Pack in the job, rent out the house, get in the camper van, fuck off

Go for it OP. Both of my best friends died young, my Dad died young, as did DH's sibling. It's changed my view on life completely. If it's possible to make things work financially, chase every dream you can. Many of us live such small lives, there's so much to see and do away from the daily grind.

Your husband can find a job on your return, you can find a new direction in a fulfilling job. Take the risk!

You now have to use an agent to get landlord insurance if you are outside the UK. We found managing our agents as hard work as managing our tenants. They would ignore the tenants, who then came to us, on minor issues. They were extremely cavalier with our money if not closely watched, getting expensive tradespeople in for everything (we had local people we had used ourselves for years who we trusted and were much cheaper but had to fight the agents to call them in over their preferred people), and also told the tenants without us knowing that we provided white goods, which we didn’t, but had to as the tenants then rightfully asked for them. And of course they take a cut, and charge for their services too.

Add in the costs of getting the place in a good condition to rent out. As well as all the regulatory stuff, there’s also the costs of decorating, potentially replacing items you are happy to live with but wouldn’t be good enough for a tenant. It can end up being a lot for a year.

Then you may have to pay CGT when you sell as well as tax on the rent. Would you be able to pay the costs of the house if it were empty, or the legal costs of evicting a tenant on your return?

Do it. Ask the questions of others who do this to cost it out and have contingencies (eg mechanical issues).
We nursed MIL through bedbound dementia for 2 years and my dad died suddenly last year. Certainly gave us an insight on doing things whilst we are fit enough to. I was suddenly diagnosed with breast cancer at 58 and my life stopped overnight. I have a few months of chemo to do and I will be back at it - I don’t have that Shirley Valentine feeling as I’ve always gone hard at life, although there are a few things I’ve learned from being out of circulation with treatment. Currently also looking at 2nd hand vans …

My DH and I did this a year and a half ago. We were lucky to be just retired and mortgage free, sold our house and lived off our interest for a year before buying another home.
we travelled around the U.K. staying in Airbnb (cheaper than you think if you stay longer than 28 days). This way we could really explore the area around you before moving on.
You have down days sometimes wishing for more stability but it was the best thing we did and don’t regret it at all. We have now bought another house (less expensive than we sold for) in an area that we fell in love with on our travels!

The rent for a house in the SE would be enough to cover living simply in a camper van in Europe I'd imagine.

Do it! I'm similar age and definitely feeling like I need some adventure in my life in this window between caring for children and caring for parents. Our youngest leaves school in 18 months, mortgage paid off in 2 years so assuming parents are still OK then we will be taking a break too. We plan on house sitting rather than camper van (something worth considering if you want the odd break from van life) and intend to take 6 months off and willing to go wherever the 'job' takes us across UK or Europe.

Why not plan for a shorter trip? It's more likely to happen as less daunting and potentially more affordable to do without renting out the house. The 90 day thing is definitely not a barrier - there's the whole of the UK for a start and as another poster says you can go to the Balkans to travel out & back avoiding the 90/180 days.

I can't wait 😁

Go for it! Your own circumstances might change as well as your parents, so take the opportunity and enjoy yourselves.

Do it. You will regret not doing it. I quit my job in 2014 when DC were 8 and 10, took them out of school for 5 months, we went down to Morocco and across Europe to Poland and back. It cost me about £8000, plus about £4k for an ancient 25 year old camper. I still had some money left when I got back, and I rented my house out through airbnb for 2 months (same tenant) which covered the bills while i was away. It was just me, I've been a single mother virtually all my kids' lives. I can fix things on cars though so I wasn't worried about the camper van being old. My family were trying to tell me I was taking too much of a risk giving up my job, but when I got back my manager asked me to go back temporarily to cover my old role, then a new job came up that paid more and was a bit more varied so it all worked. I've just done it again- DD left school in June and I left my job, which I did like actually but there are other things I want to do. I was trying to sell the house to downsize but nothing's selling in my area so now it's rented out for 6 months to a couple who are moving abroad, so i know they won't refuse to move out. I'm taking a few hundred a month from my private pension and that plus the rent money is enough to live off; I'm heading off long distance hiking soon, so I'll be living in a tent- I'm currently at my parents' place helping them out. (They're over 90 now and yes, they need more help- I'll have to come back here every couple of months to see what else they need.) I am 59 and in a hurry to do things that I probably physically wouldn't be able to do by the time I'm 67 and retired on state pension, if I have to work part time then I will do that.

Go for it!!!

Do it whilst you're still young enough to travel. If you wait another 10 years, you won't have the same energy.

My mum said, 'when we were younger we didn't have much money to travel, now that we're older and have the means, we don't have the mobility'.

