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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think holiday homes could be used to house lots of refugees

660 replies

Letshaveablackcelebration · 13/03/2022 13:54

Uk has a LOT of holiday homes and empty second homes. Surely they could be used to take a lot of Refugees aswell as spare rooms? It could support local economies all year round too rather than just in peak tourism seasons? The crisis is going to escalate rapidly in Ukraine- there are 44 million people in the country and so far it’s about 2 million who have fled and now countries like Moldova and the Poland are starting to struggle so we need to step up.

Aibu? It seems like an obvious solution. Obviously using the empty homes of oligarchs too is a preference.

I read an article about a woman who gave her French holiday home to a refugee family.

OP posts:
AngelinaFibres · 13/03/2022 18:22

@Yebs

My parents both potter around using one bedroom of their eight bedroom house. A house which has two living rooms, a dining room, study, two empty rooms which used to be play rooms, an office, five bathrooms, one kitchen and a separate kitchenette area in one of the rooms. Mortgage free. I've had my mum on the phone to me today moaning that my dad really wants to sign up to home some of the Ukrainian refugees. She was horrified at the thought and asking me to speak to him to squash such a silly idea. Don't think she appreciated my response. It does make me a bit sad that such a large house with so many empty rooms could provide a lovely countryside refuge to some desperate people and she'd rather it stay all hers. It's a big thing to take on, but wouldn't we want someone to take us in if it was the other way round? I know I would.
If you and your family moved in with her and your father you could give your house over to a Ukrainian family. What a beautiful solution for everyone
Natfemale · 13/03/2022 18:24

This reply has been deleted

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Bunnyfuller · 13/03/2022 18:25

@Snowwhiteandthesevendwarfs

Are you meaning the government should pay the same costs that a holiday goer would pay per week/month? Where do you think the government will find this money from? The future for our children is already going to be beyond expensive due to costs from the last 2 years, your idea would be making this 100 times worse.
No. I mean you don’t look to make exorbitant profit from your property, and rent it to the government at a reasonable amount.
woodhill · 13/03/2022 18:26

But how would you know they would be honest. I wouldn't trust a stranger in my home.

For example they could take out a loan in your name. I think you have to be careful

stuntbubbles · 13/03/2022 18:26

@Natfemale I didn’t say it was, or make an analogy. I referred to wartime requisition as an aside.

x2boys · 13/03/2022 18:26

@Yebs

My parents both potter around using one bedroom of their eight bedroom house. A house which has two living rooms, a dining room, study, two empty rooms which used to be play rooms, an office, five bathrooms, one kitchen and a separate kitchenette area in one of the rooms. Mortgage free. I've had my mum on the phone to me today moaning that my dad really wants to sign up to home some of the Ukrainian refugees. She was horrified at the thought and asking me to speak to him to squash such a silly idea. Don't think she appreciated my response. It does make me a bit sad that such a large house with so many empty rooms could provide a lovely countryside refuge to some desperate people and she'd rather it stay all hers. It's a big thing to take on, but wouldn't we want someone to take us in if it was the other way round? I know I would.
It's their house though they can do what they want with it My parents have four double bedroom,s free and a bathroom upstairs ,they live down stairs as my mum has had a stroke ,they are both nearly 80 and physically frail We can't spend other people's money for them .
PourSomeLove · 13/03/2022 18:26

If you and your family moved in with her and your father you could give your house over to a Ukrainian family. What a beautiful solution for everyone

Awaits excuses. 😂

MySoCalledL1fe · 13/03/2022 18:27

@alltheapples You don’t have to be pretty rich to own a holiday home, I own a holiday home and that is part of how I make a living and save for a pension, presumably you don’t think everyone with a job is rich? You have to be pretty rich to own a 2nd home which you don’t rent out and just keep for when you feel like popping in.

Yebs · 13/03/2022 18:28

If you and your family moved in with her and your father you could give your house over to a Ukrainian family. What a beautiful solution for everyone

It's not quite that easy with a near full mortgage, very young children and being pregnant. Not to mention we live three hours away from them and all have jobs, schools and lives here. They have the means, a fully paid off mortgage and so much empty space and I think it's a shame that he's so keen and she's not even thinking about it. That's my point. My dad rightly says they are in the perfect position to do it, it is a shame she is shutting it down for the wrong reasons.

Pliudev · 13/03/2022 18:29

Not exactly on topic but I wonder if anyone can advise. We live in Cornwall a couple of miles from the sea. It would be fairly straightforward to convert a downstairs room into a bedsit/large bedroom. In the past I was told Syrian refugees wouldn't want to live in a rural location so far from centres of support. I'm wondering if we can't offer permanent accommodation if offering it for holiday stays (for refugees) might work? Does anyone know who I can contact? Thanks for reading.

douper · 13/03/2022 18:30

In that case most landlords would sell up, creating a serious housing shortage. Only the very worse landlords with the worse housing stock would remain.

There would also be a huge shortage of labour in many parts of the market. Teaching, NHS etc in cities would collapse , as they couldn’t get staff.

Key workers are already priced out. Rather than relying on generous landlords we need a lot more social housing.

