The deadline for dealing with outstanding pitch fee disputes is fast approaching. For park owners who sent out notices about the review(s) on parks in England before 30 April 2011 (including going back as far as six years) but residents are refusing to pay the increase(s), you will only have until 29 April 2012 to ask the court to formally set the pitch fee. After that, you will lose your remedy and your residents will only have to pay the last agreed pitch fee, which could be from many years ago! That might be a rather frightening prospect for some park owners who have been in niggling disputes with residents over pitch fees for several years.

So if you have a long running dispute with your residents, make sure you're on the ball and get your applications into court by 29 April 2012. Don't ignore it and let it go by for another year – you won't have the option to address this and you could find yourself seriously out of pocket when you think about how much pitch fee you would be missing out on over the next decades.

For park owners with disputes relating to more recent pitch fee reviews the situation is different and time scales are much tighter and park owners need to act very quickly to sort out any disputes.

Of course, we can help you with the application to the court or advise you on whether the court is the right way to deal with your issues – it may be that the Residential Property Tribunal is the correct forum for dealing with your dispute. It may be that you're just not sure about how to deal with a dispute. But get in touch soon – there are steps which need to be taken before an application can be made, and the sooner those steps are taken the better. Contact the parks team on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or one of our parks specialists on 01392 207020.