New council tax powers re second homes

Murphybear

We’ve lived in the West Country for 20 years, very popular for holidaymakers and 2nd homers.  There’s tons of hotels, B & Bs and holiday cottages. I’ve never seen the appeal of having a 2nd home as you’d end up going to the same place all the time. 

One of my favourite places is the Lake District after my first visit in 1971.  Much as I love it I wouldn’t want to go nowhere else. There’s tons of other places to enjoy in our beautiful country.  

MobileSaver

Murphybear said:

I’ve never seen the appeal of having a 2nd home as you’d end up going to the same place all the time.

Ditto. I seriously considered it around a decade or so ago and came to the same conclusion. There are places we really like but, quite apart from it not making sense financially, for us it's no longer a holiday when you're feeling obligated to go to the same place every time.

As an aside, one of the places I started looking into was Florida and thank god my girlfriend pooh-poohed the idea at the time. What a fiasco that would have been considering we'll now probably never travel to the States ever again.

Murphybear said:

Much as I love it I wouldn’t want to go nowhere else. There’s tons of other places to enjoy in our beautiful country.  

That's our philosophy too now; we're in our fifties and it's embarrassing to admit that we've been all over the world but there are entire counties in the UK that we've never visited.

Couple that with we both hate the travelling to and hanging around airports for hours on end, and that we prefer to take our dog with us when we travel, and so staycations are our holiday of choice for the foreseeable future.

All of which allows me to bring my musings back on topic... the OP and others may want to look into AirBnBing their properties part-time to mitigate (and possibly even profit from) the second home surcharge. Renting a dog-friendly whole house for a few days or a week is exactly what we look for and something we happily pay a premium for - so why not turn a liability into an asset?

lincroft1710

ReadySteadyPop said:

lincroft1710 said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

MobileSaver said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

MeteredOut said:

Olinda99 said:

I think the powers that be (and probably society in general) are moving towards a view that having a second home is unacceptable behaviour

I disagree. The view is that it is a fortunate position to be in and "those with the broadest shoulders should carry the greater weight" (© Every politician since 1980)

Many with second homes just took on a lot of mortgage debt though, they don`t have "broad shoulders" in the sense of truly wealthy people.

Anyone that can afford a second home, whether mortgaged or not, has "broader shoulders" than the average person in the UK...

Anyone? I`m not sure that having two lots of mortgage debt means you automatically have spare cash to bail out councils, I would have thought with higher interest rates the more debt you have the less spare cash you have?

Not everyone who has a second home has 2 mortgages or even one.

No but many do, just because someone owns a holiday bolthole it doesn`t mean they have loads of spare cash, it might have done before the cheap debt era but not now.

What is your evidence for saying "but many do" in relation to having 2 mortgages? There is another rather obvious way in which people can afford to buy a second home.


To be perfectly honest I don't know why you are so hung up about people having to pay double CT on their second home. Do you have a second home?

MeteredOut

lincroft1710 said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

lincroft1710 said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

MobileSaver said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

MeteredOut said:

Olinda99 said:

I think the powers that be (and probably society in general) are moving towards a view that having a second home is unacceptable behaviour

I disagree. The view is that it is a fortunate position to be in and "those with the broadest shoulders should carry the greater weight" (© Every politician since 1980)

Many with second homes just took on a lot of mortgage debt though, they don`t have "broad shoulders" in the sense of truly wealthy people.

Anyone that can afford a second home, whether mortgaged or not, has "broader shoulders" than the average person in the UK...

Anyone? I`m not sure that having two lots of mortgage debt means you automatically have spare cash to bail out councils, I would have thought with higher interest rates the more debt you have the less spare cash you have?

Not everyone who has a second home has 2 mortgages or even one.

No but many do, just because someone owns a holiday bolthole it doesn`t mean they have loads of spare cash, it might have done before the cheap debt era but not now.

What is your evidence for saying "but many do" in relation to having 2 mortgages? There is another rather obvious way in which people can afford to buy a second home.


