Second home owners reprimanded?

[Dan and Jan]

I have a 2nd home and no one is going to tell me I can’t travel to it. I paid good money for it and most probably deprived a local to get it. I pay the council tax and move back and forward between it and my main residence anytime I want.
Luckily it is only 2 doors away.
I visit my FIL daily as he is vulnerable and in a wheelchair. Keeping social distancing can be a problem.

 

[iandsm]

Well, in our village we have a mixture of second home owners with different sized properties ranging from little 1 bed cottages to huge houses sat in a few acres.

So far, 4 second home owners have escaped London contrary to lockdown rules. One pair are in their design built eco home sat in 3 acres, the others are in small cottages with little or no gardens.

Someone round the corner had obviously called the Police about the apparent disregard for lockdown rules and low and behold the Police turned up yesterday.

So it looks like they're getting pro active and taking a hard line on these people who flout the rules/laws/guidelines, whatever they are.

Alas, it wasn't to be. Apparently they visited the smallest property and the occupants admitted that they had ignored the rules and did understand how serious it was. The Police then decided to advise them that they should make arrangements to leave the village within 7 days and return back to their primary residence in London.

The neighbour who lives in the cottage next door (not sure if this is the complainant) asked the Police if that was all they were doing and whether they were going to do the rounds in the village to the other 3 second homes, particularly the people in the big property who have had gardeners there and visitors etc? They replied saying that they were only acting on a complaint received about this property and didn't intend knocking on anyone else's door.

So, the people who have ignored the rules have been given the all clear to have their Easter weekend in the country and can go home next week.

And we wonder how this virus is able to spread? What's the point of laws if they're not enforced?

It's so contrary to what we are led to believe is the correct way to behave when certain fractions are allowed to continue irrespective of other people around them.

I know it's a well worn topic but I'm just shocked at how some behaviour is almost condoned by the powers to be....we've got no chance of getting out of lockdown at this rate!

On the other hand, while they should not have travelled to their second homes after lockdown, provided they are now obeying lockdown would it not be lunacy to insist they travel back to the first home. Would that not be an unnecessary journey.

 

[eddie]

On the other hand, while they should not have travelled to their second homes after lockdown, provided they are now obeying lockdown would it not be lunacy to insist they travel back to the first home. Would that not be an unnecessary journey.

Good point, actually they would be breaking the laws that some people think have shouldn’t have been broken in the first place!

Which of course weren’t broken if someone chose to lockdown in a 2nd home, prior to the lockdown, and would definitely be broken if hounded out by the burning brand and pitchfork fraternity

 

[Minxy]

With the 'antagonism' that apparently is going on in some places where people have second homes I wonder if those who own them will sell them on as the 'perfect holiday home' location will no longer feel so friendly and thus not a place they want to frequent if they can't relax and enjoy it.

 

[Potty]

With the 'antagonism' that apparently is going on in some places where people have second homes I wonder if those who own them will sell them on as the 'perfect holiday home' location will no longer feel so friendly and thus not a place they want to frequent if they can't relax and enjoy it.

I wonder how many people, seeing the remarks about lack of medical facilities, will wonder if they are safe places to visit during holiday periods.

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[Louis]

Think to be fair....the issue of whether or not there is local infrastructure to support future housing is not the issue for the person who wishes to build properties but for the local authorities who have given the planning permission for the properties to be built. Local authorities have to consider these issues prior to granting consent? If granted I can only assume they were happy that sufficient resources were in place or planned for?

Good point, actually they would be breaking the laws that some people think have shouldn’t have been broken in the first place!

Which of course weren’t broken if someone chose to lockdown in a 2nd home, prior to the lockdown, and would definitely be broken if hounded out by the burning brand and pitchfork fraternity

A lot are missing the point arent they? As you rightly stated "Prior" is the Key Word ?

 

[Smudger55]

I don't normally moan but I see in yesterday yesterday's paper Gordon.Ramsey is staying in his 2nd home around Polzeath, yes he is brave and shameful enough to venture into Cornwall at this time. Come on you Cornish kick him out!!! Well not literally but u know what I mean. Must have got past M5 police checks.... hmmm????

