Jeremy Vine - people are morally obliged to downsize and free up property

[JoanThursday1972]

Currently have this on the radio. Suggestion is that people are not entitled to remain in and live in the house that they have bought and paid for. That they should downsize and free this up for more deserving occupants, ie families.

This is surely a personal choice and not an obligation? Anyone is entitled to live in a house they have bought, regardless of size.

So the conservatives are doing something similar, very badly. That's a shocker - Not! IME it's something which could be planned and executed well as part of a much larger solution for tackling the effects of poverty and improving outcomes. Just because it is being done badly at the moment doesn't mean that it can't be done well. I would like to see well thought out solutions for a change not sticking plasters or distraction strategies which pit one section of the public against another.

I have a chronic health condition that will worsen with time. I have been looking for a bungalow that will suit me when I get older. I have been looking for a long time now. There just aren't any. Old existing ones are bought at way over reasonable prices due to the demand for them. And despite loads of new housing estates being built near me, there are zero bungalows being built.

There isn't much point in downsizing to another double storey house.

They might be exploring how it might work. But it needs to fit within the law. And charging people to live in their properties that they already own will not fit into that.

No they shouldn't and neither should council/HA tenants which is a very unpopular opinion.

Well i dont know about anyone else but i wouldnt be spunking money on decorating a place i would be forced to move out of a couple of years later

There isn't much point in downsizing to another double storey house.

So many new builds have super narrow stairs or curved stairs as well which doesn’t help.

When DH’s granny downsized she did move into a double storey place, but it had a lovely wide straight staircase and a stairlift was an easy option if needed.

I’ve beeb viewing houses with his aunt recently and there’s been none that would work (she’s not needing it but was thinking ahead).

Yes really narrow stairs or tiny landings that you would struggle to put a stair lift in. Also very narrow room dimensions that would make it tricky to manoeuvre a wheelchair in.

There's no point downsizing if there's no potential space for a wet room, stairlift, ramp access to front door and back garden and a spare room for a carer / family to stay. Larger homes can accommodate these adaptations.

The housing manager sat in our living room back in 2017 and told us there was absolutely no adapted housing available.

i let out an adapted flat that was my GPs. When my Nana went into a care home someone we know asked if we’d consider renting it as she’d been told she’d have a year wait for adapted housing. She was a tenant for several years. When she moved the housing officer asked if we’d consider someone else “short term”. They were a tenant for nigh on 9 years.

We’re now on the fourth round of the local council saying “we’d like to buy the property” but I have no doubt it’ll fall through again - every time we go through it, they agree the price, and then they say “sorry budget doesn’t allow”.

Still don't understand? Never mind.

tailinthejam
"Selling your home to downsize, and then spending the money (or giving it to family) is frowned upon"
By who? Certain posters on MN? Because that is exactly what we have done and are early retiring and merrily spending the equity that was left over ie our own money 🤑.
Regards your solicitor comment, when we made our will, we had a lengthy and very helpful discussion with our solicitors regarding avoiding care home fees and IHT.

Regards your solicitor comment, when we made our will, we had a lengthy and very helpful discussion with our solicitors regarding avoiding care home fees and IHT.

why is everyone so desperate to avoid care home fees? Aren't you scared by what the provision will look like when you may need it?

Have you had any experience with care homes? You can pay a fortune and still get absolutely appalling care, can't complain about it, have basically no rights at all. Or you can be council funded - same, same.

We down sized from a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 3 storey Edwardian house in the S.E. and moved to a 3 bedroom detached house in the S.W. We were able to adapt our new home with equity from the sale of our large house so we now have a walk in shower instead of a bath, a downstairs loo and have converted the kitchen dining room into a separate dining room so that if the worst happens we could make the dining room into a bedroom. We also have a straight staircase so we could install a stair lift. We have looked for a bungalow in the area but this would cost us much more than we would get for selling this house.

We would not like to move from this area as our daughter lives near by and we look after our grandson so that she can work.

We were fortunate to be able to do this when we retired but it was a big decision to leave our friends and family to move to a completely new area which a lot of older people would not want to do.

Ridiculous to have one person living in a 4 bedroom house.We should be taxing this type of situation much more heavily so that it incentivises people to move to an appropriate dwelling

Then you need to guarantee people that there will be a suitable property to down size to eg. without stairs, a lift in communal areas, use of well kept gardens....and you also need to make sure that such accommodation is affordable and exists in areas that people want to move to. I am.in my 50s and have begun looking but so far haven't seen anything that represents value for money and which is located somewhere I want to live. The sheer cost of moving with a legal fees, stamp duty etc is a huge issue even if suitable property is available.

By local authorities which assess financial entitlement to residential care. They can and do go back decades and, according to our solicitor, there’s no foolproof way round it. We think it only right that we should pay care home fees if necessary so we weren’t interested anyway.

If you taxed under occupancy in private ownership, where is the incentive to better yourself? When the kids leave home I would decide my assets up on a forced downsize if a house I worked hard to own. There wouldn't be much incentive for me to keep on working hard. In fact I wouldn't pay off the mortgage. There wouldn't be the incentive too.

You could better yourself by taking up yoga or volunteering for wildlife. The country needs people to be social carers teachers nurses waiters. It doesn't need people going up the ladder in corporate jobs

It seems quite strange to say, as some have, that owner occupiers only have a duty to themselves and their families but council tenants should have completely different priorities with themselves at the bottom of the list.

I already volunteer as a governor and in a SEN charity shop. But if was going to sell my family house in ten years I'd stop paying the mortgage repayments as it wouldn't be needed. My mortgage monthly payments aren't small but i could stop getting into debt if i was interest only. Anyway my house is never going to bought for the council for socail hosing so it's moot. It's never going to happen.

If I have my way, it'll have taken me 50-60 years to buy a larger property with huge garden. Why on earth would I then want to give that up, I'll be staying there as long as I can, not talking about elderly care or doing what others consider my moral obligation. I'll downsize if the queen does lol

@WhatWouldJeevesDo that is why i and a lot of others i know didnt swallow the "all in this together" crap during the Covid restrictions. We knew it would be back to the default setting soon enough.
And here we are!

This is utter madness. What do you think tax revenue would look like without higher rate tax payers?

Yawn. So sick of the same old crap spouted on MN.