Double Council Tax!!

Skiddaw1

It's an issue around here too. Very few people can afford to live within the National Park boundaries and even in our village, a few miles outside the park, it's extremely hard for young local people to get onto the property ladder. There are incentives (any new-builds have to include local interest properties for example) but it's not easy.

Some towns, Keswick and Ambleside for example, have substantially more hoiday lets/second homes than permanent residences and it's much the same in the smaller communities too. It's a problem right enough though I'm really not sure what the solution is.

I do realise we would have been a part of the problem in the days when we were visiting Cumbria (and staying mainly in holiday cottages though we had friends we stayed with too). We did always try to ensure we contributed to the local economy as much as possible and at least, when we were in a position to spend more of our time here, we actually permanently moved her.

youth_leader

In my coastal village we actually have a shop for the very successful self catering accommodation business in the village centre, they bought the lovely gift shop when it was sold. 

Not everyone contributes by spending in the village. In the past I had a tiny self catering at the station, we converted the Waiting Rooms, and it had a fridge freezer.   I remember one couple who left 14 'lurpak' boxes, they were labelled spag bol etc, they had 'self catered' for their fortnight.

lincroft1710

youth_leader said:

Not everyone contributes by spending in the village. In the past I had a tiny self catering at the station, we converted the Waiting Rooms, and it had a fridge freezer.   I remember one couple who left 14 'lurpak' boxes, they were labelled spag bol etc, they had 'self catered' for their fortnight.

That I can believe!


Nearly 50 years ago went on a 2 week camping holiday in France. One middle aged British couple had brought 14 tins of baked beans with them!

youth_leader

Ah I wouldn't have wanted to use the toilets after they'd 'bean'! 

TroubledTarts

Surely this very small property is band A or Band B so the figures won't be the end of the world?

Flugelhorn

TroubledTarts said:

Surely this very small property is band A or Band B so the figures won't be the end of the world?

and if they are too much for the OP then they clearly aren't well off enough to afford a second home and either need to find the extra money somewhere else or sell it 

juliedee4663

You say you own half of a small cottage.  Presumably your boyfriend owns the other half, along with the London property. In which case he owns two properties and should pay the extra council tax. Whose names are on the Deeds? It may not be just as simple as you going to live there if someone else still owns it.

Bookworm105

juliedee4663 said:

You say you own half of a small cottage.  Presumably your boyfriend owns the other half, along with the London property. In which case he owns two properties and should pay the extra council tax. Whose names are on the Deeds? It may not be just as simple as you going to live there if someone else still owns it.

I think OP has given up on this thread after it was derailed by the house price crash brigade.
That said, I took her comment to mean it was a cottage that was in reality a semi-detached property so she owned half of the building. I may be wrong of course.

jackieblack

Bookworm105 said:

juliedee4663 said:

You say you own half of a small cottage.  Presumably your boyfriend owns the other half, along with the London property. In which case he owns two properties and should pay the extra council tax. Whose names are on the Deeds? It may not be just as simple as you going to live there if someone else still owns it.

I think OP has given up on this thread after it was derailed by the house price crash brigade.
That said, I took her comment to mean it was a cottage that was in reality a semi-detached property so she owned half of the building. I may be wrong of course.

From first post “My partner and I (not married) own a tiny old cottage”

Emmia

Bookworm105 said:

juliedee4663 said:

You say you own half of a small cottage.  Presumably your boyfriend owns the other half, along with the London property. In which case he owns two properties and should pay the extra council tax. Whose names are on the Deeds? It may not be just as simple as you going to live there if someone else still owns it.

I think OP has given up on this thread after it was derailed by the house price crash brigade.
That said, I took her comment to mean it was a cottage that was in reality a semi-detached property so she owned half of the building. I may be wrong of course.

I think the OP is entitled to own a second property (such things are legal), but can't then also moan about the (legally required) costs of doing so. 

Unfortunately the OP also came across as quite entitled, judging that because they didn't want to live there all the time (because it was too small) that nobody else would.

Their view unfortunately clashes with the moral position which is that second home owners deprive locals of housing, and is the same issue which causes councils in London (and elsewhere) to house people outside of the borough.

High demand = high rents/prices. Properties are bought up by people wanting to let them out as an investment, or people not selling when they move to another property,  for similar reasons - lots of people want to live in London as they work there, but there's a challenge fitting everyone in, so prices go up.