AIBU to be annoyed my caravan site has banned electric car charging with no warning?

[LowFlyingBacon]

Just after some advice because I’m honestly not sure if I’m being unreasonable or not here

last year I inherited some money and purchased a static caravan on a site. It’s perfect to take my ASD kids on holiday because it’s ours and has our stuff, but gives me a break away too! Except I’ve just had an email from the site saying that they’re no longer allowing owners to charge their cars on site. The email was really rude and literally said they’d remove any owners who were caught ignoring the rule. The owner has clearly had an argument with one of the other owners and is kicking off.
But I’ve got an electric car, I checked when I bought the caravan and was told I could charge there as otherwise I’ll have to pay to charge at a petrol station (can’t make it there and back otherwise). I pay for the electricity so it’s not costing the owner anything for me to charge.
is he allowed to just change the rules like this? I own the van, I pay for the electricity, how can he just decide like this? I’m furious, right at the beginning of summer too! It’s not a huge issue, but waiting around at a charging station isn’t easy with my kids, and it will cost so much more than charging it overnight where we are staying.

Have you asked why? Is it safety? Or cost? Perhaps arrangements could be come to. If possible they could get tax discounts for installing a EV charger.

Is the use of a standard plug charger covered by insurance ?

Do they have a safety concern due to fire risks around vans?

If you checked and were told you could charge your car before buying the caravan you should be able to argue that that information was something you relied on to make a decision to buy so it would be unreasonable for you now to not be able to do that.

I would send a polite e-mail in response pointing out the above and see what the response is before deciding on your next step.

Are you just plugging it into the caravan electric 3 pin socket?

Perhaps this is a healthy and safety issue as maybe the caravan electrics are suitable for this type of charging? Too many EVs on charge might overload the system. So rather than have this scenario they've had to say no EV charging now its happening more often.

A place I worked at installed some new machinery and it overloaded the electrics as the whole site was drawing too much current.

Perhaps work with the caravan park and ask them to install an EV charging area.

They banned it a few months ago at my local Park Dean caravan site too.

The main reason being people were charging their cars from other people's caravans, when the owners weren't there.

Why were they doing that?

I'm guessing so they don't have to pay? 🤷‍♂️

So the absent caravan owner would get charged for the electricity rather than the car owner I should think.

It sounds a Health and Safety issue to me. They have notified you pretty early in the holiday season. I think it's a reasonable stance to take. If the electrical circuit got overloaded there would be a high risk of fire and if there are gas bottles anywhere around then I'd imagine the threat to lives would potentially be very high.

I think since you've only just got the email OP, give it a while and they'll likely install charging points on site, where you can pay using an app.

This is a situation where I would try and talk face to face with the owner. You’re unlikely to get anywhere with an email. But if you hear them out on what their problem is, they may be open to working out a solution with you.

If you can’t get face to face, get on the phone and speak. You can’t solve problems by writing (the whole legal profession is based on making simple disputes more complicated and charging lots of money to do so). Just ring up, say you got the notification, and ask what’s been going on.

AFAIK the supplies in most caravan parks are not set up for large loads especially ones being drawn for any length of time. Thats why they are all fitted with gas boilers.

I once charged a PHEV on one of my 'outdoor' 3 pin sockets which got 'interestingly' warm.

It will 100% be due to people using the standard 3 pin sockets in the vans for charging.

EVs should not be charged this way. In order to charge an ev safely you need to install a dedicated charger.

You could ask the owner of the park if you could install a proper ev charger?

But if youve been charging on a regular socket more fool you.

At the caravan park my friend owns on, hes had private guests charge their EVs from the caravan inside sockets. Bloody cheeky as its a slow charge and ramps up the electric bill, but also a safety hazard as the sockets get really warm.

This is an annoying change, and presumably the management has taken this step because the current situation has become untenable for them. They wouldn't do it otherwise. Other posters have suggested the many ways in which people might have exploited the situation, demonstrating once again why we can't have nice things.

All issues around charging are about to get more contentious I suspect.

At least with petrol price differentials don't tend to be huge (may be a bit different if you're in a rural area) and then it comes down to usage.

But the difference between what people with driveways will pay and those forced to rely on commercial outlets is huge!

If the government really wants people to go electric there's going to have to be provisions made to make this more equitable.

But it also has to be safe. I just don't understand why posters cant see this new rule is not to prevent people having nice or convenient things. Its about stopping caravans going up in smoke.

Did you ask, and get your answer about charging your car, via email OP, or was it face to face? If by email, then you have proof of what was said, and have a far better case than if you just had a conversation, as then it's a case of, 'he said, she said'.

If you have it in writing, send the site management an email, referring to the email you already have, confirming they said it was OK, and point out your difficulties of charging elsewhere with your children onboard, and say that while obviously if it's a case of 'Health & Safety', you understand, but they do need to provide another suitable charging point. If they won't do that, and you have the previous agreement in writing, then they have broken the contract you have with them, and you would be able to take legal action, or alternatively negotiate selling the caravan, with THEM paying any fees.

However, if it was only ever a spoken agreement, and the person you spoke to is still there, then I would try and speak to them about it, but whatever you do, at least start off by being completely reasonable, not by issuing threats, as that will just get their backs up, and make it far less likely that you will get what you want.

Caravan sites can basically change the rules as they see fit. There are many people whose contracts are not worth the paper they’re written on but they’re so excited when they buy they don’t read them properly! As others have said it will be down to health and safety as caravans have very low voltage supplies so really aren’t safe for charging EV’s or running normal ovens! Our site in France does not allow EV charging but they have installed EV chargers. Likewise we now have to pay for electric and water which was previously included in our ground rent.

I would have thought that whoever said you could charge it there were wrong.

Charging from a domestic supply should only be emergency/occasional shouldn't it?

How do you charge at home?

I think it’s important to understand how you’re charging it. Fair enough not to be allowed to just plug it in as you would a toaster. Did you have a proper charger installed?

Most of the campsites I've been on recently - some with statics on as well as tourers - have this rule. Some of the bigger sites had separate electric car chargers.

Ours has just got some chargers in the car park. If yours is a site used for holidays and rented out to the public, can you ask if they might get some of the proper chargers for the car park?

Is it in the contract?

OP I would do as other have suggested and try a face to face.

sadly, however, if you look at holiday park action group on Facebook you will learn these places basically do what they want and there are no rules.