Case No. UKUT-16-(LC)-UTLC-Case-Numbers:-LC-2022-140

5.The Hartford Marina is described by the FTT as an area around a lake created by a flooded gravel pit; on the lake is a marina with about 200 mixed residential and leisure berths. Around the lake is a road giving access to pontoons at which houseboats are moored, and there are also narrowboats and lodges. 6.A previous owner of the Marina, Mr Perry, designed and marketed the “Hartford Houseboat”, comprising a static caravan (of the “Willerby” brand) which stands - complete with wheels – on a float. It can be rolled on and off the float by means of a detachable ramp. The whole (caravan + float) cannot be moved together on land; if the caravan needs repair it has to be taken off the float. 7.A number of Hartford Houseboats are moored on the lake; their floats are attached to pontoons running into the lake from the shore. The pontoons belong to the appellant and the houseboats are moored pursuant to licence agreements with their owners, who pay a fee to the appellant.8.The marina benefits from a number of planning permissions; the one applicable to the “West Pontoon” where Ms Jaffe’s houseboat is moored and to the immediately surrounding water is a permission granted in 1998 by the local planning authority, the Huntingdonshire District Council, for:“Retention of use of land for 15 houseboats for holiday use, moorings, parking and ancillary development at: Hartford Marina, Huntingdon Road, Wyton.”9.It is agreed that that is a permission for the retention of what was already there, namely the Hartford Houseboats moored at the pontoon at that date, in one of which Ms Jaffe now lives. 10.There were several conditions to the 1998 planning permission, of which the first read:“The houseboats hereby approved shall be used only as holiday accommodation and shall not be used as the sole or main residence of any person.”11.On 6 July 2014 the local planning authority issued a certificate under section 191 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which certified the “lawful use (as existing) for occupation as a sole residence” of “Houseboat 8 West Pontoon” as shown edged red on an attached plan. The plan depicts the lake and the West Pontoon with numbered houseboats radiating off it; edged red is just one houseboat (numbered 8) and the immediately surrounding water. 12.Ms Jaffe bought that houseboat in 2017 from its previous owner, Mr Gerard Bol, and it has been her home ever since. She has now been served with notice to quit by the appellant, and she therefore claims the protection of the Mobile Homes Act 1983.13.Section 1 of the Mobile Homes Act 1983 provides:“(1) This Act applies to any agreement under which a person (“the occupier”) is entitled–(a) to station a mobile home on land forming part of a protected site; and(b) to occupy the mobile home as his only or main residence.”14.Ms Jaffe seeks to establish that the Mobile Homes Act 1983 applies to the agreement whereby she occupies her property on the appellant’s land.15.Ms Jaffe has a licence agreement with the appellant, which does not say in terms that she can live on the houseboat. But the FTT at paragraph 124 of its decision said that it was agreed that Ms Jaffe was not a trespasser and that she had permission to station her houseboat where it floats and to use it as her sole residence. So her agreement with the appellant goes beyond the terms of her written licence; the FTT at its paragraph 147 found that she had an agreement that gave her permission to station a mobile home on the site and to live in it as her sole residence, and there is no appeal from that finding.16.In order to show that the Mobile Homes Act 1983 applies to that agreement Ms Jaffe has to show first that the agreement entitles her to station a mobile home on land, and second that that land is a protected site. Ms Jaffe’s case on the second question is put only in relation to her own “pitch”, namely the part of the lake on which her houseboat floats, being the area comprised in the 2014 Certificate of Established Use, and I refer to that area as “Ms Jaffe’s pitch”.17.The FTT’s decision was first issued on 25 November 2021; a second version was issued on 13 January 2022, said to have been corrected under rule 50 of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013 which enables the correction of typographical errors and accidental slips or omissions. The decision was that the agreement entitles Ms Jaffe to station a mobile home on the appellant’s land, and that Ms Jaffe’s pitch is a protected site. The FTT granted permission to appeal in terms that permitted an appeal on both those points.