Issues with not living at your permanent residence?

[InterestingIdea]

NC for this.

My dad is coming up for retirement age, is single and has been for decades. Has lived in the same house all this time and has definitely been stuck in a rut.

Has a middle of the road job so not loads of money by any means.

Out of nowhere he has put his house on the market, and decided to buy a park home on a holiday park with about 1/3 of the house profits and use the rest to "see the world" / live.

For this "plan" to work, he needs to use my address as his main residence and I would need to purchase the park home in my name (he would transfer me the money) as obviously it's meant to be a holiday home not a main home.

I can see so many problems with this. He needs to vacate the property two weeks of the year which is fine but other things I'm thinking:

• he would need to register with a doctor / dentist etc near me?
• what if his health takes a turn and he needs care? Or if he has an accident would he be discharged from hospital to here? Surely carers wouldn't care for someone on a holiday park...

Is there anything else?

I've got a young child and my husband and I both work full time and it just seems like a lot to be asking of us but it's so hard to say "what about when you get old or ill" as he obviously doesn't want to think like that.

I'd like there to be some sort of showstopper so he can't do it and just downsizes into a flat / bungalow instead...

well, I have known several people do similar - even with a young family - I think it happens quite a lot

Definitely try to encourage a small flat or something else for him. My main worry would be illness. My own dad who was as hale and hearty as anything and didn't retire until 70 has gone downhill dramatically in the past two years and needs a lots of extra help and care which is fine as he is in his own home but it all came out of the blue. An old neighbour of my mum did a similar thing a few years back but she bought a house at the seaside. Great intentions but things didn't work out and she found the seaside town isolating and very gloomy during the winter and surprise surprise ended up living in the daughters house

Most of the parks have an age limit on the vans. Can he afford to replace it every 5/6/10 years?

For this "plan" to work, he needs to use my address as his main residence and I would need to purchase the park home in my name

Why? Why can’t he use the park home as his main address and buy it in his own name?

Can't he buy a proper park home that older people use as their main home instead of a holiday type one

Why your address? Why would you need to purchase it? There must be something dodgy going on if he wants you to purchase it. Benefit fraud?

I know people do it.. my main worry is if his health takes a turn?

There are park homes that can be used as a main residence, he needs to buy one of those instead! If he is found to be living permanently on a holiday park site he will be kicked out. There were news stories during covid where holiday parks closed leaving people who were living there homeless.

He needs me to purchase it as it's a holiday home technically so you need to have a house / residence already in order to be allowed to purchase it.. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Ok, I can see that, but why in your name? There’s absolutely no reason for that.

And yes all good points, I just need to have a blunt conversation I think.

He doesn't like the sites where you can buy a main residence (the holiday ones he's looking at have the clubhouse / pool etc which is a big draw) and anything that even hints at "retirement" home is off the table as his head is in the sand about getting old 😫

There’s still no reason why he’d need you to purchase it, as he’d be using your address as his address.

I think the reason for my name is to make it less obvious that he's living there? As if he sells his house, then somehow registers that he's living at mine (how do you even do that?) then buys a "holiday" home it's pretty obvious what's happening...

But yeah I could just say he should buy it himself...

That wouldn't solve the "what if he gets ill" issue though as then he would have to move in with me?!

Holiday parks ask for a copy of a council tax bill naming the owner on their main residence each year, it's part of the license. Something to do with business rates/ council tax as the park is registered as a business and if a single caravan was used as a home all the caravans would have to pay council tax or something. When we had one they wouldn't renew the license each year until they had the council tax bill for our home address.

There are park homes where folks, usually retired, live all year around and use as their permanent address.

There are static holiday homes, typically in tourist areas, which have all the facilities like pools etc that can only be lived in, according the the rules, for part of the year. This seems to be what your dad is considering.

The latter is not a good idea for all the reasons others here have mentioned. Good luck with whatever is decided but in your shoes you need to be fully aware of what you both might be letting yourself in for. Read the contracts… take advice, do your due diligence research OP. Have that “blunt” conversation!

Really @tartlets ?? This could be our get out..... thanks

@Suetcrust this is exactly the situation 🤦🏼‍♀️

Thank you!

Three couples of my extended family have recently moved down to the coast on residential park homes, they have exactly the same facilities as the holiday ones, there are some holiday homes on the site too. There is nothing retirement homey about it at all! They can stay on site all year and they use as their permanent residence.

What he is suggesting sounds odd and potential to get messy.

He knows that they only run for part of the year; right? And it's not even just when the site is open, which doesn't tend to be year-round for holiday parks - I know of quite a few where you can go quite cheaply for a quarter of the year, because the park is open but the entertainment isn't.

Does your Dad expect to be able to move in with you when he's older anyway? I appreciate he doesn't want to talk about it, and is hoping it's not any time soon, but if he's already presuming that's the case; perhaps that's why he's not concerned about getting ill.

Him moving in at any point hasn't been discussed but honestly I'd do everything I could do avoid it - we did this with my grandmother when she developed dementia and it's not fair on either party...

I’d be fine with this. Presumably he can just do a couple of week long holidays for his two weeks “off site” and this must be his plan anyway if he’s freeing up equity to see the world?

if he gets so ill he can’t look after himself he’ll have to go into a care home and any money he has will be used towards it - that seems like a reasonably straightforward and sensible plan really!