 

[SpeedyDux]

Think to be fair....the issue of whether or not there is local infrastructure to support future housing is not the issue for the person who wishes to build properties but for the local authorities who have given the planning permission for the properties to be built. Local authorities have to consider these issues prior to granting consent? If granted I can only assume they were happy that sufficient resources were in place or planned for?

Happy or unhappy the LA Planners have to meet Government targets for new housing. Financially the LA gets more Council Tax. The developers have the upper hand and they know it. Gridlocked roads and other infrastructure lagging behind, sites that the Environment Agency warns might be under water, developers don't care and the LA may negotiate a bit as a sop to objecters, but it's Canute versus the tide. Have you met Councillors who sit on Planning Committees? I don't know about yours but mine didn't seem to be natives of planet Earth.

 

[gus-lopez]

Well it seemed that the Police didn’t seem to think so from your post.

That's because they will take the easy way out,In this case offering something they didn't have the right to offer. " leave in 7 days"

Oh, and to add more fuel to this fire. I also asked?. Where the infrastructure to support this "new" development(s) where?. Ie increased primary school capacity, and a larger Surgery.? To which there was a lot of Errring and Umm, Yes, well?. but no answer.!

see below

is not the issue for the person who wishes to build properties but for the local authorities who have given the planning permission for the properties to be built. Local authorities have to consider these issues prior to granting consent? If granted I can only assume they were happy that sufficient resources were in place or planned for?

Trouble is now they have no right to say no in most cases.The government told them all that they had to allow building in places no one wants.
Village I lived in in Devon. one woman applied for planning the whole of her life. Field on outskirts backing on to the last houses.Always refused as outside village boundary ,lack of infrastructue, facilities, school unable to cope.etc.
When the gov made them change we then had 12 houses built on the plot; regardless of the fact that the infrastructure cannot cope. When the school situation was brought up gov offered 30k for expansion.
This is for a victorian infants school, which is on a corner of 2 roads & has a house on its other 2 sides & when my girls went there in 1984 shortly after thry had to put a portacabin in the play ground ,which is/was/still is 40m x 20m , due to overcrowding.How does this 30k help? They already have to go over road to village hall for school dinners? There is no way of expanding the existing building whatsoever.
So it isn't the local or parish councils, they don't want them nor do the locals. & there isn't anything to stop more being built.

Wondering how many people have second homes in D & C
1k 2 k?

In 2014 it was 13,000 in Devon ( 3,5% of available properties) & in Cornwall 11,000( 4,6% of available properties) This is A) only those that are known about & B) doesn't include any that are solely for holiday rentals. They are numbers 1 & 2 for 2nd home ownership
& this was 6 years ago.
Yet in the 2012 census Cornwall was the local authority where the greatest number of people recorded a second address. 22,997 people, usually resident elsewhere in England and Wales had a second address there which they used for 30 days or more each year . So some untruths being told somewhere?
& I have just counted around 40,000for the Devon region from the same census admitting to owning a second home there.
5,2million people in the UK own 1 or more second homes. Of these 3,4m do not rent out so are used solely as a second home/left empty.

With the 'antagonism' that apparently is going on in some places where people have second homes I wonder if those who own them will sell them on as the 'perfect holiday home' location will no longer feel so friendly and thus not a place they want to frequent if they can't relax and enjoy it.

Yes even incomers living & working there, as I was for 20 years ,are barely tolerated.

 

[Malcolm Bolt]

Putting advice, regulations, rules and legislation to one side it seems to me that keeping apart from others is the required outcome.
For the past ten years whilst on our 'gap year' we moved address to my son's house. At that time he was single and we had plenty of space.
We also bought an old static van on a holiday site. We holidayed there in the summer. We holidayed in the RMB abroad in the rest of the year.
Over the years my son got married and had a family. My son is a gas engineer and my daughter in law is a midwife working in a local hospital. They have two young sons under five.

We recently complied with foreign office advice to return to the UK from Spain. Would it have been sensible for us to have moved into our 'main residence' to self isolate thereby put them at risk?

I believe that it would have been totally irresponsible and we did not do it.

We did not comply but were we wrong?

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[Captain Pants]

I wonder how many people, seeing the remarks about lack of medical facilities, will wonder if they are safe places to visit during holiday periods.

