Campground and RV park due diligence

Due diligence on a campground or RV park is less about auditing an income statement and more about verifying a set of physical and regulatory facts a buyer cannot see from the road. Financial statements can be reviewed the way any small business’s are; the water system, the zoning, and the seasonal-tenant base need their own dedicated verification, and each one carries a specific way of going wrong that a generic due diligence checklist will miss.

Start at the well and the septic field

A current well-water test and a septic-system inspection are non-negotiable, and “current” matters — a test from several years ago tells a buyer little about a system’s condition today. The inspection should confirm not just that the system passes today but what its realistic remaining service life is and whether it is actually sized for the number of sites the park operates, since a system built for fewer sites than are currently being sold on is a capital problem waiting to surface. Any water-taking or septic approval on file should be checked against what the province or region actually has registered, not just what the seller says exists.

Verify the zoned site count against what actually operates

A buyer’s lawyer or advisor should confirm directly with the municipality that the number of sites currently being operated and marketed matches the zoning and any site plan approval on file, rather than accepting the seller’s count at face value. A campground that has quietly added sites over the years beyond what was approved is not unusual, and a buyer who inherits that gap can face a forced reduction in site count after closing — a materially different business than the one they thought they bought.

Search title, PPSA and environmental records

A personal property security search should be run against any equipment included in the sale — mowers, plows, laundry machines and similar assets — to confirm the seller actually owns them free of a registered lien. A title search on the land itself should confirm there are no undisclosed easements, encumbrances or building-code orders, and any environmental compliance approval or record of site condition on file should be reviewed for open orders or unresolved conditions tied to the property. In Ontario, a record of site condition is filed with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks; other provinces maintain their own contaminated-sites or environmental-registry equivalents — British Columbia runs its own site remediation regime for contaminated sites, and Alberta runs a separate contaminated-site remediation process through its Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas.

Confirm propane and other TSSA-regulated equipment

Propane systems — bulk tanks, site distribution lines, cabin and fire-pit hookups — fall under their own technical-safety regime, separate from the water, septic and zoning checks already covered. In Ontario, that equipment is regulated by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, and a buyer’s advisor should confirm a change-of-ownership notice has actually been filed with TSSA and that inspection records for the propane system are current; other provinces run the same function through their own technical-safety regulator. A propane system that has never been inspected, or one where the change-of-ownership step gets missed at closing, becomes the new owner’s compliance problem the moment the sale completes, not the seller’s.

Reconcile the seasonal-tenant rent roll

The seller’s seasonal-tenant list should be checked line by line against deposits actually held, payment history, and how long each tenant has returned, because this is the pre-sold revenue base a buyer is effectively paying for in advance. A rent roll that cannot be reconciled to the bank records, or that shows a meaningful share of tenants have only been there a single season, tells a very different story than one showing a stable base returning year after year under some form of written agreement.

Findings that actually kill a campground deal

• A well or septic system that fails inspection or cannot support the site count being sold on, with no realistic way to price the required capital work into the deal
• A zoning or approved site-count mismatch the municipality will not resolve in the buyer’s favour
• A seasonal-tenant base that appears likely to leave en masse once ownership changes, collapsing the pre-sold revenue the price relied on
• A required environmental or water-taking approval that is delayed, denied or in active dispute

What a “passed inspection” finding actually tells you

A well or septic system that passes today’s inspection is not the same thing as a system with years of remaining life, and a buyer who treats a clean inspection report as a permanent clearance is missing the point of the exercise. The finding that matters is the estimated remaining service life and the realistic cost of the next major repair or replacement, not simply a pass or fail, because that is what turns a routine inspection into a number a buyer can actually price into the deal.