motorhome owner wannabie -- needs advice --- urgent -- please (1 Viewer)

shed12

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Sep 2, 2010
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hi my name is Joy

my self and my partner are looking into the idea of owning a motorhome, now at present we both work and have our own home, but we are fed up with the rat race and just working to survive and pay the morgage. we thought there must be more to life than this, we are both over 45 and want some form of life worth living before it is too late. the thing is we are playing with the notion of selling up everything including the house, we know after paying off the morgage we will be left with a tidy sum to buy a motorhome and money left in the bank, but i am trying to find out if there are places you can legally park up in that will allow a motorhome user to stay for up to three months at a time. we want to live in the motorhome full time and be able to possibly get seasonal or temp work to top up our living expendeture where ever we travel to, my burning question is , can we stay in a designated place for up to a period of three months at a time! i really hope someone can help me with my query, as we want to start a quality simplified living experience within the year. thanks :thanks2:
 

madbluemad

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hi my name is Joy

can we stay in a designated place for up to a period of three months at a time!


Hi and welcome. Yes you can. There are lots of rules, regs and local byelaws in relation to your query but the plain answer is that yes you can, lots of people do it every day.

Jim
:Smile:
 

Wildman

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Hi Joy and welcome to the site.
As far as I know the 28day rule only applies to CL's (5 van sites) Full caravan sites can and do let seasonal pitches. There are lots of fulltimers on here that will jump in and give you all the advise you need. most however would advocate keeping the house and renting it out as an ongoing income. You do need provision of a fallback plan whatever you decide plus provision of a fixed uk address for paperwork. doctors etc. Exciting times ahead, good luck with the planning and execution of said plan. don't forget we have a chatroom, well attended in the evenings.

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Jim

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Yes, there are plenty of places in the UK, France and Spain that have seasonal pitches, and if you book in for a minimum of three months you can obtain some very good rates.

My advice would be not not burn your bridges to soon, you will probably love full timing but you might hate it. Maybe you could rent out your home and buy a cheap as chips caravan and try living in that for a year. Only when you are positive that you do not want to be a property owner, ditch the house.

It would be a sorry state to find that you hate the traveling/motorhome life but are stuck with it for ever!

Don't rush in, think it through, have a few dry runs and take as much advice as you can find. There are lots here who have done exactly as you plan so you should always have plenty of good advice here.

Best wishes with plans, they do sound very exciting:thumb:
 
Oct 15, 2007
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See above recent thread, there are others but some good points?

Hello:thumb:


Generally there is a 28day rule, many sites do seasonal pitches, or maybe extended stays, but inveriably the 28 day rule kicks in, ie have weekend away and come back seems acceptable. Some CLs seem to overlook this but they risk trouble with the licenser of the CL, if that make sence?
 

Jim

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Remember the 28 day rule only applies to CLs, there are lots of other types of site where you can legally stay as long as you like. Only recently we saw fulltime hardstanding/16amp hookup pitches on a large site going for less £1800 a year.

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barryd

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We are a similar age (both 44) and are hoping to go full time next April. We have had the motorhome for 2 and a half years now, done 26000 miles including 3 long trips (longest three months) and we have loved it and never wanted to come home or missed the house.

We are going to rent our house out though so we always have bricks and mortar to come back to should we want to or have to. Im not going to work though, perhaps bits and bobs of IT support but part of the reason for going is to get away from all that. One of the joys of motorhoming though is moving around. I get itchy feet after 3 days let alone three months in one place. The suggestion of living in a caravan is a good one to try it out but dont sell your house until your sure you want to do it.
 

chatter

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Its fine to want to drop out of the rat race, but it wont stop you having bills, they will just be bills of a different kind, and another thing to think about is that if you are employed by someone at the mo they are paying your NI stamp as such and if you do pack in work you should make arrangements to pay your own stamps otherwise when you get to pension age you will not be eligable for a pension unless you make up the shortfall. As others have stated you will also need a permanent address otherwise you will not be able to get insurance/tax etc for your chosen vehicle

dream the dream, live the dream, but keep a foot in the real world
 

scotjimland

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Hi and welcome..

sound advice so far .. there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in the Full Time forum , well worth reading ..