Too right, they still do operations using whiskey as a sedative around here. Best to stay away.

 

[Captain Pants]

With the 'antagonism' that apparently is going on in some places where people have second homes I wonder if those who own them will sell them on as the 'perfect holiday home' location will no longer feel so friendly and thus not a place they want to frequent if they can't relax and enjoy it.

We can hope

 

[Minxy]

We can hope

In which case your local economy will likely suffer as it won't get the income from the influx of visitors ... whether the local population can make up for this or not I don't know for sure, but I doubt it.

 

[AXO66]

Then go out shopping and infect the local community, good plan?

?? How??

PS I’m not advocating moving out of one’s own area at all.
just looking at the issue from different view points. Stuck to the rules. Defiantly.

(but stiill interested how being isolated for nearly 21 days, with no symptoms, then being charaponrd around a supermarket at 2m distance will infect the local community)

 

[Captain Pants]

I don't normally moan but I see in yesterday yesterday's paper Gordon.Ramsey is staying in his 2nd home around Polzeath, yes he is brave and shameful enough to venture into Cornwall at this time. Come on you Cornish kick him out!!! Well not literally but u know what I mean. Must have got past M5 police checks.... hmmm????

He’s hunkered down at the epicentre of 2nd homeland - Rock aka ‘Kensington on Sea’ having bought a property for several million, knocked it down and started again. He keeps a low profile apart from the odd speeding ticket on the A30. However that’s more income in addition to his Council Tax for which apparently we should all be very grateful.

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[Captain Pants]

In which case your local economy will likely suffer as it won't get the income from the influx of visitors ... whether the local population can make up for this or not I don't know for sure, but I doubt it.

We’re talking about 2nd home owners NOT visitors.

 

[Minxy]

We’re talking about 2nd home owners NOT visitors.

... but some of the second home owners will let it out when they're not staying there ...

 

[Minxy]

?? How??

Usually by getting in the car and driving to the shops, or walking there, mixing (respecting 2m SD) with others, touching stuff etc ... if they are one of the lucky ones to be able to get home deliveries from supermarkets etc it then means that someone else there can't have that delivery slot ...

 

[Captain Pants]

... but some of the second home owners will let it out when they're not staying there ...

That’s a drop in the ocean compared to holiday accommodation, hotels, camping sites, caravan, B&B etc. Second homes are generally conspicuous by the nobody home look.

 

[Smudger55]

He’s hunkered down at the epicentre of 2nd homeland - Rock aka ‘Kensington on Sea’ having bought a property for several million, knocked it down and started again. He keeps a low profile apart from the odd speeding ticket on the A30. However that’s more income in addition to his Council Tax for which apparently we should all be very grateful.

OK but was it essential for him to travel down, should have stayed where he normally lives me thinks. Smudger55

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[Tanya_and_Mick]

Boris is out and heading for Chequers - is that his secondary home?

 

[Captain Pants]

Boris is out and heading for Chequers - is that his secondary home?

Who knows, but I’m very pleased he’s out.

 

[Tanya_and_Mick]

Who knows, but I’m very pleased he’s out.

Ditto

 

[Minxy]

Who knows, but I’m very pleased he’s out.

Talk about double standards (about the second home I hasten to add!).

 

[eddie]

sums up some

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[AXO66]

Usually by getting in the car and driving to the shops, or walking there, mixing (respecting 2m SD) with others, touching stuff etc ... if they are one of the lucky ones to be able to get home deliveries from supermarkets etc it then means that someone else there can't have that delivery slot ...

nope.

been symptom free for 21 days and only been shopping once in that time, tesco, strict 2mt rule. 1 in 1 out.

wash hands every time been out
don’t touch stuff not even hand rails

 

[Minxy]

nope.

been symptom free for 21 days and only been shopping once in that time, tesco, strict 2mt rule. 1 in 1 out.

wash hands every time been out
don’t touch stuff not even hand rails

Er ... yup ... you went out into the community ...

 

[Vipar]

Ditto ditto

 

[Minxy]

Ditto ditto

When my Mum was a kid she thought that was a swear word so used it all the time!

 

[Captain Pants]

Talk about double standards (about the second home I hasten to add!).

No double standard, he’s a key worker.

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