Telling OAP's to sell their home.

Not to mention the somewhat alarming prospect of the electric car exploding into flames spontaneously. This is rare admittedly, but it happens.
Oh heck! I just bought a hybrid, thinking it would be the best of both worlds.

However much you may mock Monica, we also do not want an extremely expensive heat pump, costing possibly as much as £1400 for our house, which even if we had it, is said to be nowhere near as efficient at heating a house as a gas boiler. Nor do I want to have the entire system replaced with all the upheaval and expense, because it seems many current radiators and piping systems will not work with a heat pump. For this reason we are having a new gas boiler fitted next year. Our current gas boiler still works but is quite old.

I bought myself a new car last year. I chose a petrol Hyundai i20. I did not even consider an overpriced electric car, with all the attendant problems of needing a charging point installed, and the limit on how far you can travel without needing to recharge, which often entails a wait for a charging point to be free. Not to mention the somewhat alarming prospect of the electric car exploding into flames spontaneously. This is rare admittedly, but it happens. Then there’s the thousands of pounds required to change the battery after a few years, not to mention the almost impossibility of selling on the car for anymore than a pittance.

When technology advances and is useful and affordable, that’s great and we make use of it, much the same as everyone else, but I won’t accept technology that is overpriced and inconvenient, and nor should anyone else.

M0nica 😅

Cariadagain I love your posts. they are so nostalgic and remind me of the old people of my youth , who weren't having any of this electricity, they had (coal) gas lighting and why would anyone want anything else.

Come to that, inside loos were unhygienic, and there was nothing wrong with good coal fire, as they coughed their lungs up from all the air pollution and smog.

They always assumed that the current technology was the ultimate and would never be improved and if it did not work properly now, it never would.

I expect when the first man invented the wheel some old blokes were standing in a corner saying it would never work, it would keep breaking, they preferred to have severe arthritis, than risk using any of those new-fangled things to share the load.

But please keep going, we need people like you to remind us where we would be if we did not adapt to new technology, expecially any that will combat climate change.

...and the thought that struck me this morning being that if one decides to move = there's rather a time limit on it in some ways.

Having bought my current house 11 years ago - there's so much that might well be different already on another house.

I've got gas central heating system (had to virtually rip out everything that was here when I bought it) and so I know I've got a recent gas boiler. I've got a normal meter (not a smart meter) and long story as to why but I know it was only installed the year I bought this house and so electric board won't be able to spin their lie of meters having expiry dates for quite some years (by which time all the fighting about smart meters should surely be over - hopefully with us having won it). I've got normal phoneline (they've not done this area for a swopover off copper lines yet and I think there's a chance they'll never manage to swop mine against my will with the set-up I have here).

The more years that pass = the higher the proportion of houses that will have smart meters, new-style phone lines and "eco" heating system and that equals "I don't want them and would pass on them". So anyone intending to stick to "old style" is going to get more and more restricted over the years in the choice available - as more and more people have their houses changed to "new style" in these respects.

So staying put in my current house means a much better chance of staying with things the way I've decided - rather than having these "new style" changes imposed on me.

Add the latest news I'm reading on this - ie that neighbours who decide to have those noisy heat pumps on their houses are going to be allowed to:
a. have bigger ones
b. have them positioned nearer to the next door neighbours house

So anyone with a fair-size garden in their current house will be safer from having neighbours heat pump noise imposed on their property - ie rather than swopping to a small place that might be sited very close to the neighbour.

I second caution regarding park homes. The land owner can change and the place operate suddenly very differently.

I have a friend with a lovely park home in a great spot with nice neighbours (close but not too close) who's been going through the courts for (it feels like) years on behalf of the residents committee.

If you need more money to make your life comfortable, warm etc. there is no need to sell your home and move out if you want to live there for the rest of your life.
Take out a retirement mortgage for part of its value.
After you die, or if you go into permanent care , the proceeds of the sale of your house/flat whatever, will pay back the mortgage and there will still be plenty left to leave some to your family.
I don't regret doing just that five years ago, when I was 81.
It has made all the difference. The family don't mind at all and I can keep warm, so they don't have to worry about me.

