Living in mobile home all year round

[Claire la richarde]

Are there any sites in France where you're allowed to live in a mobile home all year round?

Would it depend on the site's policy, or are there laws about it?

You're not supposed to do it in the UK, I know, though I also know that people do

[Bevdeforges]

Like most things in France, I suppose "it depends."

There is a location near where I live (here in the Paris region) that sells proper mobile homes - i.e. NOT caravans or camping cars, these are like the mobile homes people live in in the US. As far as I know, if you set up a real mobile home on a privately owned property and hook it up to the water and electrical system, you can live in it year round, no problem, as long as you apply for all the proper permits.

What I haven't seen here in France (yet) is a mobile home park - again like what you see in the US. Doesn't mean they don't exist, but I haven't run across one so far.
Cheers,
Bev

PS - I should add that we have a neighbor living full time in a caravan on what is supposed to be a piece of "agricultural" property. He appears to be constructing some sort of add-on shelter from a couple of those "mobile office" containers. According to our farmer neighbors, he gets away with it because both the caravan and the mobile office things are considered "temporary" constructs and thus don't violate the code that says you can't build anything on agricultural land.

[Claire la richarde]

Thanks for that, Bev.

I'm trying to formulate some kind of retirement scheme. The problem being, I won't be able to afford a very swish retirement.

Of course, if I semi-retired, I wouldn't be living in the mobile home all year round anyway, as even if I could telework most of the time, I'd have to come back to the UK every now and then to keep in touch with work contacts. I'd say to keep in touch with family and friends, but I rather think that I'd find them coming over to see me in France pretty regularly if it meant free holiday accomodation. Then I could blag accomodation off them when I needed to come back and network, so I wouldn't have to pay rent in the UK.

This is starting to sound like a plan.

[coloma gold]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

Like most things in France, I suppose "it depends."

There is a location near where I live (here in the Paris region) that sells proper mobile homes - i.e. NOT caravans or camping cars, these are like the mobile homes people live in in the US. As far as I know, if you set up a real mobile home on a privately owned property and hook it up to the water and electrical system, you can live in it year round, no problem, as long as you apply for all the proper permits.

What I haven't seen here in France (yet) is a mobile home park - again like what you see in the US. Doesn't mean they don't exist, but I haven't run across one so far.
Cheers,
Bev

PS - I should add that we have a neighbor living full time in a caravan on what is supposed to be a piece of "agricultural" property. He appears to be constructing some sort of add-on shelter from a couple of those "mobile office" containers. According to our farmer neighbors, he gets away with it because both the caravan and the mobile office things are considered "temporary" constructs and thus don't violate the code that says you can't build anything on agricultural land.

Bev...
I assume another consideration would be how this would impact the neighborhood and the relations with the neighbors.. In the US, very few people want to live next to mobile homes or trailer/mobile home parks.. Is this a problem in France?

[Bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by coloma gold

Bev...
I assume another consideration would be how this would impact the neighborhood and the relations with the neighbors.. In the US, very few people want to live next to mobile homes or trailer/mobile home parks.. Is this a problem in France?

The "zoning" laws in France are considerably different from those in the US - not to mention the cultural differences. For example, our neighbor living in the caravan is clearly in violation of many regulations, but here in France no one would dare complain to the mairie for fear of "offending" our wacko "caravan-man" (as I have dubbed him).

If you set up a mobile home on a private piece of property your neighbors have little or nothing to say about it. It depends for the most part on how the particular property is "zoned."
Cheers,
Bev

[snooper]

Originally Posted by Claire la richarde

Are there any sites in France where you're allowed to live in a mobile home all year round?

Would it depend on the site's policy, or are there laws about it?

You're not supposed to do it in the UK, I know, though I also know that people do

Hi. Yes there are sites in France which are OPEN all year and, theoretically, you could be there all year.
However I believe that technically you are not allowed to live in one permanently. Park owners will ask that you have an address somewhere else they can show to inspectors. Don't be fooled by the French classification of parks as 'Park Residential Loisir' (PRL for short). The word 'residence' in French doesn't have the same connotations as in the UK, meaning somewhere you're staying, NOT 'residential'. 'Loisir' is exactly as it says: 'leisure'. All French parks (I think without exception) are for leisure purposes only.
You could probably live on a park (with the owner's verbal agreement) and get away with it without any problems. It's up to you whether you want to take the risk...

[landon]

That'd be fun. I have a friend who lives in a van and drives around Eastern Europe, while running his translation agency on his laptop.

I'd like to rent a van and sojourn in France.