Second home owners... what are you doing about your property?

[DareIask]

We haven't visited since September due to restrictions.

Becoming a little concerned as we've never left a property over winter and not sure what we'll go back to. There's no heating on, and although pipes freezing is unlikely I just worry about damp etc

Any experience anyone?

I know this is a privileged problem to have and I have no intention of starting a debate on second homes. Just empty ones

Thanks

[DareIask]

[quote MrsDThomas]@Miljea
May I ask how 'neighbourly' the second home owner who owns the property next door is when your friend has a fall? Can't start her car? Had a leak that floods downstairs? Notices suspicions activity?

Hmm?

My friend would be absolutely fine thanks. Many neighbours around.[/quote]
Thank goodness I don't live in an area so mean and unfriendly. Frankly I'm surprised anyone would want to

[MrsDThomas]

if you came here, you wouldn’t be surprised.

[EgonSpengler2020]

@CountessFrog

I presume those living in ‘second home’ type areas with strong views on the rights and wrongs of second homes think twice before ever taking a self catering holiday?

Because their conscience surely rules them out of travelling to the lakes, Cotswolds, Yorkshire dales, Peak District, Llyn peninsular, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset. Pretty much anywhere you’d want to holiday in the uk.

I can only assume they limit themselves to hotels and boarding houses in Skegness and Blackpool. Or perhaps beauty spots abroad, where no local was ever driven away by the rise of global tourism.

There is a distinct difference between properties run as holidays let businesses (even if that is just a single house) and second homes.

Holiday lets are occupied the majority of the year, otherwise it would be a very poor business model, they provide regular weekly employment for local people doing cleaning and change over, and the people visiting are here as tourists for a week or two with tourist ideas and budgets to spend on local attractions.

A second home is someone who wants the best of both worlds by living in a high income area and playing in a poorer more beautiful area, occupying two properties for one family, and not contributing properly to that second community.

Properly managed a holiday let is an asset to an area that relies on tourism as it's main industry, second homes just decimate communities and piss locals off.

[BarryWhiteIsMyBrother]

To those resentful towards second-home owners: we often can afford those because we work very hard and smart and have jobs that pay so well we pay a LOT of tax. Which goes to the government and then the public/public infrastructure and services. Would you rather we couldn't afford our second homes and pay way less into the state coffers?

[Tregkl]

@dressedupinyou

You might not want a debate about it but you can't control what people comment.
Do you not feel shit that you have a property being left empty?

Maybe you should dispose of one of your homes, you don't need two.

Or maybe you could invite someone without one home, let alone two, to move it and keep an eye for you.

The lack of insight or understanding of property ownership in this post is astounding. @dressedupinyou it’s really not that simple, especially because of covid. And having a second home is an investment. It’s not sponging off the state so calm down.

[TheFaithfulBorderBinliner]

barrywhiteismybrother I think resentful is the wrong word. Mostly we don't respect you.

My friend has a second home next to here, been in the family for 'generations' (forty years). It's good because it's empty, we can make as much noise we we like, they don't cause any problems most of the year.
It's bad because it's tatty, my friend has to keep any eye on it, just because she's a decent human. They aren't part of the community, no matter what they tell themselves. My neighbours kids are told to go further down the street for emergency help if they ever needed a neighbour. They don't contribute locally to clubs and societies, hairdressers, GP lists which impacts on the provision for hospitals which is why we don't want you here for a pandemic.
One second home in a street is fine, it cuts the traffic most of the year, but imagine lots, imagine being outnumbered. It's grim.

Holiday let's are also problematic. When we were in the baby stage, a friend rented part of a barn complex. The other six areas were holiday lets. Every weekend it was chaos with arrivals, every week it was someone's special birthday celebrated with a party, loud BBQ, a few fireworks. She wasn't resentful, she doesn't know you, she didn't give a shit it was a special birthday she just wanted to get a baby to sleep.

I don't know what the answer is, everything in moderation, narrow the wealth gap. It's not even a Cornwall Vs London arguement. Look at the chaos Airbnb has brought to Barcelona and other major cities.

We're not resentful but don't think we respect you.

[TheFaithfulBorderBinliner]

That should read
Don't mistake the tolerance of locals for respect.

[OverTheRainbow88]

People are entitled to buy as many houses as they do wish, anywhere they wish.

But I agree during covid they shouldn’t be travelling back and forth. Some may choose to move to their holiday home for the whole of lockdown and follow the lockdown rules once there, that’s up to them.