I would caution against buying a park home. My own experience is of holiday parks, which operate under different conditions and laws, but as a result of that experience I know a bit about park homes, and would strongly advise anyone even thinking about it to seek expert legal advice if you can find it.

Very few solicitors are experts in the field which is largely unregulated. People lose life savings on a regular basis, although park homes are a slightly safer bet than holiday parks, which are money pits. I won’t say more on here, as ‘some people’ are spiteful and enjoy sticking the knife in when they see a vulnerability, but I am happy to reply to PMs on the subject if it will help.

Whether considering buying a caravan/lodge or a park home, proceed with trepidation, never mind caution, and whatever you do don’t listen to people who have no experience or knowledge of the legalities, particularly if they are the type who like scoring points on discussion forums 🙄.

There are huge differences between owning property and owning mobile homes, and it is obvious from posts on the subject that not everyone is aware of this. I have no axe to grind, however, am not a lawyer, and am not interested in putting anyone off doing what is right for them.

Primrose53

Just wondering if anybody has downsized to those Park Homes you see advertised.

A few years ago we had to call on a lady who lived in one and it was lovely. You had to be 55+ to live there. She had a huge lounge, couple of good sized bedrooms, very nice kitchen, bathroom etc a small sitting area outside and a garden shed. I was so impressed as it was really light and modern and very warm. It overlooked a lake and there were proper paths going around the site for your daily walks. She said she absolutely loved living there.

The only drawback I could see was that this particular one was a few miles from nearest shops. We all know these caravans/park homes (call them what you will) depreciate unlike bricks and mortar but if you aren’t expecting to have to leave it to someone does that matter?

They don't actually depreciate if they're looked after and improved.
My relatives bought one, were very happy there; there was a bus service which picked up residents and took them to a nearby town for shopping.

There is a service charge and a % charge when they are sold.

I live in a World Heritge town, well just 1/4 outside. if I sold my modest home for a two up and two down, without a garage or garden in the town it would cost me more than my modest three bedroom, with garage and large garden, so I am staying put.

Fortunately, A&E does not insist on proof of contributions before treating patients - anyone turning up is treated, whether they have paid in or not. I was talking about registration with a GP, which is the gateway to planned operations. An 'illegal' immigrant won't be able to do that, as they won't have a verifiable address - having one would alert the authorities to their existence, which is the last thing they want. Of course there are people who are living 'under the radar', but the cost of this to the country cannot be counted, as by definition there is no record of their being here.

I agree with M0nica that not all pensioners live in old, draughty, cluttered hovels. I am not quite a pensioner, although my primary income is my occupational pension, and my state one will finally kick in soon, but we are slowly future-proofing our house so that we can stay here as long as is practical, and we won't need subsidies to do so.

At least some of the cost of the future proofing can be set against what would have been the expense of moving (stamp duty, solicitors, estate agents, removals, new carpets/curtains etc). We don't have expensive holidays or new cars every couple of years, and we have never been the high earners with 'excellent' jobs that so many on here say they have been. We are very average people. Our priority is to ensure that we have somewhere nice to live, and that we can help our (equally average) children in a modest way as they set out in life.

At my age (65) I am not yet ready to death cleanse, but I don't want the house to become cluttered, and I've always believed in passing things on whilst they are still useful, rather than waiting for them to be obsolete and/or out of fashion so having to dispose of them because nobody wants them, so I tackle it every Autumn/Winter ahead of the Christmas onslaught.

I have an annual declutter, as do many GNers. All are welcome to join us on the thread, by the way. It is friendly and non-judgemental, and we recognise that all posters have their own motives and circumstances.

If the time comes when heating costs have risen to the point that we can't pay them, at least the house should sell easily, as whereas our taste will inevitably be that of the 'older people' we are, we have been careful not to make the renovations make it look like a care home, and at least it's not too cluttered.

