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Original poster

Are we allowed 7 people in our house in different rooms?

597 replies

Firefliess · 25/09/2020 00:11

DSD and her BF have come to stay this weekend. We also have DD and DSS and me and DH at home, so that makes 6 of us. DD wants her BF to stay over tomorrow night. I can't figure out whether that's allowed or not. It would mean 7 people in the house, but in no sense would we be "gathering" DD and her BF would get in late and go straight to her room. Rest of us probably we wouldn't even see him. Is that allowed? Or are people considered to be "gathering" simply by being in the same house? We're in England by the way and not in an area with any local lockdown

OP posts:
Thread gallery
12
Rosehip10 · 25/09/2020 05:48

@nikori royal palace probably classes as a covid secure work place

DamitJanet · 25/09/2020 05:48

No, the limit is six unless you are all from one household, which you’re not. Officially speaking you should be socially distancing from visitors not in your household/bubble too, but guessing that’s not happening with boyfriends visiting. Yes, it’s not been tested in court and if it go that far (it wouldn’t) you’d likely be ok on a technicality, but as things stand, and if you wanted to go with the spirit of the rules then 7 is more than 6 and not allowed.

Monty27 · 25/09/2020 05:49

@Rosehip10

What do you not understand about 6 in a house? Follow the rules or don't, but why post? Does it honestly validate your life if some random on MN says. "I would OP, the rules are crap, Boris is a knob etc" Hmm
Does your snipping at OP and other posters' opinions validate yours?
Doryhunky · 25/09/2020 05:51

In order to be compliant my family is meeting another family. To avoid breaking the rules the dad of the other family is going out while we are there. If he wasn’t prepared to do that I would have sent eldest dc to another friends which would have increased the number of households our family had contact with but is a side effect of these restrictions.

Jaffajiffy · 25/09/2020 05:51

I agree with @eurochick and OP. The legislation is ‘gatherings’ and doesn’t distinguish between inside and outside. If you can have two tables of six in a pub then you can have two gatherings inside as well. Communicating the rules as “in the house” is implying you are operating as one gathering.
Agree it’s not been tested in court.

Libertylee · 25/09/2020 05:54

I can’t understand how, when the clear rule is a limit of 6 people, you are finding it hard to figure out if 7 would be ok.

HaggieMaggie · 25/09/2020 06:01

^ this, it’s almost as though we have come full circle, back to MN when lockdown first happened and we had an hours exercise a day and the poster said “oh but can I be exempt because I have a large dog and need to walk him AND go for a run on my own”

ScubaSteven · 25/09/2020 06:02

It’s not hard to understand, 6 people in a house or garden. Covid doesn’t care about the semantics we use to describe the situation.

We’re a family of 4, my parents and sister are a household of 3, we live in England, we can’t go round all together because the number is 6. My youngest child is 5. Together we would make 7.

I can go to the pub and meet 5 friends though.

DD is right, it doesn’t make sense. But this is now the law, 7 would be breaking the law unless you do already live together.

Friendsoftheearth · 25/09/2020 06:16

Rule of 6 inside or outside.

Not a rule of 7! Includes babies, children and squirrels.

avenueq · 25/09/2020 06:18

Re the boyfriend, I'm pretty sure the rules say you don't have to socially distance from people you're in an established relationship with

Elderflower14 · 25/09/2020 06:19

How hard is to understand that SIX MEANS SIX!!!
It's no wonder Covid is still rampaging about when people can't follow rules!!! 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡

rwalker · 25/09/2020 06:39

Hilarious allowed 6 can I have 7
no wonder were fucked when people can't even count .

bigarsebelinda · 25/09/2020 06:44

People being fucking idiots with this kind of thing is why we'll end up I proper lock down and a fucked Christmas .

Grow a spine and parent your kids like a parent as me say NO. Ideally no one should be staying quite frankly.

And educate yourself on counting 0-6 might be helpful

itchyfinger · 25/09/2020 06:45

No, but I would just use my common sense, the point of the rule is to stop infection and if you're not crossing paths and clean thoroughly then theres not going to be an issue (unless your neighbour is the first reply on this thread, they sound like the sort to grass up their neighbours)

bigarsebelinda · 25/09/2020 06:49

Oh hang on. It would ok I think after all. Apologies OP
.
.
.

You are so special you get exception to the rest of the UK -how silly of me to forget that!!!

