JUDGES have told a park home firm they need a “major overhaul” of their accounting after it was found they had overcharged residents by £35,000.

A former resident took the owners of Gosfield Lake Park Homes to a tribunal after becoming concerned about costs.

Marie Collie moved from the site in Church Road, Gosfield in March 2022 after living there for 16 years.

Park owners Peter and Kelly Simmons were challenged on how much residents were charged for water and sewerage costs.

Ms Collie told the tribunal she considered she had paid “above the average cost” for water usage.

The tribunal heard a hose pipe licence and additional monies towards sewerage were also requested from residents.

Brother and sister owners Mr and Ms Simmons took over the ownership of the park from their mother in 2019.

They said they did not have any documents prior to their management.

They provided invoices from early 2019 to date, which equated to a total cost of £91,447.46.

The total amount paid from all residents during that period was £126,604.80.

The difference was £35,157.34 which equated to the owners of the 64 homes on site being overcharged £13.07 a month.

In the ruling Judge Shepherd said: “[Simmons] said he did not see this as overcharging but the calculations had been made incorrectly when sending pitch fee notices out.

“He said he would write to all residents to notify them of this mistake and calculations would be done differently when making increases on pitch fee review forms and water and sewerage increases.”

The judge ruled Ms Collie should be refunded £549.33.

They added: “The respondents need to have a major overhaul of the way in which they are carrying out their accounting for the site.

“Whilst the respondents’ charges are largely justifiable there does appear to be some retrospective justification on their part which is not really, satisfactory.”

A spokesman for Gosfield Lake Park Homes said: “The park owners are taking legal advice and will be in touch with all residents in April 2023.”