My advice, as stated elsewhere and in the thread Dodgey pointed to..

a) Have a sound financial plan , work out the annual costs and where that will be funded from

Site fees + Fuel + Road tax + Insurance + vehicle maintenance + food and some spending money .. + emergency fund

It cost us between £10 - £13k per annum and that is basic living costs, using cheap sites and free aires.. being frugal and living cheap

can you survive on basic rate of pay, how many hours , and where will you work .. don't skip this step .. it is key . seasonal work is highly sought after and the pay is rubbish .. plenty of EU migrants are doing it for slave wages ..
Working as an assistant camp site warden is possible .. pay is basic but you normally get a free pitch + EHU

b) As chatter said, a home address, could be family or friend ..

c) Full time insurance is extremely difficult to get, and very expensive .. think phone numbers .. many fail to mention this to their insurance company .. it could be a costly mistake ..
Try Comfort Insurance for a quote !!

e) Exit plan .. one day either you or your partner may have to give up through ill health .. or you are tired of being a nomad .. don't wait until that happens..

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hilldweller

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we are fed up with the rat race and just working to survive and pay the morgage.

There's a lot of it about Joy. You all get the same good advice on here. Have a good look around the site, you are the second one this week so there's a good variety of answers scattered around.

Maybe Jim needs another site: MotorhomeESCAPE.
 

Landy lover

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Everything that has been said so far is very true - you need to plan well ahead before taking the leap - we are full timing and loving it - ScotJimLands figure of 10 to 13k income is really for basic living only if you want to have a meal out - go to the pub - all basic things but £1000 per month is not a lot you are swapping site fees for a mortgage and utility bills food will still be the same you won't have a house to paint but the motorhome will still need servicing and MOT and with you living in it there will be more costs. Dont cut all ties with normality and dont think it is an extended holiday - plan and enjoy
 
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shed12

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motor home wanabie

Hi All

firstly a really BIG thankyou for all your advice, yes we are going to start planning, and yes we are looking at renting the house not selling, as you all say, don't burn our bridges and keep one foot on the ground. So some saving to do and we will be keeping our eyes peeled for a used motorhome so we may try it out first, you see my partner is ex army and we moved once every other year for twelve years, we have now lived in our present home for fourteen years, it is a nice area with nice people, i have a job and my collegues are lovely, but i have hated being rooted and so has my partner, so i know we are going to definatly have a go at this as it appeals to both of us. Thanks again for all advice :thumb:

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scotjimland

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Hi All

firstly a really BIG thankyou for all your advice, yes we are going to start planning, and yes we are looking at renting the house not selling, as you all say, don't burn our bridges and keep one foot on the ground.


Thanks again for all advice :thumb:

Good luck, it is a big adventure and it takes a lot of guts to do it ... plan well, be under no illusions and you will have every chance of success ..

If you decide it's not for you, ( notice I didn't say fail, failing is wishing without doing ) then you can at least say 'we gave it our best shot' and you will have lots of tales for the grand kids ..

safe travels
 

bigfish

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Its fine to want to drop out of the rat race, but it wont stop you having bills, they will just be bills of a different kind, and another thing to think about is that if you are employed by someone at the mo they are paying your NI stamp as such and if you do pack in work you should make arrangements to pay your own stamps otherwise when you get to pension age you will not be eligable for a pension unless you make up the shortfall. As others have stated you will also need a permanent address otherwise you will not be able to get insurance/tax etc for your chosen vehicle

dream the dream, live the dream, but keep a foot in the real world

Hi
Follow on from this is the link below, you have to enroll but is full of usefull info on the pension question, you can do a forcast for yourself, but basically if you have paid stamp for minimum of 30 years you will get a full pension,
i had to check mine last year before taking voluntary redundency.

Of course we all have different situations but well worth a look.:thumb:

http://www.gateway.gov.uk/

Good luck with your new start:thumb:

PS, depending on how you leave work, you arnt means tested for job seekers allowence for the first 6 months, claim all you can dont feel guilty, i did felt after paying 40% for to long it was only right to.
 

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