Lock up and leave property

Spidey

Spidey

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We recently retired and want to move sometime in the next couple of years. We want to travel about a lot, two 3 month stints if possible. Of course when we are allowed to. So the next move has to be a place that we feel safe leaving for an extended time. We don't want to worry about leaving it and wondered whether we should go for a flat. Never lived in one and wondered if we are just overthinking it. We want to move nearer our daughters in the next year. Is it ok to leave a house for months at a time?

We would love an airy open property with lots of garden when we are here but a compact safe one to leave when we are away. Has anyone moved to a flat and regretted it?
 
A flat can have added security if in a "complex" .
Then again you could always "airbnb" or short term rent your house out for the 2 stints, with trusted tenants comes dosh and security.
How you find such tenants is the question
 
Spidey said:
We recently retired and want to move sometime in the next couple of years. We want to travel about a lot, two 3 month stints if possible. Of course when we are allowed to. So the next move has to be a place that we feel safe leaving for an extended time. We don't want to worry about leaving it and wondered whether we should go for a flat. Never lived in one and wondered if we are just overthinking it. We want to move nearer our daughters in the next year. Is it ok to leave a house for months at a time?

We would love an airy open property with lots of garden when we are here but a compact safe one to leave when we are away. Has anyone moved to a flat and regretted it?
Click to expand...
I know that a friend of mine had issues..... he bought a house in France, but, he struggled to get insurance for his U.K. home if he was to leave it empty for more than ( I think) 6 weeks !!!!,,, hopefully someone on here will have the knowledge to explain this !!!!
 
Spidey said:
We recently retired and want to move sometime in the next couple of years. We want to travel about a lot, two 3 month stints if possible. Of course when we are allowed to. So the next move has to be a place that we feel safe leaving for an extended time. We don't want to worry about leaving it and wondered whether we should go for a flat. Never lived in one and wondered if we are just overthinking it. We want to move nearer our daughters in the next year. Is it ok to leave a house for months at a time?

We would love an airy open property with lots of garden when we are here but a compact safe one to leave when we are away. Has anyone moved to a flat and regretted it?
Click to expand...
Just move next door to your daughter, she can use it as a bolt hole, studio, etc. Well it sounds like a plan anyway, she can keep an eye on it then whilst your away (y)
 
We lived in a couple of rented flats when first married as it was all the budget allowed. Would never consider a flat ever again. Without your own front door you get no peace from neighbours, also no control on who lives upstairs from you or underneath. Not all neighbours are pleasant or considerate. Plus there is always the thorny issue of parking spaces

Maybe a nice detached bungalow would work

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Tombola said:
A flat can have added security if in a "complex" .
Then again you could always "airbnb" or short term rent your house out for the 2 stints, with trusted tenants comes dosh and security.
How you find such tenants is the question
Click to expand...
Good idea but hubbie would hate it. A trusted friend sounds good though.
 
SteveLynn said:
I know that a friend of mine had issues..... he bought a house in France, but, he struggled to get insurance for his U.K. home if he was to leave it empty for more than ( I think) 6 weeks !!!!,,, hopefully someone on here will have the knowledge to explain this !!!!
Click to expand...
Good point that is something we have checked our current insurance only allows 60 days. When we were working not a problem.
 
dabhand said:
Just move next door to your daughter, she can use it as a bolt hole, studio, etc. Well it sounds like a plan anyway, she can keep an eye on it then whilst your away (y)
Click to expand...
Lol not sure my son in law would like that :LOL:
 
TheBig1 said:
We lived in a couple of rented flats when first married as it was all the budget allowed. Would never consider a flat ever again. Without your own front door you get no peace from neighbours, also no control on who lives upstairs from you or underneath. Not all neighbours are pleasant or considerate. Plus there is always the thorny issue of parking spaces

Maybe a nice detached bungalow would work
Click to expand...
That is one big worry of mine! We love our current house neighbours but we all have thick walls and not attached. Not sure I could put up with other peoples noise. So maybe a small house?
 
We leave our bungalow for three months at a time, even in the winter. Heating on very low, reasonable neighbourhood & insurance from Camping and Caravanning Club which has 180 days unoccupied without conditions. The neighbours have our number if anything major happens, & we haven’t got the Crown Jewels stashed away, so not as much to lose! 😀
 
My mum has moved into an apartment. It is a newly converted merchant’s house and one of the advantages for her is that, as well as a door from the communal hall, she has her own back door to the garden. It is perfect for her (age 88) but I don’t think I could live with a shared garden.
The other thing is you can hear people walking above you.
 
go with caravan & camping club house contents insurance, we go away for 4 month, with no problems

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Main issue we had was stopping it freezing in winter---- we never left heating on-- apart from the cost was the risk of it failing , so we put antifreeze in heating system and drained/prepared everything else.
Worked for us for several years.
 
