Second home - 29th March or 12th April

[Excited0803]

The guidance says self contained accommodation is only to open for business on 12th April. With the stay at home requirement ending on 29th March, will it be legal to go to a currently unoccupied second home on 29th March to stay overnight, or will we need to wait until 12th April? Thanks

Stay home until after Easter. I live in area that is usually manic during the Easter holidays!

That is the whole point - did they? It wasn’t announced at the press briefing and i can’t see anything in the official government guidance on the road map on gov.uk. Anyway - we are going round in circles. No one has pointed to anything in government guidance thus far so we will just have to wait and see.

Holiday homes are surely the same as rental cottages and caravans as someone owns them, why would there be different rules depending on whether it's let or not.

@UmteenthUser that's my understanding. I am a second home owner, so hope (but don't believe) I'm wrong.

Depends where it is! Boris’ announcement only covers England

The reason there may be different rules is because of the legislation. The government tends to recycle the same legislation but with slight tweaks. In order to ban overnight stays there tends to be (a) complete ban on movement or (b) ban on certain businesses opening unless for certain purpose. I may be wrong, but as far as I am aware there was never a ban per se on overnight stays in legislation. The ban was due to either movement being limited or businesses not being open. Which is why I think there may be a lacuna after 29 March.

I don’t actually have a second home so I don’t know why I’m so invested! 🤣

We’re planning on going on the 2nd April to coincide with Easter holiday as not sure why it’s much safer 12 days later?

We've decided 12th April, just to avoid local 'issues'.

@OverTheRainbow88 probably because they want to avoid armies of holiday makers traipsing around the country for the Easter weekend, taking whatever virus they have with them. 12th April is safely past many areas' school holidays...

It might not be either given that the ending of restrictions is meant to be based on data not dates and the dates given are the earliest possible.

Not ours! Yay!

Will arrive at 1 minute past midnight on 12th April, exactly as we arrived at 1 minute past midnight on 4th July last year.

based on data not dates

Oh they've totally fucked that.

@Verite1

That is the whole point - did they? It wasn’t announced at the press briefing and i can’t see anything in the official government guidance on the road map on gov.uk. Anyway - we are going round in circles. No one has pointed to anything in government guidance thus far so we will just have to wait and see.

I don't know how to do links from my phone but this is a direct quotation from the roadmap and refers to the period from 29 March:

As a result of these changes, people will no longer be legally required to Stay at Home. Many of the lockdown restrictions, however, will remain in place. Unless an exemption already applies, it will not be possible to meet people from other households indoors and many business premises will remain shut. Guidance will set out that people should continue to work from home where they can. People should continue to minimise travel wherever possible, and should not be staying away from home overnight at this stage.

I think the key thing from that quote is:

Guidance will set out that people should continue to work from home where they can. People should continue to minimise travel wherever possible, and should not be staying away from home overnight at this stage.

Key words here are 'guidance' and 'should' and 'wherever possible'. I think it's likely that it won't be illegal to go to a second home from 29th but they won't explicitly say it and the guidance will say 'should stay local and shouldn't stay overnight' but that will just be guidance, not law.