Yebs · 13/03/2022 18:31

@PourSomeLove

If you and your family moved in with her and your father you could give your house over to a Ukrainian family. What a beautiful solution for everyone

Awaits excuses. 😂

Christ alive. Is this everyone's attitude? Someone saying that people who have the means should atleast think about helping out, automatically means those people just don't want to do it themselves and will have excuses. Of course a family with multiple young children are in a very different situation to two retired people with a huge house and paid off mortgage. My dad wants to do it. He can more than afford it. How is it so unreasonable to say that it's wrong my mum won't even humour a conversation about it?
douper · 13/03/2022 18:33

@Yebs unless you are going to give everything you have to a refugee & swapped lives you can't have an opinion 😆

SundayTeatime · 13/03/2022 18:35

I know several people with holiday homes that don’t let them to holiday makers. It’s more common than not. They give them out free to friends, or people from church, or poorer people who wouldn’t have a holiday otherwise. At least one is planning to hand over the holiday home to refugees..

douper · 13/03/2022 18:36

Because this isn’t the best way to help traumatised people. And it isn’t the best for the families with spare rooms or houses in many cases.

I don't agree there are problems but the gov are going with "give your spare room to a refugee" so it is a thing regardless whether you like it or not.

What is the best way to help them?

douper · 13/03/2022 18:36

disagree that should say

Bunnyfuller · 13/03/2022 18:36

No. I mean you don’t look to make exorbitant profit from your property, and rent it to the government at a reasonable amount.

In that case most landlords would sell up, creating a serious housing shortage. Only the very worse landlords with the worse housing stock would remain.

There would also be a huge shortage of labour in many parts of the market. Teaching, NHS etc in cities would collapse , as they couldn’t get staff.

The universities will struggle without the income of overseas students, who won’t want to come and live in slums in the UK. Many Uk students would also go to study overseas die to shortages of accommodation here.

Most overseas nationals who work here will return to their own counties, creating more job vacancies which can’t be filled by Uk nationals as they can’t move house.

Women and children would be forced to stay in abusive marriages as they couldn’t move out and rent anywhere else.

No. With less houses owned by landlords with multiple properties, there would be more on the market, making the housing market accessible. Rents would need to be competitive.

So telling the first reaction was ‘well, if we can’t make shitloads we’ll just sell’.

And the little holiday villages with a shop only open 6 months a year is BECAUSE of all the fucking holiday lets. They’ve killed the villages, because no one can afford to buy or rent there all year round. Even the little twee shop is run by out of towners selling over priced ‘artisan’ scones and cream from the local supermarket.

Dress t up all you like, we all know there’s a housing crisis in the uk which BTRs are the biggest cause of. It may be your ‘income’ but you are making your ‘income’ on the back of people with less than you needing a roof over their head. Or providing a cut above a nasty little caravan to those who like one of their annual holidays to be in the UK. It’s about money. You’re scared you’ll lose out if it goes to refugees. Own that, instead of all the ‘because’.

Natfemale · 13/03/2022 18:39

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Yogagrandmum · 13/03/2022 18:40

@Letshaveablackcelebration

Uk has a LOT of holiday homes and empty second homes. Surely they could be used to take a lot of Refugees aswell as spare rooms? It could support local economies all year round too rather than just in peak tourism seasons? The crisis is going to escalate rapidly in Ukraine- there are 44 million people in the country and so far it’s about 2 million who have fled and now countries like Moldova and the Poland are starting to struggle so we need to step up.

Aibu? It seems like an obvious solution. Obviously using the empty homes of oligarchs too is a preference.

I read an article about a woman who gave her French holiday home to a refugee family.

I agree.
RancidOldHag · 13/03/2022 18:41

I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet the scale of this crisis

Perhaps not. But remember that there were 2.5million Europeans displaced by war from 1992. And we coped.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/03/2022 18:43

Has anyone else noticed that there have been no replies to the many questions about "What happens at the end of the 6 months"?

I'm aware that Refugees at Home (and probably others) sat they "aim" to find alternative accommodation once time's up, but what's to be done if there isn't any?

I won't hold my breath ...

DemBonesDemBones · 13/03/2022 18:44

'who the hell do you think you are? You know nothing about me- don’t come on here so you can make vile statements about me.'

😆😆😆 Sorry, just picked myself up off the floor. You're accusing her of EXACTLY what you've done!

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/03/2022 18:45

Obviously using the empty homes of oligarchs too is a preference

Not going to happen
If there was any chance it might, the Tory party - already awash with Russian money - would find itself in receipt of even more in order to get it stopped

Mangogogogo · 13/03/2022 18:48

Do you think people would start trying to pick and chose who stayed in their home though? I mean understandably you’d prefer a mother and child over 5 20 year old lads for example, but will this then be pushed to ‘I will only take Ukrainian refugees and not others’? How far could we go? Would the homeowners have rights? Would they push these rights because the tenants are not paying rent?
I’m just kind of pondering out loud here. I don’t own a second home so I don’t really know what my actual answer would be

PourSomeLove · 13/03/2022 18:50

My dad wants to do it. He can more than afford it. How is it so unreasonable to say that it's wrong my mum won't even humour a conversation about it?

Do you really need to have the vulnerabilities your mum may feel as a woman explained to you that your dad being a man will never have felt. And I presuming your parents aren’t young, your mum may just not have the energy required to do this. I’d put money on any work involved falling at your mums feet more than your dads. Men are often keen to hire out the tie wives time and effort. It’s your mums home and she has the right to close the door to the world and feel safe. Find a way of giving your own house up if you want to. If I was your mum I’d have simply told your dad that although it’s a nice thought, he’s being naive. If he’s gone on at her, which he may have, prompting her to ask for your help, I’d have told him to fuck off. I wouldn’t have involved you, it’s none of your business.