A lighthearted one about escape to the country

[Souredstones]

Aibu to be ragey at the middle aged couples with no children buying up family homes in rural locations?

For some unknown reason this makes me really cross with this programme!

[theodorakisses]

We live in the Middle East and before that have lived elsewhere tax free for at least 15 years. We have bought our perfect retirement home in a Dorset village and rent it for 300 a month even though it is worth about 900 a week at holiday times. We hope that the lovely family who live there will enjoy it and when they get to the top of the council list, we will do it again and again until we retire. Imagine leaving it empty except for the 3 yearly visits we make. I totally agree it is obscene.

[theodorakisses]

I mean once every 3 years whereby we can easily stay with family or rent a place. I grew up in that village, the school is gone, the shop is going and apart from the public school and abbey is almost entirely defunct.

[digerd]

The poster mentioning Northern European houses reminded me of one TV programme.
The man was german and he was with an english partner. The house was £600,000 and when asked what that could buy in germany his reply was a castle!
Also, a young german family were staying in a B&B here and the house was worth £500,000. The german man was shocked and said "but it's a wreck"!

[alemci]

yes, I think when you are in good health it is fine. then 10 years' later when one of the couple is finding it hard to drive competently and needs to visit hospital more regularly.

also shops in villages may close and then 20 mile trip to supermarket.

when they don't want to have any neighbours. a bit scary and dangerous and makes you quite vulnerable IHO.

[BackforGood]

What MiaowTheCat said ^

I also think (as a few have said) that a lot of these older folk haven't really thought through what will happen when they can no longer drive, and when they start needing a lot more support. One thing if you've always lived rurally, but it doesn't make sense to retire to the middle of nowhere when you are used to the convenience of a City, IMO.

[wellcoveredsparerib]

I am middle aged and live in a four bedroomed house with no resident children. Just wondering where you think it would be acceptable for me to live OP? ( I'm only semi rural , in case that makes a difference)

[ShellyBoobs]

Yep I do. The 'entitled fucker' with 3 kids would probably make a damn site better use of the space than some 60 year old bloke on his own. HTH!

No it doesn't help, to be honest, because it's the 60yr old bloke whoo owns the house, not the person with the 3 kids.

Why don't you just go the whole hog and call for homeowners to have their houses commandeered by the state if they don't fit your definition of who's worthy to live in a particular house?

What about cars? Should a single person have their car taken from them too, if you deem it bigger than they need?

Venezuela might actually be more to your taste - they have form for this sort of thing - than a moderate, democratic western country where property rights form an integral part of society.

I mean really? Childless people - who are likely to already pay a disproportionately high level of (net) tax compared to families - should pay even more tax if they want to live in the house that they own? Is anything off limits?

[SamHamwidge]

Hate this programme! Yes I admit a lot of it is sheer jealousy in my part ;) but I can't help feeling it's in slightly bad taste to have it on during the recession, having said that I like to ogle the pretty houses :) best not to take it too seriously I think.

[Primrose123]

The worst one I've ever seen was quite a few years ago, presented by Catherine Gee. The family were from Port Talbot and they wanted to buy a house in Devon. In every house they looked at, they wanted to rip out all the bookshelves, fit a bar, and remove the grass and replace it with AstroTurf.

Catherine Gee winced all the way through the show.

[Gruntfuttock]

I remember that one Primrose123 even though it was ages ago.

[SoniaGluck]

Primrose Is that the one where they were rather keen on having a snooker room?

[BlingBang]

Tis cheap telly. Know a couple who went on. Their daughter t their name forward and they just did it for a giggle, totally hamming it up with no intention of moving to the country.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

YABU why shouldn't middle aged people with no children enjoy a lovely house? Really? It's an utterly horrible and ageist thing to say OP.

I will be them one day and I WANT a house like that. Why not? I'll run round the bloody garden on my own...I will enjoy it all!

[Primrose123]

Sonia, I can't remember . It was too long ago!

[Crumbledwalnuts]

I love that programme, you get to enjoy vicariously the big home and the wishing weels and all of that, and then be happy again that you don't live in the countryside.

[SoniaGluck]

What you said about astro turf rang a bell. I think it might have been the same family but I'm not sure, either.

The snooker thing sticks in my mind because the bloke mentioned it so often and he pronounced it 'snucker'.

[MidniteScribbler]

The only justification needed for why someone should be allowed to live in a house with more bedrooms than a previous poster believes they are entitled to is'because they paid for it'.

[musicposy]

I thought that this was going to be a lighthearted thread about reasons not to escape to the country.

For example, cows mooing at 2am or the uplifting sight of a ram shagging 100 sheep from your bedroom window, or being unable to get to work without being stuck behind a combine harvester.

Can you tell I live in the country? However, on a 1960s estate, I'm afraid, not a naice family home!

[gotthemoononastick]

We are old and looking to downsize.Afraid of old age isolation as described above,BUT reading the 'neighbours from hell' threads,just as afraid of buying a nightmare.

Whispers:what about my piano?(as they did in Germany in last century.)

[alemci]

well said Shelley. If you want something in life you have to pay for it. We are not in Soviet Russia or in Henry vii era when someone else could move into your property.

[AnnaFiveTowns]

HeyIjustmetyou I'm with you on this. There is something wrong with a system where it is predominantly only old/retired people who can afford to live in large family homes with gardens.

My neighbour has a huge 5 bedroomed house with a large beautiful garden that he never goes in. Ever. He pays a gardener to mow the lawn and has been saying for years that it's too big for him, he doesn't use the garden,he should move etc. It seems such a waste of a precious resource that a family could really enjoy. If there were some kind of tax policy to discourage people from living in houses far too large for their needs then the whole of society would benefit. I actually think that lots of older people, such a my grandma, never got round to moving after retirement which she now regrets as she's stuck in a big house, big garden that she can't maintain. She now feels she's too old to move, the change would kill her.

[AnnaFiveTowns]

My retired, single neighbour.

[ShellyBoobs]

If there were some kind of tax policy to discourage people from living in houses far too large for their needs then the whole of society would benefit.

Apart from the person who owns the house they wish to own but which doesn't happen to fit your definition of the home they should be entitled to enjoy.

There is already a huge disincentive to living in a large house unnecessarily; it's called council tax and it's paid per-house, not per person residing there, so penalises the single/widowed/childless (delete as applicable).

I'm just stunned that anyone can think that having bought and paid for a house isn't enough to entitle you to actually live in the fucking thing. Oh no, there'll be some more-entitled grabby fucker along at any moment to tell you that THEY should have that house. Unbelievable.

I really do despair of MM sometimes.