To be perfectly honest I don't know why you are so hung up about people having to pay double CT on their second home. Do you have a second home?

Crashy doesn't even have a first home, famously (on this board) selling out when he decided they were overvalued years ago.

subjecttocontract

Murphybear said:

We’ve lived in the West Country for 20 years, very popular for holidaymakers and 2nd homers.  There’s tons of hotels, B & Bs and holiday cottages. I’ve never seen the appeal of having a 2nd home as you’d end up going to the same place all the time. 

One of my favourite places is the Lake District after my first visit in 1971.  Much as I love it I wouldn’t want to go nowhere else. There’s tons of other places to enjoy in our beautiful country.  

Having a second home doesn't mean you can't travel to other places as well. I've had a second home for over 20 years and visited many other countries during that time. There are clear advantages to having a second or holiday home as I'm sure most will recognise.

Sapindus

subjecttocontract said:

 There are clear advantages to having a second or holiday home as I'm sure most will recognise.

I'm sure most won't.  Can we have a poll to settle this? Along the lines of:

1) I have a second home for holidaying in
2) I don't have a holiday home but I wish I did
3) I don't have a holiday home and don't want one.

sheramber

subjecttocontract said:

Murphybear said:

We’ve lived in the West Country for 20 years, very popular for holidaymakers and 2nd homers.  There’s tons of hotels, B & Bs and holiday cottages. I’ve never seen the appeal of having a 2nd home as you’d end up going to the same place all the time. 

One of my favourite places is the Lake District after my first visit in 1971.  Much as I love it I wouldn’t want to go nowhere else. There’s tons of other places to enjoy in our beautiful country.  

Having a second home doesn't mean you can't travel to other places as well. I've had a second home for over 20 years and visited many other countries during that time. There are clear advantages to having a second or holiday home as I'm sure most will recognise.

Which comes at a cost of increased council tax.

subjecttocontract

sheramber said:

subjecttocontract said:

Murphybear said:

We’ve lived in the West Country for 20 years, very popular for holidaymakers and 2nd homers.  There’s tons of hotels, B & Bs and holiday cottages. I’ve never seen the appeal of having a 2nd home as you’d end up going to the same place all the time. 

One of my favourite places is the Lake District after my first visit in 1971.  Much as I love it I wouldn’t want to go nowhere else. There’s tons of other places to enjoy in our beautiful country.  

Having a second home doesn't mean you can't travel to other places as well. I've had a second home for over 20 years and visited many other countries during that time. There are clear advantages to having a second or holiday home as I'm sure most will recognise.

Which comes at a cost of increased council tax.

Yes many of the advantages in life come with increased taxes. Increased taxes often appear fair to those that don't pay them & unfair to those who do. It's life I'm afraid. If you don't want to pay the increased taxes don't buy a second home.

StevieD54

Wow, my original question has certainly generated some interesting discussion.

Here’s a related, and relevant, question……

My Mum (the next door neighbour) now has her property on the market as she has moved into sheltered housing. It is willed to me as her only surviving child. If she were to die before it sells, I would be deemed to be a second home owner. Years ago, I thought if the property was ever left to me, I would probably rent it out for income. Now however, if that does become the situation, I assume as a second home owner the CT would increase drastically, even if it were occupied by tenants? The whole thing is a dog’s dinner tbh.

Tabieth

StevieD54 said:

Wow, my original question has certainly generated some interesting discussion.

Here’s a related, and relevant, question……

My Mum (the next door neighbour) now has her property on the market as she has moved into sheltered housing. It is willed to me as her only surviving child. If she were to die before it sells, I would be deemed to be a second home owner. Years ago, I thought if the property was ever left to me, I would probably rent it out for income. Now however, if that does become the situation, I assume as a second home owner the CT would increase drastically, even if it were occupied by tenants? The whole thing is a dog’s dinner tbh.

My understanding is that the tenants would be liable for the council tax. In your scenario, you’d only pay when it’s vacant between tenants.