I would be sad to leave my house, as I have made it to my taste and TBH I enjoy the compliments of visitors who say how nice it is, but would rather live somewhere else than be cold, hungry or see the house fall into disrepair.

If there are to be subsidies to help with housing, I would rather see them go to young people starting out. We had MIRAS for a few years, and would love to see that come back, even if just for the first few years of a mortgage for FTBs. I would also like to see a scheme to help renters with deposits, as finding three months' rent at today's rates is very difficult for many younger people.

I know that this is an unpopular opinion on here, but IMO we older people have had a lifetime to look ahead and provide for old age. Where circumstances change due to illness or other factors there should absolutely be mitigations, but universal help should, IMO go to the young.

CariadAgain

Doodledog

mokryna

Doodledog

How is the £8m a day worked out, please? If people are here illegally aren’t they under the radar, and therefore cost nothing? As soon as they claim anything they are no longer ‘illegal’ and are either seeking asylum legally or deported.

Lots of people want to get into the UK because they know they will be employed one way or another. Give everyone in the UK an identity card, so that if the police, were in doubt of a person’s legality, they could ask for it. Then, prosecute the employer if the person is illegal.

Most employers want to see a passport or other means of ID. I can't be sure, but I think it's a legal requirement to ensure that your employees have a right to work in the UK. You also need one to open a bank account. Immigrants with no right to remain can't use the NHS, claim benefits, send their children to school, legally marry, or do anything that might bring their status to the attention of the authorities.

I am not saying they don't exist, but the idea that they are being housed in university halls, or anywhere else to the tune of £8m a year seems very odd to me. How can they be counted, for a start?

I don't know where the idea came from that immigrants (presumably the illegals) can't use the NHS. Given that one of the recent local uproars about hundreds of illegals being shipped into a town included the fact that they will be given access to our NHS if they require it.

I hope most employers do want to see a passport or the like - as I know it was quite some years back now (we're talking the 1980s) when I had to help my finances out by taking in lodgers for a few years in my starter house. A Turkish guy told me he was studying at the university and it was a little sideline job for sort of "pocket money" at the local Turkish kebab shop. I pretty soon clicked that a. How come I saw no evidence of him studying b. I did see evidence he seemed to be pretty much working full-time hours at that kebab shop. In hindsight - I'd have asked him to produce some sort of evidence he was entitled to rent from me/proof he really was a student/etc and, never mind being chucked out pretty fast and with no notice to speak of = I wouldnt have taken him in in the first place.

Also re use of our NHS - I had a South American girl as a lodger at one point. Cue for her injuring herself - and so I duly took her off to the local A & E and expected her to be treated BUT I told them quite specifically she was from South America (ie not entitled to free use of our NHS) and expected her to be handed a bill to pay after they'd sorted her out. She wasn't handed a bill....

Unless things have changed a lot since (and I doubt it - as it's pretty recently that I've heard of very heavily pregnant women deliberately flying in from, say, African countries in order to give birth on our NHS). I could turn round personally and request "proof of the right to access to our NHS" and be quite firm about it - but I very much doubt most people would be as firm as me on that one....

Maybe their role model is the current Leader of the Opposition, whose mother flew to London to give birth (and then flew back to Lagos), which at the time gave the future Mrs Badenoch automatic eligibility for British citizenship.

Our son is moving out soon and we've started looking at downsizing from a 4 story 5 bedroom house to something more sensible. Trouble is, there's nothing affordable, all the bungalows and 2 story houses, smaller than ours, are so expensive, and the cost of moving so great (stamp duty, solicitors, adaptations, insulating etc) it would cost more to move to a smaller place than we'd sell the big house for, and even if we're willing and able to spend more to downsize, we have still only ever seen one place that would be an improvement and it sold for tens of thousands over the asking price. Sure there are families with children who'd like to upsize and older people who'd like to downsize but property in this country (UK) is mostly either old or shoddy due to poor building standards and so much of it is really not suitable! We'll probably, like most of our friends, stay put in houses that are too big just because there's nowhere else that's better and at least we've got a community around us, and spent years on fixing all the problems old houses tend to develop and have the attitude that you're better off knowing what you've got than risking a move.

