The Law and You
Preface
In this country (The United Kingdom) the Monarch owns all the land including yours, and people are permitted 'freehold' which roughly translates as free use of the land and that 'use' is bought and sold. You have no other right to the land and this is why in legislation land is considered 'registered' rather than owned. Further, in recent years county and city councils have been given an ever increasing authority to decide what people can and cannot do on the land that they have paid to use. This is important because its vital to understand that you have no “right” to anything, instead you are 'permitted' to do things.
A fixed Address, is a legal requirement for anyone to reside in this country. You must have a fixed address to Vote, Have a pension, Pay taxes, have a passport, have a driving licence, have Insurance, own a vehicle, and the list goes on. The reason for this being a legal requirement is because the United Kingdom is an authoritarian state, in that there are no absolute rights, and it enforces compliance through penalty, and in order to impose those penalties there is a requirement to be able to find you. The defence, I wasn't aware is therefore unacceptable. Read our Article Living Full Time.
Now that's understood, let's talk about the LAW with campers and motorhomes, which ONLY applies to the United Kingdom.
Definitions
A motor caravan is “a motor vehicle (not being a living van) which is constructed or adapted for the carriage of passengers and their effects and which contains, as permanently installed equipment, the facilities which are reasonably necessary for enabling the vehicle to provide mobile living accommodation for its users”. Motor caravans are not classed as goods vehicles for MOT test purposes and are therefore in class IV or V depending on their seating capacity but regardless of their size or weight.
A living van is “a vehicle, whether mechanically propelled or not, which is used for living accommodation by one or more persons and which is also used for the carriage of goods or burden which are not needed by such one or more persons for the purpose of their residence in the vehicle”. Living vans are classed as goods vehicles and, depending on their weight, are therefore in either class IV or VII within the MOT test scheme or are subject to HGV plating and testing.
Your Home
No, its not, in the law its a vehicle like any other vehicle and it has no special status just because you live in it, and actually the legality of 'living' in it is a grey area. Whilst you may think you can rely on the Human Rights Act Article 8, you cannot because of “except such as is in accordance with the law” and this has been explored by legal precedent. Regardless, if you commit any of a number of motoring offences the Police can take it away, complete with contents, without notice and are not obligated to return it. You can thank the Police Reform Act 2002 for that little gem of legislation.
Not content with legalised theft, your elected representatives extended this power with the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 which begins with “Protection of the police”, which if you read it translates into increased penalties for you and I, and the removal of penalties for the police committing offences the rest of us could be imprisoned for. The key section for many of us is Part 4 Section 83; “Offence relating to residing on land without consent in or with a vehicle” and of course applies “a person aged 18 or over (“P”) is residing, or intending to reside”, so you don't actually have to be residing, just intending to. Our authoritarian state just upgraded to a police state, and we let it happen.
Travelling Restraints
It is a legal requirement to ensure that all passengers are restrained whilst the vehicle is in motion. This used to be the drivers responsibility for front seat passengers and the passengers responsibility for rear seat passengers, but this is no longer the case allowing the penalty to be placed with the driver under all circumstances. That being said, rear facing passengers are not technically included in this legislation in addition to vehicles manufactured before seat belts were mandatory. That being said, the restraint of passengers should be taken seriously because should, in any accident, any person be injured whilst not restrained, then the driver has committed the offence of not ensuring the safety of his passengers, and should that passenger be a minor then the additional offences of neglect and wilful endangerment shall be committed.
Can you retrofit seat-belts? Well yes technically, but they should be fitted by a company who is authorised to ensure the Road Vehicles - Construction and Use regulations are fully complied with, and that the DVLA is updated officially to reflect the change.
