Off grid living

AG47

New thread 2018 for buying some land cheap and just living there

There is the 4 year rule, https://youtu.be/621nP8oP1R8

Land is about £6K per acre now and you can build a very cheap dwelling nowadays.

Now get ready for all the doubters adamant that you just can't that......

Doozergirl

Are you presently living off grid?

eddddy

I guess it's a gamble with big stakes...

• If you get away with it, you'll make a chunk of money.
• If you get caught, you lose your building costs, and end up with a valueless piece of land

You have to live with the worry that if you offend somebody, they might get revenge by reporting your dwelling to the council.

Also, it got harder with the Localism Act in 2011 - which removes the 4 year rule where the development is deliberately concealed.

So, for example,...

• If you register the property for council tax within 4 years, the council tax department cross check with the planning department (so you get found out)
• If you don't register for council tax within 4 years, the courts may decide it's part of a ploy to conceal the development (so there is no 4 year time limit for enforcement)

So you could lose either way.

EachPenny

AG47 wrote: »

Now get ready for all the doubters adamant that you just can't that......

Of course you can do that, I don't understand why you think anyone would say otherwise.

Just make sure you don't have any neighbours within 5 miles, you are at least 50 miles from the nearest council office, you don't want any bank accounts or credit, and you don't need any mains electricity, phone, broadband, or water.

And even if you do a really good job at hiding your new home, someone is bound to grass you up.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/19/couple-disguised-house-garage-told-tear/
Couple who disguised house as a garage told to tear it down

...and when I was looking for that story I found another more recent one! :rotfl:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-43043752
Couple fined over 'secret' house hidden in garage

Davesnave

"Now get ready for all the doubters adamant that you just can't (do) that......"

So far, all you have done is introduce a You Tube video, where a guy who has succeeded in using the 4 year rule explains the basics of how he did it. Of course there are going to be people who examine this critically, which isn't 'doubting' at all.

Mr Ironthumper appears to be an intelligent guy with a degree of competency in practical work, an aptitude for living with very basic facilities, and he seems to possess some astuteness in the way he deals with others.

Unfortunately, many people seeing the video will not be as well adapted to the way of life he proposes. He even suggests this himself, saying that it's better that it's not easy for everyone to follow his lead. This implies many will fail.

One thing Mr Ironthumper didn't explain is how he repaid the loans he used, so we have to assume he did some form of paid work whilst also living off-grid. This introduces a problem, because the places where land is cheap and relatively uninhabited are mainly those where employment opportunities are limited. So, the off-grid aspirant becomes a commuter.....

Where I live, there are a few people living off-grid in temporary dwellings, but this seems to be mainly to avoid the costs of renting and, possibly, to save MSE-style towards something more permanent. One group have just sold off their land on a guide price of £60k, which I'm sure they got, because it went quickly. Land can be a good investment, for sure.

The only people I'm aware of who have made a permanent structure in this area are the mud hut couple, now well publicised, who chose a very prominent place to build! The council told them to be out by Christmas. They're still there, or they were last week:

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/mud-hut-couple-allergic-modern-932655

glasgowdan

None of these people are living truly off grid. They depend on a society that is. Where do their clothes come from? Their healthcare? Their trades? They do carry money...where do they get it? Where do they spend it?

It's a very head in the sand type of ideal that doesn't benefit society as a whole.

.

glasgowdan

Doozergirl wrote: »

Are you presently living off grid?

Their previous threads talk about HP and car parking so i highly doubt it

AG47

I'm not living off grid at the moment

But I want to

AG47

Does he pay council tax I wonder?

If not what does he do about waste disposal?

It must be really nice not having any bills whatsoever, as long as you can provide your own power through solar or wind generation, water through rain collection and then heating and cooking through wood stove

He does say he gets his mobile phone bill sent to his property

AnotherJoe

glasgowdan wrote: »

None of these people are living truly off grid. They depend on a society that is. Where do their clothes come from? Their healthcare? Their trades? They do carry money...where do they get it? Where do they spend it?

It's a very head in the sand type of ideal that doesn't benefit society as a whole.

.

Yes i vary between a wry smile and severe annoyance when people talk about being "self sufficient" or "off grid". They will happily post their video to you tube (via their purchased iPhone using purchased bandwidth) showing you their solar arrays (which they didn't make), their plastic pipes (which they didn't make) for water supply, wearing clothes (which aren't solely knitted from sheep they raised),digging their vegetable garden using iron tools they didn't make by finding and smelting their own iron ore, and their food such as flour (that they didn't grow harvest or mill themselves) stored in glass or ceramic containers that they didn't make, and then smugly talk about being "self sufficient".

They are lying to themselves as well as everyone else . How long ago did John Donne say "no man is an island" ? 400 years ? It was true well before then, even if that's not how he meant it.

Davesnave

AG47 wrote: »

Does he pay council tax I wonder?

Yes he will. Once the local authority recognise a property as lawful, it will be subject to council tax and it will get an 'official' address.