Owners and/or managers of residential park home sites which operate on a commercial basis must apply for inclusion in the fit and proper person register. This is to comply with The Mobile Homes (Requirement for Manager of Site to be Fit and Proper Person) (England) Regulations 2020.

The purpose of the fit and proper person test is to improve the standards of park home site management.

The application cost can be found above in Appendix B Fees

Who should apply?

This rule applies to residential park home sites which operate on a commercial basis, where units are sold or rented to residents.

Park home sites which are only occupied by the site owner or members of the site owner’s family do not need to apply.

The fit and proper person must be the person with day-to-day responsibility for managing a site. This could be the site owner, or a person appointed to undertake the task on the owner’s behalf. The applicant should be the site owner and licence holder.

If the site owner is a company or a corporate body, the application form must be completed by an appropriate person. The appropriate person could be:

• a director or other officer of the company
• a partner, where the site owner is a partnership
• a member of the management committee

Prepare your application

The applicant must show that there are suitable financial and management arrangements in place for the site and provide information about:

• Offences relating to fraud, dishonesty, violence, arson or drugs or listed in schedule 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
• Contraventions of law in relation to: housing, caravan sites, mobile homes, public health, planning or environmental health or landlord and tenant law.
• Contraventions of law in relation to the Equality Act 2010, or in connection with the carrying out of any business.
• Harassment of any person in connection with the carrying out of any business.
• Insolvency within the last 10 years.
• Disqualification from acting as a company director within the last 10 years.
• Right to work in the UK

The applicant will need to provide a basic DBS certificate dated no more than 6 months before the date of the application. The DBS certificate must be from an approved supplier.

You can arrange a DBS check using the Government website.

How to apply

You must submit an application and pay the required fee to the Council to be assessed as a Fit and Proper Person”

The application must be completed in line with the Warrington Councils Determination Policy

A PDF of the application form is available on request from private sector licensing or 01925 248482.

After you apply

We will make a decision based on your application as soon as reasonably practicable. We can either:

• Grant the application unconditionally. The person’s name will be included on the register for 5 years
• Grant the applications with conditions. If conditions are attached, there will be an annual fee (yet to be determined).
• Serve a preliminary notice on the applicant. This will include reasons for our decision and information about the right to make representations. The site owner has 28 days in which to make written representations if they do not agree with the preliminary notice.

We must take into account any representations before issuing the final decision notice. A final notice must include reasons for the decision and about the right of appeal against the decision.

The council must keep and maintain a register of fit and proper persons. This means that some of the information you provide in your application will be entered into the register. The information that will be included are your name, business address and contact details, name of the site, status of the applicant and dates.

What happens if I don't apply?

If you are operating a site and fail to comply with the fit and proper person test it is a criminal offence and if found guilty you would be liable, on summary conviction, of a fine up to level 5 (unlimited).

Our public register shows a list of sites that have deposited their site rules

What is the mobile homes act 2013?

The Mobile Homes (Site Rules) (England) Regulations 2014 came into force on 4 February 2014 and apply to ‘protected sites’ as defined under the Mobile Homes Act 1983. From 4 February 2015 all existing site rules ceased to have effect. There is no requirement under the legislation for any site to have site rules.

Where a licence holder proposes to introduce site rules, those proposals must be subject to a period of consultation with the site occupiers and any qualifying residents association. Schedule 5 to the regulations specifies the matters that cannot form part of any site rule.

What happens next?

Following the completion of the consultation procedure, the regulations require that the definitive copy of the site rules is deposited with the local authority. We are required to hold the definitive copy and publish a register online for which a fee can be charged.

If you live on a residential park home site (protected site) and have a dispute with the owner about the site rules then you may be able to take the matter to the residential property tribunal. It may also be advisable to take independent legal advice, for example from a solicitor.

More information on legal advice

• Residential property tribunals
• Lease advice