Stuck overseas.

johnnyj1000

Hi. I arrived in Greece in January 2020 with a view to staying for a couple of months. I then got caught up in the C-19 situation and am still here as there are no practicable flights to the UK and land borders are closed. 
I have a house in the UK and the bills are mounting up even though it is unoccupied, in particular (a) the council tax (b) home insurance (c) vehicle insurance and (d) utilities. I have thought many times about contacting the providers of the services to negotiate something, but my fear is that doing so will make it worse. For example, I have read that council tax can go up if a property is unoccupied; insurers may refuse/cancel cover if the property is unoccupied and ditto car insurance. I have been in touch with Shell Energy who said I need to provide meter readings in order to prove that I am not using, however that is difficult as I am in a different country right now. 
Wondering what other readers would do?
Thanks, John

silvercar

The UK borders aren't closed. 
Try and find repatriation flights, I find it hard to believe that you haven't been able to get back to the UK from Greece since March. People from America, New Zealand and Australia have managed to get back. How hard have you been trying?

johnnyj1000

silvercar said:

The UK borders aren't closed. 
Try and find repatriation flights, I find it hard to believe that you haven't been able to get back to the UK from Greece since March. People from America, New Zealand and Australia have managed to get back. How hard have you been trying?

Hi Silvercar and thanks so much for the reply. The question wasn't about traveling back to the UK, it was more about my UK financial arrangements while overseas so I apologise if including that context confused the reader about what, in essence, I was asking. But thank you for your helpful and value-added advice about travel - I will add it to everything I have learned over the last few months from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Greek Government websites, embassies, health departments, airlines, ferry companies and local police. 

I appreciate that times are very tense and stressful right now, which is understandably bound to create some acerbic responses on what is usually a really warm and helpful community of users. 
Looking forward to any advice from other users regarding the crux of my original post. 

All the best
John

Beanjo

HI I am currently working during furlough and we have now been told from our May payday we have to work our full time hours but are pay is being decreased to 85%. However if we need to take a day off we have to  continue to use our holiday, take the bank holiday days off as holiday, (our company only closes Christmas day so all bank holidays have to be booked off) or if we are sick we have our money deducted. this was fair before coronavirus.  Staff who are furloughed are accruing their holiday getting 80% pay this seems unfair  and us that are working are  having to use holiday. Some staff have been off sick for a few days of had to take time off to look after their dependents so are actually working for less that the staff on furlough. WE were told on the day the company shut down for coronavirus we had to sign a new terms & conditions before we left that day saying they would either furlough us, reduce hours, reduce our pay. 
Some staff were on the National minimum wage so due decreasing % they are earning less surely this is illegal.
I know these are unprecedented times but staff should be treated legally
Many thanks
Mike

ToxicWomble

You might find more assistance if you start your own thread rather than hijacking a totally unrelated one

sharpe106

Beanjo said:

HI I am currently working during furlough and we have now been told from our May payday we have to work our full time hours but are pay is being decreased to 85%. However if we need to take a day off we have to  continue to use our holiday, take the bank holiday days off as holiday, (our company only closes Christmas day so all bank holidays have to be booked off) or if we are sick we have our money deducted. this was fair before coronavirus.  Staff who are furloughed are accruing their holiday getting 80% pay this seems unfair  and us that are working are  having to use holiday. Some staff have been off sick for a few days of had to take time off to look after their dependents so are actually working for less that the staff on furlough. WE were told on the day the company shut down for coronavirus we had to sign a new terms & conditions before we left that day saying they would either furlough us, reduce hours, reduce our pay. 
Some staff were on the National minimum wage so due decreasing % they are earning less surely this is illegal.
I know these are unprecedented times but staff should be treated legally
Many thanks
Mike

Although a new  thread would have been better.

HI I am currently working during furlough and we have now been told from our May payday we have to work our full time hours but are pay is being decreased to 85%.
I assume from this you are still working and have not been furloughed. If they can reduce your pay or not will depend on your contract and if you agree to it or not.
 However if we need to take a day off we have to  continue to use our holiday, take the bank holiday days off as holiday, (our company only closes Christmas day so all bank holidays have to be booked off) or if we are sick we have our money deducted. this was fair before coronavirus. 
Why is it unfair now?
Staff who are furloughed are accruing their holiday getting 80% pay this seems unfair  and us that are working are  having to use holiday. Some staff have been off sick for a few days of had to take time off to look after their dependents so are actually working for less that the staff on furlough.
Unfortunately the scheme has nothing to do with fairness. The scheme was to protect jobs, they might seem to be getting the better end of the stick now but if in the future there are redundancies you can guess who will be top of the list, as lets be honest all companies will be furloughing the deadwood if they are not furloughing all the staff. 
WE were told on the day the company shut down for coronavirus we had to sign a new terms & conditions before we left that day saying they would either furlough us, reduce hours, reduce our pay. 
You could probably argue that was forced upon you if you took it to employment tribunal, but lets be honest in the current climate even if you win you might find yourself out of a job. 
Some staff were on the National minimum wage so due decreasing % they are earning less surely this is illegal.
I know these are unprecedented times but staff should be treated legally
They need to be paid NMW for all hours worked. If they are furloughed then it does not count as they are not working any hours. 