Just wondering if anybody has downsized to those Park Homes you see advertised.

A few years ago we had to call on a lady who lived in one and it was lovely. You had to be 55+ to live there. She had a huge lounge, couple of good sized bedrooms, very nice kitchen, bathroom etc a small sitting area outside and a garden shed. I was so impressed as it was really light and modern and very warm. It overlooked a lake and there were proper paths going around the site for your daily walks. She said she absolutely loved living there.

The only drawback I could see was that this particular one was a few miles from nearest shops. We all know these caravans/park homes (call them what you will) depreciate unlike bricks and mortar but if you aren’t expecting to have to leave it to someone does that matter?

with regards to taking the winter fuel allowance away pensioners is not wrong as the majority do not need it

Do MPs need subsidised food and drink?
Do MPs need subsidised travel?
Do MPs need their heating costs reimbursed?

That little story has got nothing to do with older people selling their homes though. CariadAgain’s post reminded me of it.

If you are not prepared to move to smaller affordable to heat why should my taxes be spent on you so you can put the heat on. With regards to taking the winter fuel allowance away pensioners is not wrong as the majority do not need it. Those on pension credit get it. If people are just over the threshold of getting pension credit you can apply to the Household support fund for a fuel voucher you don't have to be a pensioner to apply.
People need to plan better for the future,. A person needs to be responsible for there financial situation and know what they are going to be able to afford when you become of pensionable age. If you won't be able to afford to heat a large house then you will need to downsize to more suitable accommodation, if you don't why should society pay you to keep warm in your home so your kids (if you have them) can inherit.

Not all large houses owned by the elderly are rundown, nor are they full of junk, nor are the owners too old to want to deal with maintenance. I organised some fence repairs a couple of weeks ago and we have the fencer coming back soon to discuss another problem.

We bought our first retirement home when we were in our mid 50s. a large very old house with a large garden and a mild doer upper. We always knew that at sometime we would probably need to downsize. Now we are 80 that point has been reached.

When we went to the estate agent to discuss this, she considered that one of our houses key selling points was that it was in such good order and so well maintained, and they make a feature of it in their publicity.

Nor do all older people have lots of clutter. I have empty cupboards/ drawers in every room, and that was before I started having a clear out. Our garage and shed could be sorted and redistributed to charity shop, sale or tip in a day. I hate clutter and always have. Even our loft only has the Christmas decorations and suitcases in it, nothing else.

We are serial house renovators. Even though we are downsizing at 80, the house we want to buy is another doer upper. The difference being, if we do buy it, we will be paying other people to do the work for us.

When my daughter was in hospital having given birth to her twins, nearly eleven years ago, we were waiting at the ward door to be let in when a heavily pregnant woman arrived in a wheelchair, with her husband and apparently her neighbour (he told us he was her neighbour anyway.) The neighbour proceeded to tell us that the pregnant woman and her husband had arrived from Bangladesh three weeks before, and she was now in labour. Neither the woman nor her husband could speak any English and so the neighbour had brought them to the hospital in his car. He could speak both English and Bangladeshi. Then the nurse opened up the door to the ward and we went in to see our daughter and the beautiful, new twins. What happened to the Bangladeshi mother I have no idea, but I’m sure she wouldn’t have been turned away and would have given birth in the maternity unit.

What happened to them after that?

I have no idea. Maybe they’re still here.

Doodledog

mokryna

Doodledog

How is the £8m a day worked out, please? If people are here illegally aren’t they under the radar, and therefore cost nothing? As soon as they claim anything they are no longer ‘illegal’ and are either seeking asylum legally or deported.

Lots of people want to get into the UK because they know they will be employed one way or another. Give everyone in the UK an identity card, so that if the police, were in doubt of a person’s legality, they could ask for it. Then, prosecute the employer if the person is illegal.

