mam and dad living in spain wanting to come home HELP,ADVISE please

claude2006

Hi my mam and dad went out to spain to live 5yrs ago sold their house here and bought a lovely property (a town house) in spain they bought it out right with there money they got from there house from uk ........so they dont own anything on property abroad. 5yrs on and Mam is not in ill health but not in best of health either, home sick a little and really suffering with heat in peak times of the summer. She comes back and stays with me a few weeks here and there but wants to come home longer,,,, dont have room to accomodate for more than a few weeks. Ideally they want to come home without selling the property and having it as a hoilday home. Is this possible??? If not they willl have to sell up. They dont know the best options and neither do i any suggesstions from you people would be great thankyou xx

BitterAndTwisted

Your parents really need to consider their health-provision for the future as having lived permanently in Spain will have meant that they no longer qualify for free NHS treatment should they require it. at some point in the future.

If your parents don't have any money or other investments they won't have much choice in what they can afford to do, just like the rest of us.

One solution might be to sell the town-house and buy a tiny little shack elsewhere in Spain and use the difference for rent and to establish their residency over here again.

Jelliebeen

How about renting it out to holidaymakers during the times they're not there? Since they haven't got a mortgage to pay off, they could employ a management agency to do changeovers/maintenance and not worry about covering mortgage costs too. Just a thought.

mlz1413

Do they want to be in UK for more than 6 months per year?

Are they now spanish citizens? Does this give them rights to any healthcare in spain?

Do they have the money to buy any type of property in UK or is all their capital in the house in Spain?

olias

Seems to me that if they have sufficient income or capital, they could buy or rent in the UK, whilst retaining their spanish home. If they don't have sufficient income or capital, they will have to sell up to fund a home in the UK. The alternative is to keep the Spanish property and return to the UK and look for a council house or a private rented place and claim housing benefit - I would say this would be morally wrong and quite possibly fraudulent.

Olias

Jowo_2

You should run your parents circumstances past organisations like Shelter and Citizens Advice to find out their benefit/housing options.

mlz1413

Health care depends on age when they moved out to Spain, Age Concern have a website that has loads of info on this subject.

A lot depends of which country they are now citizens of, if they have lived in spain for 5 yrs they should be Spainish and have changed their driving license if applicable.

So they will need to decide where they intend to live for more than 6 months of each year and so where they will citizens of.

N79

mlz1413 wrote: »

Health care depends on age when they moved out to Spain, Age Concern have a website that has loads of info on this subject.

A lot depends of which country they are now citizens of, if they have lived in spain for 5 yrs they should be Spainish and have changed their driving license if applicable.

So they will need to decide where they intend to live for more than 6 months of each year and so where they will citizens of.

They would still be British "Citizens" (Subjects) though - even if they have now taken on dual nationality. Living abroad, even for your entire life, does not mean you are not a British "Citizen". I think you are confusing Citizenship with residency.

Jowo_2

Are you saying that your parents can't afford to rent privately in the UK and don't want to sell their overseas property to buy another in the UK?

If so, I suggest you could post this on the benefits board. I've seen threads on it before from people who are querying how their expat status affects benefits and whether the council has any obligation to assist them with housing.

As you can see from the Shelter website section on homelessness, the council only tend to assist those who are in housing need who they deem not to have made themselves intentionally homeless by leaving accommodation that they did not have to. You could ask Shelter about your parents options if they cannot or do not want to sell their townhouse in Spain and cannot afford private accommodation in the UK.

Some local councils run deposit guarantee schemes for tenants that can't afford to pay a deposit on private housing, though sometimes they are restricted to those on benefits, othertimes, to those on low incomes.

mlz1413

Your right N79 I should have said resident.