Go and see the world and come back revived. Or maybe don't come back and go live in a different part of the world.

Yes.

Another possibility for the OP is a house exchange....they live in another country for a while and travel around, and their house is occupied.

DH and i are trying to figure out how to spend retirement. we have seven figures in the bank and a paid off mortgage, no debt, great pensions, and all parents have passed, no kids. He's 60, I'm not far behind. He likes his job and wants to work, and at the least I am trying to get him to ask for more holiday or work part time. In the meanwhile, I'm going on fellowship next year and going to take solo trips if he rather would be at work.

Do it! I just proposed this to my DH last night. Half joking as our kids are still early high school, we don’t own a van and don’t really camp. I’ve just returned to work after two weeks off over Xmas and I am really struggling to see the point of working.

It sounds like you have a small window between your kids flying the nest and your parents requiring care, so do it while you can. I think in your 50s you only have another 10-15 “go years” left where you are healthy and mobile enough to enjoy this type of adventure. (Sorry if I offend anyone with this comment, I’m late 40s and starting to feel it).

Would you go over to Europe? Not sure sure how daunting it would be driving on the other side of the road, or how it would work with a car with the steering on the “wrong side”. I’m in australia so that’s not a consideration for me.

The rent might cover your travel expenses but would it cover your mortgage payments too?

I’ve sort of done this but with a job abroad.
the renting out was a lot easier than I thought, using an agency to find tenants and manage the property. You do pay fees but it’s worth it to be hassle and stress free while away.
if you have a small mortgage and can make the figures worth it, I would go for it. Early 50s (same as me) is the window while you still have the energy and interest, plus the finances, to do it before parental care/health and energy issues kick in.

DH and I are doing this later this year but we have retired early at 56 and 58 and are mortgage free and DS is living in the house when we do it. Have you calculated price per day of living like this. We have calculated £500 per week, DH has crunched many numbers and looking at 38k PA but we aren’t looking to be parking in lay bys, having a strip wash and eating in the van all the time. We did stay in sites overnight and that is England, on the continent it’s considerably cheaper.

We have spent the last six months researching vans, went to the national exhibition in Birmingham and have narrowed it down to a few different ones. Looking in earnest in around a month. Would have been further ahead but DH work place ended up pleading with him regarding covering something so he still did some work up till Christmas.

You really need to decide what sort you want, we have hired a couple and looked round absolutely loads.

I would never rent my house out but I also wouldn’t want to leave it empty.

What are your pensions like? I mean job wise it’s feasible for your DH job but can you do ok if you can’t get such a well paid job on return. Will a year or two of fun mean gruel and the lights out in future years?

Get an agent and do it. You will regret it if you don't.

I'm a LL and I have had an agent for the last two years. I regret not getting him sooner.

If I could do it, I would. Just blow with the wind but DH is too ill now and I have issues too. I wish we had done it when we first discussed it.

My parents made the same mistake. They planned to travel when Dad retired but Mum got cancer and he retired alone.

You would be mad not to.

Being a landlord would be an absolute nightmare. So many regulations, so much risk, no easy way to just move back into your house.
You said you could sell the house, then what? Would you be able to buy outright on return? Or not be able to get a new mortgage and be stuck renting in a limited market? With no job?

For me packing it all in and leaving would be too much of a risk, especially given you can only travel easily for 90 days at a time. Is there a middle ground to be had? You chuck in your job, maybe retrain, and go away for all the school holidays over the next year? You could Air B&B the house. It would be less risky, but still let you do a significant amount of travelling, and be back regularly for aging parents.

Yep.

OP, go for it.

My DS did this and ended up living to another country. Their house has been rented out for the past 10 years and they use a letting agent to manage it for them. There are always a few wobbles at contract renewal, they always try to get at least a year. Current tenants have been there for four years.
Another wobble was the mortgage rate increase but as long as you include this in your figures you should be fine.
I would recommend going for it

Do it! Would it be worth saving hard for 6 months before you go to give yourself an 'emergency fund' for when you get back from travels and are looking for a job?

I part-owned a company in the UK, easily kept in touch while I was away, (but wasn’t taking wages) and picked up my old hours as soon as I returned. With good staff, I was lucky to be able to do that. In fact my business partner did pretty much the same thing at a different time, but didn’t rent out her house.
The forward planning with renting out the 4 bed house on my own was the really tough bit, although it was very easy to find the tenants.

Not mad at all. Will you have a bit of money so you can job hunt when you get back?

Look at possible tax issues. But if you have equity and could downsize, I’d seriously consider it. We have health issues now that mean it’s too late and we couldn’t do this.

I would be more worried about boiling alive in the intense heat not the cold. We are experiencing very hot summers in Europe now.