Travelling Weights
Your Driving License will detail the classes of vehicles that you can drive, and those classes for most will limit the Gross weight of the vehicle to 3.5t. The offence of being overweight is set out under s.41(b) Road Traffic Act 1988 (Amended 2022 to afford the power to seize the vehicle). The guidelines for being overweight indicate a fine shall be calculated based on the % overweight at the time of weighing, but this is guidance and not law and cannot be relied upon. With most small campervans keeping within this limit is fairly easy but for motorhomes where the weight of the vehicle itself is often over 3t the available payload is quite small and easily exceeded. With a C1 license you can drive a vehicle up to 7.5t but not exceeding the plated rating of the vehicle. Most 5t motorhomes are plated at 5t with the vehicle being around 4t allowing 1t of payload.
Parking (Stopping)
There is no right to stop anywhere, but there's also no right to go anywhere since all the roads and public places within a council's boundaries are considered to be “Occupied” by them, and road infrastructure is managed by the DoT and our Government declined to subscribe to Article 13 of the Human Rights Act (freedom of movement). Technically, the police can without restriction prevent you from leaving your fixed dwelling (house/flat not vehicle) and going anywhere, if they are so instructed.
However, it is generally understood that area's designated for 'parking' can be used for parking and unless there are signs to the contrary that parking is not restricted. Knowing this, councils have been rapidly changing signage and imposing restrictions as fast as possible to prevent people parking without limitation, many of them taking the opportunity to further impose charges. The Police can, at any time and without justification, require you to “move on” from anywhere except private land (with the land occupiers permission), and you must comply or this becomes an arrestable offence. Even if you reside on private land with the occupiers permission, the county/city council can apply to have you removed through a recently streamlined process that affords the police the additional right to take your vehicle from you without any obligation to return it.
In Charge
You must not at any time be over the legal drink-drive limit, OR, take drugs because this commits an offence of either Drunk in Charge or Unfit Whilst in Charge. Under s.4(1) RTA 1988, it is an offence if a person drives or attempts to drive a motor vehicle on a road or other public place whilst unfit through drink or drugs. Similarly, s.4(2) RTA 1988 makes it an offence if the person is in charge of a motor vehicle when under the influence of drink or drugs. The only defence being to “prove that at the time he is alleged to have committed the offence his circumstances were such that there was no likelihood of his driving a vehicle whilst the proportion of alcohol in his breath exceeded the prescribed limit” for alcohol which is certainly a risk since the Police have already proven their case and it is now for your to mitigate that with your defence that you MUST PROVE beyond a reasonable doubt. The risk if you do not is a heavy fine, points, seizure of your vehicle and likely disqualification from driving. For Drugs there is no defence that can be presented.
There are many websites who claim that its 'ok' to be drunk in charge or even on drugs in charge, but these have no basis in law, and hopefully you are now fully informed. You should be able to rely on 'common sense' from the Police, but given the excessive penalties you must decide if its worth the risk. Most importantly, never rely on 'advice' from social media, everyone who will tell you its 'ok', have never themselves been arrested, held in the cells overnight, and then interrogated by the police whilst their vehicle is towed away and impounded.
Appendix
Human Rights Act (of which our country choose exclude certain sections, the most important sections)
Article 1: Protection of property. Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law. The preceding provisions shall not, however, in any way impair the right of a State to enforce such laws as it deems necessary to control the use of property in accordance with the general interest or to secure the payment of taxes or other contributions or penalties.
Article 8: Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
As you can see, the Human Rights Act (of which we only subscribe to part of it) gives sweeping rights on one hand, then pretty much takes it all away again through exclusions that are even more sweeping. This is the very definition of authoritarian.
Unfortunately, in this country the vast majority of people still believe in fairness, in even handed treatment by the Police, and in their 'rights'. You have no rights, you don't even have the right to free speech any more, even what you say commits an arrestable offence if it causes or intends to cause distress to, well, anyone.
It is important to be informed, and to know your lack of rights, to understand that you're relying entirely on our Magistrates and Judges to bring fairness to a game weighted against you from the start, and knowing that ultimately the house always wins.