[TheFaithfulBorderBinliner]

overtherainbow88 you can not travel to your second home during lockdown.
That is specifically stated in the legislation.
Two reasons: initially you risk transfering infection.
Secondly, you are registered for health services at your main residence. Hospital &GP provision is based on the number of permanent residents. That's why the Isle of Wight & Cornwall have very low numbers of hospital beds. In the whole of Cornwall, in normal times that is 15 beds in ICU!!!!

Please stay in your main residence at the moment. If you come to what was previously a Tier one area, the local people will report you. Everyone is quite upset.

[DareIask]

I'm not sure I want the respect of such narrow minded, mean spirited people who think they have more right to be somewhere than I do

Equally I wouldn't want to be part of a community if they were so full of such spite.

Thankfully our second home isn't anywhere like this.. the locals are all lovely, welcoming, and glad we renovated a property that was in a right state that no one else wanted to take on.

The attitudes of some holiday communities during the pandemic has meant we won't be going there to spend our money again. You can have 'your' area during lockdown. You can have in mid summer as well... all to yourselves.

[BarryWhiteIsMyBrother]

@DareIask exactly. We went to do urgent maintenance and one of the neighbours (we know who - even our next-door neighbour pointed immediately to that one when she texted us to check everything was OK as the police car was outside) reported us. Two days in a row. The police however were more than understanding that if you have a leak or the central heating has stopped working (and hence the risk of burst pipes arises) you have to do something about it.

[BarryWhiteIsMyBrother]

@TheFaithfulBorderBinliner the respect of someone as narrow minded as the people behind some of the comments upthread is not something anyone would mind a lack of, I promise you.

[OverTheRainbow88]

@TheFaithfulBorderBinliner

My OH uses our second home as his main residence 3 nights every week and has for 10 years as that’s where his family business is. So he travels back and forth as he’s a key worker otherwise my kids won’t see their dad for months on end.

[Cyw2018]

@BarryWhiteIsMyBrother

To those resentful towards second-home owners: we often can afford those because we work very hard and smart and have jobs that pay so well we pay a LOT of tax. Which goes to the government and then the public/public infrastructure and services. Would you rather we couldn't afford our second homes and pay way less into the state coffers?

What an arrogant post.

You are clearly so much harder working and smart than little old me, I'm only a degree educated (soon to have a masters) paramedic working through a pandemic, but what do I know about hard work.

I can only assume that you think the lazy stupid locals should keep an eye on your property for free like so many other entitled people in this thread!

[HaggardHetty]

@BarryWhiteIsMyBrother perhaps you could afford some lessons in emotional intelligence to go with your second home. What a horrific attitude.

[CountessFrog]

I have a second home in Cornwall. It’s owned in the name of a business of which I am the director.

It’s let for 28 weeks per year on average. Provides lots of employment and I pay a lot of tax.

Am I ok then?

[DareIask]

@CountessFrog

I have a second home in Cornwall. It’s owned in the name of a business of which I am the director.

It’s let for 28 weeks per year on average. Provides lots of employment and I pay a lot of tax.

Am I ok then?

I very much doubt it! 😂

[Cyw2018]

@CountessFrog

I have a second home in Cornwall. It’s owned in the name of a business of which I am the director.

It’s let for 28 weeks per year on average. Provides lots of employment and I pay a lot of tax.

Am I ok then?

I think 6 months of the year should be an absolute minimum occupancy to aim for. Could you rent it for more of the year with off peak rates?

[OverTheRainbow88]

@Cyw2018

I think 6 months of the year should be an absolute minimum occupancy to aim for.

And who are you to make such decisions? 🙄

[Cyw2018]

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@Cyw2018

I think 6 months of the year should be an absolute minimum occupancy to aim for.

And who are you to make such decisions? 🙄[/quote]
The council has been running public consultations on the issue of second homes in the area I live, so clearly THEY think I am entitled to express an opinion on it even if you don't.

[CountessFrog]

It’s available 365 days a year. It rents on average for 28 weeks.

Just pulling up a chair so you can advise me how to increase the revenue. I hadn’t thought of cheaper ‘off peak’ rates. That’s a cracking business idea isn’t it.

🤔

[DareIask]

We live in ours about 40% of the time.. will that do?

[Cyw2018]

@DareIask

We live in ours about 40% of the time.. will that do?

So it's empty 60% of the time then!

[CountessFrog]

It’s not enough. Please aim for 43%

[DareIask]

@CountessFrog

It’s not enough. Please aim for 43%

I'll make myself a little tick chart just so I can keep an accurate tally for next year..