Most employers want to see a passport or other means of ID. I can't be sure, but I think it's a legal requirement to ensure that your employees have a right to work in the UK. You also need one to open a bank account. Immigrants with no right to remain can't use the NHS, claim benefits, send their children to school, legally marry, or do anything that might bring their status to the attention of the authorities.

I am not saying they don't exist, but the idea that they are being housed in university halls, or anywhere else to the tune of £8m a year seems very odd to me. How can they be counted, for a start?

I don't know where the idea came from that immigrants (presumably the illegals) can't use the NHS. Given that one of the recent local uproars about hundreds of illegals being shipped into a town included the fact that they will be given access to our NHS if they require it.

I hope most employers do want to see a passport or the like - as I know it was quite some years back now (we're talking the 1980s) when I had to help my finances out by taking in lodgers for a few years in my starter house. A Turkish guy told me he was studying at the university and it was a little sideline job for sort of "pocket money" at the local Turkish kebab shop. I pretty soon clicked that a. How come I saw no evidence of him studying b. I did see evidence he seemed to be pretty much working full-time hours at that kebab shop. In hindsight - I'd have asked him to produce some sort of evidence he was entitled to rent from me/proof he really was a student/etc and, never mind being chucked out pretty fast and with no notice to speak of = I wouldnt have taken him in in the first place.

Also re use of our NHS - I had a South American girl as a lodger at one point. Cue for her injuring herself - and so I duly took her off to the local A & E and expected her to be treated BUT I told them quite specifically she was from South America (ie not entitled to free use of our NHS) and expected her to be handed a bill to pay after they'd sorted her out. She wasn't handed a bill....

Unless things have changed a lot since (and I doubt it - as it's pretty recently that I've heard of very heavily pregnant women deliberately flying in from, say, African countries in order to give birth on our NHS). I could turn round personally and request "proof of the right to access to our NHS" and be quite firm about it - but I very much doubt most people would be as firm as me on that one....

Well said Dickens and madalene

Allsorts

By the time you factor in all the costs of moving and also that any house you buy may vneed work on it, plus the emotional and physical effect it has on your body, I don't wonder people want to stay. There's no guarantee you will get on with your neighbours or like the area and get very isolated.

I agree with you.
Maybe better to clear the house if it’s possible and do some redecorating and continue to live where you’re happy.

Dickens

If we are considering what people actually want / need and whether others should subsidise those wants and needs, should MPs and parliamentary pass-holders be subsidised by the taxpayer for their food?

Of course they should have access to it on the premises; but they are not particularly poorly-paid, and this cost (according to Full-Fact) is over £7 million per year.

Yes, this is a drop in the ocean compared to what will be saved by cutting the WFA - the aim being £1.5 billion a year - but if we are talking about the principle of not expecting others to finance your life-style / choices, then doesn't this count too?

It's nice that they can have a 3-course-meal for just over £10, and they need to eat, but do they need to be subsidised?

Yes indeed.

Why do MPs need subsidised food, drink, travel expenses (nobody paid me to travel to work) second homes, all heating bills paid (Rachel Reeves is said to have claimed over £4000 in heating allowance) not to mention gifts totalling thousands of pounds to pay for their clothing, entertainment, and Lord knows what else?

MPs earn around £90,000 a year. Many of them couldn’t get a job paying that much, plus the general allowances that bump up their salaries. No one apparently thinks that MPs shouldn’t be subsidised in this way. Why not?

But on GN posters are told they shouldn’t expect to be subsidised, because apparently the miserable amount of £200 (£300 for over eighties) is ‘subsidised’ by others paying into the pot. Never mind that these older people paid into the pot themselves and many are continuing to pay.

Who exactly is subsidising the extremely generous allowances given to MPs?

Witzend

Septimia, not Win!

So what was the point of her post, when we are talking about being forced to sell because we cannot fund ourselves. If she is able to good, but surely we do not need to hear that!!

We seem to use all the rooms, except for two bedrooms where the radiators are set low.