury Living Ltd CAM/34UD/PHK/2019/0001 illustrates that the statutory requirements, particularly the 50% membership threshold—are not merely aspirational but jurisdictional. Where an association cannot demonstrate that it represents a majority of occupiers at the material time, recognition will be refused. Importantly, however, the Tribunal in that case also cautioned against an overly mechanistic or fluctuating approach to recognition. It rejected the notion that an association should fall in and out of qualifying status depending on short-term membership changes, noting that such an approach would undermine stability and leave associations vulnerable to manipulation by site owners. The emphasis,
therefore, is on genuine representativeness assessed in a principled and temporally coherent manner.
Although previous Tribunal decisions at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (as above) may offer an insight into a specific scenario, they are not binding on other Tribunals.
Why is a QRA important?
Qualifying residents’ associations hold certain rights. Site owners should consult with the residents’ association when they want to spend money on improvements for the site, or change how the park is operated.
Consequently, the site owner must consult with the QRA on any proposed changes regarding the operation or management of the site as well as any site improvements they are planning. Any planned improvement costs must be clearly outlined from the onset and the site owner must also explain if these costs will be considered in the next pitch fee review.
In particular, the law states that the site owner is required to:
• provide the QRA with at least 28 days’ notice in writing of the matters that require consulting;
• describe the proposed changes and how they may affect occupiers, either directly or indirectly, in the long and short term;
• explain when and where the QRA can make comments; and,
• take into account any comments made by the QRA before proceeding with the proposed changes.
Does everyone have to join?
The simple answer to this is no. Although strength in numbers is important, so is the ability to make your own choices. So, if the QRA is not something you wish to join on the site you live on, please remember it is not a legal requirement to become a member.
Concluding thoughts:
There is no doubt that there are huge positives in having a QRA set up and also in being a member. As we have seen in this article, park home owners can set up a “qualifying” residents’ association to represent the park home owner’s community and the benefits of which have been highlighted. A QRA may make liaising with the site owner easier, building neighbourly relations and - where needed - help spread the cost of legal advice.