Legal barriers for long-term residents unable to sell caravan park homes in Tasmania

4 months ago

Dozens of people call the Beauty Point Tourist Park in northern Tasmania home, but since February last year no new residents have been allowed to move in. It's causing headaches for residents who wish to sell their homes on-site but have been told it's not possible.

Transcript

00:00About 14 years ago, Roslyn Grimer bought a home at a caravan park in northern Tasmania,

00:08nestled between the sea and the bush.

00:10It was an amazing place. I come and visited a friend actually, and within the next week

00:14I said, I'm buying one of these places.

00:16Like most homes at the Beauty Point Tourist Park, it started out as a caravan, but Miss

00:22Grimer has renovated and added rooms. Now she wants to sell her home after a devastating

00:28discovery.

00:28And all of a sudden, being on an emergency CAT scan, then a visit to the specialist in

00:35the next week and telling me that I had stage four pancreatic and liver cancer and only gave

00:41me three to six months to live.

00:44Miss Grimer wants to sell her place to fund cancer treatment, but the park says she's

00:49not allowed to.

00:50Despite being home to about 60 full-time residents, West Hamer Council says the park is only approved

00:56for visitor accommodation. It says over time, the park needs to become compliant, but current

01:02residents don't have to move.

01:04The caravan park says those who do leave must remove their homes from the property.

01:10Lawyer Vanessa Blyer has represented seven residents of the park, including Miss Grimer.

01:15She says legally, residents have the right to sell their homes if the structure was there

01:20before 2006, when different planning rules applied.

01:23It can be continued to be lived in as a home and it can be sold as a home.

01:28Premier Jeremy Rockcliffe says he empathises with Miss Grimer's situation.

01:32We don't want anyone to be in that circumstance. Prior to the election, we were drafting legislation

01:40to ensure that we gave greater rights to residents of caravan parks and that work will continue.

01:49For residents, legislation can't come soon enough.

Legal barriers for long-term residents unable to sell caravan park homes in Tasmania

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