Kungfupanda67 · 25/09/2020 06:50

I’m going to go against everyone else here and say I don’t think that is a gathering of more than 6, especially if you have more than one bathroom.

I’ve had friends round when my 3 children are asleep and my husband working upstairs. There were 8 of us in the house, but as my husband and children didnt meet the 3 friends I can’t see that it was a gathering of 8.

BarbaraofSeville · 25/09/2020 06:53

@HaggieMaggie

^ this, it’s almost as though we have come full circle, back to MN when lockdown first happened and we had an hours exercise a day and the poster said “oh but can I be exempt because I have a large dog and need to walk him AND go for a run on my own”
In England there was never a rule for an hour's exercise a day or preventing someone going for a run and walking the dog on the same day.

We definitely have come round full circle, to people making up their own rules as they go along.

The comments from lawyers are interesting, as in people who are in different rooms and not interacting with each other not counting as a 'gathering'.

This seems reasonable but I don't believe for a minute that anyone is going to be checking for households that might have 7/8 people present 'illegally'. Noisy parties of 10-15+ people perhaps, but not a household with a couple of guests undertaking normal domestic life.

BiggerBoat1 · 25/09/2020 06:53

It is a stupid rule, but easy to follow. You can only have six people n your house - doesn't matter what rooms they are in.

It makes no sense because you could have six people from six different household and you could do that several times a day with a different six people each time. You can't have two households of seven people though even though that clearly poses a smaller risk.

Up to you if you want to follow the ridiculous and arbitrary rules set down by our incompetent Government.

Kungfupanda67 · 25/09/2020 06:55

@ScubaSteven ‘Covid doesn’t care about the semantics’

You’ve said this as an argument against those 7 people in the house. In my mind that’s an argument against following rules to the absolute letter when common sense says otherwise. Do you think, using your own examples, that you are more likely to catch coronavirus meeting 5 people from 5 different households and 5 different workplaces in the pub, or meeting your sister and her 2 children in the park? The virus doesn’t fly around only getting people who are breaking the nonsensical rules, it’s not going to hover around the OP’s lounge not infecting her because there’s only 5 of them but when the daughter and her boyfriend get in (and go straight to a separate room without seeing or speaking to anyone else) the virus will know there’s more than 6 so will immediately attack everyone there.

eurochick · 25/09/2020 06:56

@HaggieMaggie

^ this, it’s almost as though we have come full circle, back to MN when lockdown first happened and we had an hours exercise a day and the poster said “oh but can I be exempt because I have a large dog and need to walk him AND go for a run on my own”
We've come full circle in the sense that people are making up their own additions to the rules, apparently. In England exercise was never limited to an hour or once a day by the law.
LostFrog · 25/09/2020 06:59

It is a stupid illogical rule. Someone I know has 6 children all living together so they are a family of 8. They can’t do anything together at the moment or have anyone round but they are all out at work or school every day Confused

KitKatastrophe · 25/09/2020 06:59

@HaggieMaggie

^ this, it’s almost as though we have come full circle, back to MN when lockdown first happened and we had an hours exercise a day and the poster said “oh but can I be exempt because I have a large dog and need to walk him AND go for a run on my own”
Yes people wilfully misinterpreted the law to make it stricter then as well.

We were never limited to one hour of exercise.

There was never a law against going out twice.

Ffsnosexallowed · 25/09/2020 07:02

"I’m going to go against everyone else here and say I don’t think that is a gathering of more than 6, especially if you have more than one bathroom",
I don't remember the bit that mentions the person to bathroom ratio???

Quartz2208 · 25/09/2020 07:02

Here is the guidance

2.6 Can I stay overnight in someone else’s home?
Yes, you can stay overnight in someone else’s home, but only if you do not form a gathering of more than 6 people. You may only form a gathering of more than 6 people for an overnight stay if it is with your support bubble.

You should ensure you maintain social distancing with anyone you do not live with or who is not in your support bubble. Take particular care to maintain excellent hygiene – washing hands and surfaces – especially when using shared facilities like bathrooms wherever possible.

People in the same support bubble can stay overnight with each other in larger groups as they count as one household.

Strictly speaking even if DSS and her BF (are they in a bubble together) DD should only have her boyfriend there if they SD

MissPoldark · 25/09/2020 07:02

When people claim to be confused about the rules that’s usually because they’re looking for a way to bend them.

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