As long as it's not particularly rural then detached or semi with neighbors and someone who can visit reasonably frequently (to remove post) is ok to leave for 6 months. Generally these types of property have parking so bonus when u are home.
Obviously with security and remotely viewable camera systems internal and external.
Depends when you go away as to whether you might need a gardener.
Insurance is no problem for 6 months away provided u can get the regular random visits arranged and maintain a set temperature over winter.
Hth
 
Stonemags76 said:
We leave our bungalow for three months at a time, even in the winter. Heating on very low, reasonable neighbourhood & insurance from Camping and Caravanning Club which has 180 days unoccupied without conditions. The neighbours have our number if anything major happens, & we haven’t got the Crown Jewels stashed away, so not as much to lose! 😀
Click to expand...
Good to know will switch to them next time :giggle:
 
Spidey said:
We recently retired and want to move sometime in the next couple of years. We want to travel about a lot, two 3 month stints if possible. Of course when we are allowed to. So the next move has to be a place that we feel safe leaving for an extended time. We don't want to worry about leaving it and wondered whether we should go for a flat. Never lived in one and wondered if we are just overthinking it. We want to move nearer our daughters in the next year. Is it ok to leave a house for months at a time?

We would love an airy open property with lots of garden when we are here but a compact safe one to leave when we are away. Has anyone moved to a flat and regretted it?
Click to expand...
No ,,love our flat,,small garden,ample parking and easy to lock up and leave.BUSBY.

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There's one member on here (can't remember who) that lives in a penthouse flat in the UK which works perfectly for them, something which I'd consider in the future.
 
Look into FHL's
Furnished Holiday Lets.

If you buy a house, that you like, in a holiday destination, seaside close to your daughter, with a drive to park the Motorhome.

In high season you rent the place out to holiday makers, in the low season you live in the house
It means the house pays for itself and is occupied whenever you are not there.

You need to buy the house carefully as it will need a number of features, such as a place to store all your personal stuff
 
berni109 said:
As long as it's not particularly rural then detached or semi with neighbors and someone who can visit reasonably frequently (to remove post) is ok to leave for 6 months. Generally these types of property have parking so bonus when u are home.
Obviously with security and remotely viewable camera systems internal and external.
Depends when you go away as to whether you might need a gardener.
Insurance is no problem for 6 months away provided u can get the regular random visits arranged and maintain a set temperature over winter.
Hth
Click to expand...
Yes we would love to keep our van near the house. Our neighbours are great here they look after the house, post etc but we really want to be nearer daughters. So just have to ensure I am not too far from them so they can pop in and check :giggle:
 
Minxy Girl said:
There's one member on here (can't remember who) that lives in a penthouse flat in the UK which works perfectly for them, something which I'd consider in the future.
Click to expand...
I have been looking online at pent houses with big balconies. Not a huge amount of storage in any of them though.
 
Park your motorhome on your daughters drive and live in it while in this country, plug into her electric, offer to cut her grass, even invite them round for a meal now and then. (y)

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Hi Spidey, Helen and I live in a penthouse apartment in the centre of Edinburgh, we have 2 terraces which give us some outside space and 2 allocated parking spaces in an underground car park. We moved here from a large detached country town property 10 years ago, and would never go back.
We love no building, cleaning, garden, maintenance issues, all covered by factor, we pay £100 per month for this. We keep our camper in secure storage and love the lock and leave ability. We have a large park nearby for exercise and green space.
Agree though that it doesn’t work for everyone, if small things annoy you then think hard, there’s always something/someone that could upset you!! Every building has a nosy/fussy/know it all, but that’s life.

Bill
 
We used to do 6 month tours and used C&CC for House & Travel Insurance. But best thing we ever did was fit Hive to central heating system and now monitor the weather in UK when we are away, turning heating on/off as required. It paid for itself in first winter as previously we had to programme the heating to come on whilst we were away, irrespective of the weather, costing a lot of money
John
 
I think purpose built flats have less noise issues than if you live in a conversion.

I bought a conversion flat in London in the late 1980’s and I think the flat above must have had the noisiest tenants ever. They would go out at night and get back at 5 am and have a party with really loud music.:mad:

Luckily I could cut their electricity supply from downstairs which I did on one occasion which caused a huge scene which stopped just short of violence, which on that occasion was just as well for them because I was furious.
 
M-J said:
What about a park home on a nice development with a manned gate and staff on site?
Click to expand...
We looked at Park Homes,,ground rent high,,some more expensive than Council Tax and not really that secure regarding tenants rights..BUSBY.

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