All old people should sell up family homes for families.

@Seymour5 there are lots of reasons parents don’t pass onto their children.

My mother didn’t like her son in law

I have seen friends penalised by HMRC when parents passed assets to children, the parents have had to go into care and HMRC see the property transfer as tax evasion and pursue people at already difficult times.

Then when major gifting of assets in lifetime does happen, it doesn’t always work out. A friend who became a grandparent moved in with her daughter and son in law - selling up her home and becoming a three generation family. The family home is in the name of the middle generation. Things are tough and not working out as planned, but my friend now has nothing to run away to other than friends spare bedrooms when she used to be so independent.

@Chizzit it seems strange to me (as someone much older than your dad), that he hasn’t passed some of the inherited wealth on. We aren’t wealthy, small house, modest savings, DC & partners are all in their fifties, don’t need our money when it comes, so the grandchildren, teens now, should benefit when we’ve gone. I couldn’t imagine hanging on to loads I didn’t need when it could be put to good use for younger family members.

I know this is a zombie thread but glad it's reared its head in a way - it seems to chime quite well with all these recent threads about grandmothers being expected to provide childcare!

I agree with all those saying 'older people' (with heavy inverted commas required because as the OP pointed out, how do you even define this?) should of course not be expected to sell their homes, any more than they should be expected to provide free childcare or generally subordinate their own wants and needs to those of their children.

I do think that some degree of intergenerational jealousy or resentment is understandable, however. Just because someone 'shouldn't' have to do something doesn't mean that other people 'should' be completely happy with that - people's feelings are their feelings and can't be reduced to moral logic. I have to admit that I sometimes find myself feeling quite resentful of my own DF. He is a widower in his 60s; gorgeous 5-bedroomed detached house with enormous garden; huge amount of disposable income each month; is going on 5 foreign holidays a year plus numerous others in the UK; expensive health club membership he doesn't use; expensive food rotting in the fridge and thrown away each week. Yes, he worked hard and earned a lot of that money, although as the sole living beneficiary of 4 dead grandparents' wills and of my late DM, he did not earn all of it. Occasionally this does rankle a bit. I would never say anything to him about it or expect him to change, although will admit to not being prepared to indulge his rants about the economy to the extent that I used to!

Statistically far fewer owned their home than rented pre 1980s.
Your example is an outlier.

I can't with these "have" and "have not" threads.

It's so decisive and inconclusive.

Old people should live in a box so younger people don't have to and vice versa.

Really? Isn't there something on TV or something else to do?

You're naive then

Dozens of comments and threads saying exactly that it should happen, and how selfish and greedy those evil Boomers are for not moving and selling off their houses cheap to move into cramped flats. Because that's all they're good for now their usefulness to the precious Millenials is done. Oh and give your kids the spare money. No pointless travel plans for you!

Eta before you all jump - modest semi with only onstreet parking because it's all we could afford; have given kids substantial cash deposits towards property already

its a strange one, where I live on a small estate all the massive 5 bedroom houses are mainly owned by retired couples. All the smaller properties are owned by a mix of retired and families. Think families just can’t afford this ledger properties. We could afford a large house but don’t want to push ourselves to breaking point financially and I don’t want to clean all that.

Don't care! Still not selling...

ZOMBIE THREAD!!!

My husband and I live in a five-bedroom house with a two-bedroom cottage in the grounds which we let to tourists.

It's ours. We worked hard for the money to pay for it. We have never had expensive cars, holidays or designer clothing. We have always lived within our means (no debts apart from the now paid off mortgage).

Having a beautiful home has always been our priority and we deserve to enjoy it.

Our home is an important part of our lifestyle. We are fortunate to live in a beautiful part of the UK where we frequently host family and friends. The cottage provides us with welcome additional income.

Our only child is at university, but she will always have a home with us.

Anyone who thinks we should have to sell can go and fuck themselves.

We are early 60s, retired, live in a large four bed semi and have no intention of moving yet. We utilise every room, kitchen/diner, lounge, bathroom, main bedroom all self explanatory, second bedroom - spare for guests or when one of us is ill, third bedroom - craft room, fourth bedroom - home gym, third reception - man cave. We've been here 33 years, brought up our children here, with £20k moving costs just exactly where is the incentive to move? Also, location is brilliant, we have shops, buses, trains, doctors, pharmacies all within very easy walking distance which will serve us as we age and let's be honest, none of us is Benjamin Button.

