I moved into a caravan & gave up everything – my pals called me bonkers.. but I do have one big regret
A RETIREE gave up everything to live in a caravan and his pals thought he was bonkers.
Roger Mole, 77, bought a battered caravan which was set in a farmer’s field in the commune of Fleurac, in the Dordogne region, southwest France, so he could design and build his own dream house.
When his divorce was finalised in January 2012, he started to think about selling his business and retiring.
A friend who was living in France suggested he come and do an exploratory visit to see what he thought.
Roger had only been in France a few days when he found what he described as “my” house – a converted barn in the Dordogne that had been empty for four years.
His offer was accepted and he spent the next nine years making improvements.
But he also ran into some serious problems, most notably the roof was “showing signs of its age”.
He considered modernising the property but ruled this out as being too expensive.
Roger also dabbled with the idea of designing a property himself and even got a building permit.
But he thought even that wouldn’t solve many of the problems and he put the house on the market and a deal was eventually struck to sell it.
Roger told The Telegraph: “I sold almost all of my house’s contents (living room furniture, cooker, freezer, fridge, dishwasher, washing machine), together with my wood saw and splitter to the new owners.
“Friends told me that the price I agreed was too cheap, but I think it was worth it so I could start afresh with a clean slate wherever I was going to end up in the new place.”
In France, caravans have to have a registration of their own, in a similar way to a car.
But often these get lost or misplaced and are difficult to replace, so many older caravans don’t have one.
Technically, these are meant to be given up for destruction but many French people put them up for sale – but only “for use on private land or a private leisure area”.
After searching about he finally got a “run-down, six-metre Fendt Diamant with two axles” and it was time to move in.
Roger then went into battle with French bureaucracy and the demands of the “Patriomoine” – French cultural heritage
The Patriomoine is “jealously guarded by an organisation called Architectes des Bâtiments de France (ABF).
Which covers things such s the colour palettes that must be used for the stonework, wall coatings, windows and doors, ironwork and roofing, even extending to the type of material that can be used.
Has it been worth all the effort and ups and downs I’ll say it has, and my only wish is that I’d done it sooner.
Roger Mole
He contacted the ABF with a rough plan of the house he wanted to build and got a reply back saying his design was an eyesore and it would strongly disapprove of it being built.
Undeterred, he then approached the local mayor, who Roger already knew, who said his building plans “contained absolutely nothing that would prevent the approval and construction of my house”.
The mayor said he should submit his “Demande de Permis de Construire”, which he would support and Roger went back to the ABF.
Roger also used a drone to take pictures of the entire area and added that only three of the 16 houses in the area could be described as “traditional” in style.
Eventually his permit request was approved by everyone except the ABF, this time it said the land should remain for agricultural use and shouldn’t be built on.
But as Roger pointed out, the land had long been classified as “for construction” in the local structure plan.
By mid-May 2021, having eventually seen of the ABF, Roger was ready to sign a contract with a builder and get started.
Following a technical meeting where all the details were ironed out he was set to go.
During this time though, Roger was also battling to get some basic utilities – water and electricity – set up in his caravan.
DELAYS
With the building contract which was signed in July 2021 the builders were due to start in October but with delays they didn’t actually start until March 9, 2022.
There were also further delays with the builders suddenly stopping work for “no apparent reason and disappear,” often for weeks at a time.
A number of hiccups along the way also caused delays, most notably an issue with the roofing subcontractor who placed the roof structure too far forward.
That issue alone meant of month of construction time was lost.
By last summer, Roger had been living in his old caravan for nearly 27 months, with the builder originally saying the house would take 10 months to build.
Roger said: “Temperatures had begun to exceed 40C, and it was becoming intolerable.
“My fridge was too warm to safely store food, and my small freezer was running for so long that it felt like it might burst into flame at any moment.”
While the house wasn’t finished, enough had been done for him to “temporarily” move in.
Roger said that despite the challenges, living in his old caravan had been the “right decision”.
He estimates by doing that, he saved more than £14,300 (€17,000) in rent and taxes although he did admit he wouldn’t want to do it all over again.
Roger said: “Has it been worth all the effort and ups and downs?
“I’ll say it has, and my only wish is that I’d done it sooner.”