The Age - Beau Donelly-

Beverly and William Bolton have lived at the BP caravan park in Werribee South for 23 years. Cabin No. 49 is a modest three-bedroom demountable, but it's home.

Over the years the couple have added a porch and a little carport for Ms Bolton's scooter. There's a garden and an aviary, and for Christmas, fairy lights have been hung out the front. 

Like half-a-dozen other retirees in this ageing caravan park, the Boltons own their home but rent the land it's on. This hasn't previously worried them, but the park has been sold and its new owners are planning a major redevelopment.

It is going to be rebranded Wyndham Cove Estate, a "boutique" site with movable townhouses.

Permanent residents received a letter last month saying they had the chance to buy one of the plots with a new townhouse, advertised for $295,000 to $355,000. They can also apply to rent one or be moved to a park in Echuca or Portland. If their site is sold, residents were told, they will be given 60 days' notice to vacate.

For Ms Bolton, moving isn't an option. "We're going to fight it," she said. "We've been here too long. I've got all my doctors around here and my daughter lives close by in Werribee."

She said she can't afford to buy one of the new homes and she's concerned the rent for a three-bedroom townhouse would be more than she pays now.

What's happening in Werribee South is happening across the country, as caravan parks are bought up for their prime real estate and developed. Advocates say the trend is forcing vulnerable permanent residents, many of them elderly, into insecure housing.

Fiona York, from the Housing for the Aged Action Group, said there were three other caravan parks or residential villages being shut down in Victoria alone, leaving hundreds of retirees in limbo.

"This is a pattern that we're seeing with lots of different caravan parks being closed down to make way for other types of housing. It's a nightmare," she said.

Evicted retirees often received little or no compensation and the resale value of their movable home was negligible. "The issue is that these people have invested in a moveable home but there's no security of tenure for that land," said Ms York.

Construction of two double-storey townhouses is already well under way at the BP Caravan Park, although the local council recently issued a stop-work order because, it said, "significant changes" had been made without building permits. Wyndham Council officers have had to return to the site three times in recent weeks after reports building works were continuing.

Next door to one of them is a cabin owned by Marilyn, who has lived at the park for 17 years. Marilyn uses an oxygen tank 24 hours a day while she waits for a lung transplant and said she could not move to one of the other caravan parks on offer because she has to be within an hour of The Alfred hospital.

On the other side of the park, Jimmy Meade, 77, said he doesn't want to move out of the old caravan that has been his home for almost two decades.

Gloria and Vance Jones, both in their 70s, bought their cabin about 18 months ago. They said they were told their block had already been sold. "We were absolutely devastated," Ms Jones said.

Other long-term residents are furious. "The way it's been handled is pretty ordinary," said one. "We sit here some weekends and people are standing around pointing at the sites they want."

On the sales board at the park's entrance, 18 sites have been marked "sold". But the park's new owner, Holiday Lifestyle Developments Australia, told Fairfax Media none had been bought and that the sign reflected refundable holding deposits. that had been put down for the sites.

Director Lauren Clarke said she was working with residents to help them buy or rent a new home in the park if they wanted to.

"I haven't gone in there and done anything terrible to anybody yet – I'm not intending on doing that either," she said. 

"We're working with the individuals to try and help them stay there if that's what they choose to do. I don't want to be throwing people out on the street, that's why I've given them the options."

Ms Clarke said the park desperately needed upgrading and long-term residents would be better off in the new development. If residents wanted to move, she would relocate them to another park for free.

Ms Clarke could not definitively say how much it would cost the residents to rent a new dwelling, but suggested the cost "wouldn't change all that much". If the residents have any issues I remain available to discuss their individual circumstances," she said.

The Tenants Union of Victoria said long-term caravan park residents would generally be entitled to 365 days' notice to vacate if they owned a movable home, or 120 days for a caravan.

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This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/retirees-fear-eviction-from-rundown-ca...