As for the kids .... We sacrificed for them when they were young, did without things many, many times so they could have what they needed and holidays, school trips, etc. I'm not sacrificing everything I've worked all my life for as well. They'll get what's left when we're dead.

Just realised that this is a ZOMBIE THREAD. 🧟‍♀️

I'm a widowed pensioner, still living in the five bedroom family home. Why is it an injustice to want to remain here? It is a bungalow in the countryside, away from any bus route or good school and with a large garden. One bedroom is used as an office, another an exercise room, another a hobby/sewing room. This leaves me with one guest bedroom. I'm not "knocking around" in my house. I can afford the high heating and maintenance costs, and have both a cleaner and a gardener. They are all part of the cost of owning this house.

I don't think it's selfish to want to live in a bungalow that suits my current and future physical needs and current hobbies . TBH, this house will be difficult to sell as there's no gas in the area, the garden might be too much for most people and you will need your own transport to go to the supermarket, doctor etc. The nearest state school doesn't have the best reputation either.

The argument that people in my position should sell up fails to consider whether:
A. A family with school age children would find the house suitable - it's not all about the number of bedrooms.
B. The sale price will cover the cost of buying a smaller property in an area with more amenities.

Last year, new neighbours moved into a similar sized property. They're in their 80's and keen gardeners.

Hey everyone, I joined this platform yesterday and yet to understand the interface of the app. So by mistake I posted on someone else's thread. So please ignore the post that says will it be ideal to buy a property for a young family with only child in the neighborhood predominantly living by elderly people. I apologize for the inconvenience this post might have been causing. Have a good weekend everyone. 🤘

@Mummyford We're yet to decide between two different locations. Of course we're looking at properties near the catchment areas but it would be nice if he can play with children living in the neighborhood. As he is still too young, it would be ideal if he finds children next door instead of finding someone at around 10-15 minutes walking distance. Thank you for your input though. But I realized that by mistake I posted on someone else's thread. So let's not continue this conversation any further. Have a nice weekend. :)

Oh and you. Have an absolutely spiffing weekend 🤣

ZOMBIE THREAD.

**

@NarcNarc Well it's easier to say when you're living with your extended family or have relatives near by. Families like us who have no relatives at all in this country and have only one child, we have to consider these things more. Anyway, I realized that by mistake I posted on someone else's thread. So let's not carry on this conversation any further. Have a nice weekend. :)

What is "old"?

And does this "Sell" apply to those that worked their backsides off to own, keep up reairs of their own home and not be a burden on social housing? Or, does it apply to those living in council homes, ie they give up and move out to who knows where?

Thank you

Fair enough

Yes, I was about to post a quote saying that probably I posted on someone's post or something. I joined this platform yesterday and yet to understand the interface. Sorry about that.

if you own your own home, no

In the other hand, my brother has a four bedroom council house - all adult children have left home. Mad that council should continue a large house that could home a family. He was fast enough to keep producing children and insisting on a larger house.

I think people should be free to chose to live where they want.

The flip side of this is I also think that the government should not be subsidising people to live in houses that are too big for them. So fuel subsidides, CT subsidies, they should disappear.

@troublemeltslikelemondrops whilst intergenerational living may be a good idea, it would likely cost the State a fortune in our case. If mother and I were to live together one of us would inevitably end up in Holloway !

I meet a lot of people around 30 who want to buy somewhere with two spare rooms, even if they don’t intend to have kids. I don’t think elderly people downsizing would therefore do anything to solve under occupation.

I also don’t think people should move out of an established home unless they have to - for people with age-related medical conditions, the familiarity of a certain home can be really beneficial. Only if their care needs become too great does moving make sense.

Perhaps the real solution (other than building more homes!) is to encourage people to share. Intergenerational living isn’t really a thing other than in specific ethnic groups, but if more families lived together, houses would be better utilised.

That said… I don’t want to live with my own family! So, I think we circle back to just build more homes.