Thrugelmir

Why aren't you in a position to pay these bills? Insurance will simply lapse and you'll be left with no cover. As you were travelling for an extended period of time. Why didn't you put contingency measures in place to deal with any issues that arose. 

johnnyj1000

Thrugelmir said:

Why aren't you in a position to pay these bills? Insurance will simply lapse and you'll be left with no cover. As you were travelling for an extended period of time. Why didn't you put contingency measures in place to deal with any issues that arose. 

Ok, I think I need to re-word the original question!
1. Does anyone know if there can be a reduction in council tax given that I am overseas, in exceptional circumstances?
2. If I contact the home insurers and tell them my home is unoccupied due to me being overseas due to exceptional circumstances, are they likely to increase the premium or refuse to continue to insure? Anyone know of other cases where the provider has been sympathetic and pragmatic?
3. Ditto vehicle insurance.
4. Seems unfair to be paying an estimated gas/electricity reading based on occupied usage, when I haven't been there for months but cannot read the meter. Anyone know of other cases where the provider has been sympathetic and pragmatic?
Apologies if my original waffle made the questions difficult to identify!!
Thanks again, all the best
John

LilElvis

The priority bill is likely to be the council tax as the third payment for the financial year will now be due and if you haven't made any payments yet then it is likely that you will lose your entitlement to pay in instalments and the bill will become payable in its entirety.

Dr_Crypto

1. You have no entitlement to any reduction but you can ask. 
2. You should contact them. They are meant to be being suppportive. The premiums should increase as the house is unoccupied and is therefore a higher risk. Is there nobody who can visit it every 30 days or so? This is often a requirement even for specialist and expensive vacant home policies. 
3. There is such a thing as laid up insurance for cars but it normally requires them to be drained of fuel etc so not really an option. If the car is on the road then it needs normal insurance. If it is off the road I guess you could SORN it and cancel the insurance but it seems a massive risk to have a car uninsured especially if nobody is looking after it. 
4. Ask someone to read the meters? I don't think you have many other options here unless you make up some reads based on the last set you took. Then it all gets corrected once you are back in the UK. 
5. I can't believe you haven't been able to get back to the UK from Greece since March. 

poppy12345

johnnyj1000 said:

Thrugelmir said:

Why aren't you in a position to pay these bills? Insurance will simply lapse and you'll be left with no cover. As you were travelling for an extended period of time. Why didn't you put contingency measures in place to deal with any issues that arose. 

Ok, I think I need to re-word the original question!
1. Does anyone know if there can be a reduction in council tax given that I am overseas, in exceptional circumstances?
2. If I contact the home insurers and tell them my home is unoccupied due to me being overseas due to exceptional circumstances, are they likely to increase the premium or refuse to continue to insure? Anyone know of other cases where the provider has been sympathetic and pragmatic?
3. Ditto vehicle insurance.
4. Seems unfair to be paying an estimated gas/electricity reading based on occupied usage, when I haven't been there for months but cannot read the meter. Anyone know of other cases where the provider has been sympathetic and pragmatic?
Apologies if my original waffle made the questions difficult to identify!!
Thanks again, all the best
John

1/ Highly unlikely, just because you're overseas doesn't mean you shouldn't still pay your council tax. If you haven't paid the past few months then i'd advise you to pay it, council tax is one bill you should never stop paying.

2/ Possibly not but without ringing them to ask you'll probably never know.

3/ Car insurance is still needed because what would happen if it was stolen while you were away?

4/ Energy bills are usually cheaper this time of year anyway and the weather here has been really hot for the past week, so no heating is needed. You can ask if your DD can be reduced, if you're not already in debt with them then this maybe possible.

What i don't understand is why you didn't return when all of this become worse? It was clearly a long time before lock was put into place that the situation would become worse.