Permanent Caravanning.

[Guest]

Barking and Steve in Leo.

Gentlemen, now we are getting somewhere, you both appear to heve capitilised on bricks and mortar and made provision by investing monies from that.

Your positions seem to differ from the one that started the thread.

Barking I'm mid 50'd and we retired over 5 years ago and our daughter runs our property business and now lives in France with us, I don't think we are at all blinkered by our own level of security at all. We own UK property as well and for Chrsitmas we all go to our home in Dubai and then to Australia again in the new year as in the past two tears we have invested more in property there.

UK property fall is a blip and prices will climb again, but you have to be very confident that interests rates pay what you need and that prices will still be affordable if you decide to return to bricks and mortar. But I guess a retirement apartment should aklways be within reach.

It sounds as though Steve had been in the property market for many years, if that is the case it seems that negative equity should not have effected him. But that Steve's business.

Your cases are very different from someone who has not been able to get on the property ladder and then goes full timing or someone who does not have spare money to fall back on or is unable to build a goodly pot of savings for old age.

 

[Guest]

I am slightly curious at Steve in Leo's comment that after 33 years he was still approaching a possible negative equity. There may be extenuating circumstances but most mortgages run for 25 years and then you should own 100% of the property. I admit that changing property can often mean an increase in the mortgage as we all want something bigger and better??, and you may ask for an extension to the loan period, but it should still be able to pay the lot off in the time span. I also agree that what you pay in total is a bunch, somewhere about 300% of the purchase price, but if the property doubles every 10 years or so, then you should still be ahead at the end of the day.

Of course at the end of the day you don't sell because you need the house to live in, so your offspring may be the fortunate benefactors.

 

[Steve L]

I am slightly curious at Steve in Leo's comment that after 33 years he was still approaching a possible negative equity. There may be extenuating circumstances but most mortgages run for 25 years and then you should own 100% of the property. I admit that changing property can often mean an increase in the mortgage as we all want something bigger and better??, and you may ask for an extension to the loan period, but it should still be able to pay the lot off in the time span. I also agree that what you pay in total is a bunch, somewhere about 300% of the purchase price, but if the property doubles every 10 years or so, then you should still be ahead at the end of the day.

Of course at the end of the day you don't sell because you need the house to live in, so your offspring may be the fortunate benefactors.

you are right SL, there are extenuating circumstances. I had to sell up about 15 years ago when my engineering business had to be liquidated following the colapse of one of our largest customers, who took us to the cleaners.

The renting for 3 years before we could try to climb back on the property ladder.

I supose I've seen the dark side of property and life. But It certainly has opened my eyes to a few things, including the prospect of my mother having to sell her home to fund care for my late father despite him paying into the system for 40 od years. When you see others blatently taking the mic and claiming of the state while your slogging a dead horse, it does get the brain working overtime.

Steve.

 

[Guest]

On a slight digression to this topic, I read today that there are plans??? to force people to sell their land (identified by Councils) for sites for 'travellers'. If they refuse the land will be compulsorily purchased as the Government insists we must give land to the travelling community. Of course this will not apply to the many homes owned by the powers that be. Security don't Ya know!

As they would then not be travelling I suppose they would no longer be called 'travellers', but 'permanent caravanners'???

Like most things emanating from this Government it is total madness, but they don't stop trying.

 

[Lee4]

Well, as promised, I have come back to update on our 'new life' which is, amazingly, almost 12 Months old .

No regrets at all. The past weeks and months have totally convinced us more than ever that the increasing costs of home 'ownership' are now well beyond any kind of a joke. The costs of owning a home in the UK are now a sad joke for most people, and all you do is work to exist to pay bills. That's no life for anybody.

Massive increases in Utility bills. Councils pretending that they have no funds, whilst slyly investing YOUR Council taxes in dodgy banks. Constant increases in mortgage rates, and falling house prices, have convinced us (as if we needed convincing), that our move was the best thing we have ever done.

Three of those couples who previously boasted to us of their 'nice houses' bought recklessly with mortgages they could barely afford, are now on their knees.

Two complete families facing bankruptcy, and the loss of their homes. So much for a swanky lifestyle that they couldn't afford. As if anybody really cared in this day and age what they had anyway!! The old British snobbery at work. The other guy is currently facing similar ruin after unexpectedly losing his 'safe banking job'. There are now precious few banking jobs around, and he knows it.

We wake up every day, and look out onto a beautiful countryside. Our fees are affordable, and we have everything that we need.

Now THAT is really LIVING rather than just existing.

Almost a year since we came...........and we love it. Wild horses wouldn't drag us back to the rat race.

Talk again soon. Bless you all........Ogre. x

Hi there,

I note you say you've been living in your van for 12 months now. Have you been moving around sites, or have you found one thats been happy to let you stay?

Must admit, the constant moving every 3 weeks is what puts me off buying a newer van and joining you!

Regards,

Lee

 

[Steve L]

We are still enjoying our life as permanent caravanners. We have been stopping on a pub site over winter which has not been ideal but acceptable.

We have endured a soggy life on a grass pitch and also temperatures below -9c. The caravan water stayed frost free most of the time unlike the site water which froze at zero every time. Contending with this was a right pain but we soldiered on.

Now we are getting ready to move back to our original site which affords us a hard standing and a proper toilet block and laundry. Oh how we missed those luxuries of a heated toilet block and a washing machine. Pub toilets are not recommended especially between thursday to sunday.

We have not suffered with cold in the van except when we forgot to leave the heating on 500w before we went out. We have had 10cm of snow covering the van and awning and have had storm winds that rocked the van violently but have survived all that.

I've even had the last 6 weeks off work due to the construction industry crash.

Even with all that, I still enjoy caravanning.

Steve L.

 

[g_374369443]

Good to hear how things are going with the permanent caravaning, Steve.

It makes a good informative read...thank you for the update, be nice if you could keep the updates coming,really usefull stuff..

 

[Surfer]

Been there, done that, but still waiting for the t-shirt. Maybe there is a new business opportunity. You get the t-shirt after two years permanent caravanning! LOL

 

[ERICA_374227614]

How I would like to live perminently in my caravan. Unfortunately I,m not that brave. I,d love to have the courage to move out of my council house and live in the caravan, trouble is I worry about what we,d do if my husband became ill because I cant drive so that would be very hard on us to stay in the caravan. Also I know we would be much better off money wise living in our caravan. We have done caravanning once and stayed out 6months. It was wonderful living the stress free life we came to have. We would love to do that again. Moving perminently into the caravan is what frightens me , having no home to move back into say things went wrong. Would we get another house council or a private rented house. They would all need to be settled before I could consider doing this venture. If only life was that simple I would be off along that road now. How I envy all of those caravanners who have taken the plunge . Good luck to you all. May it continue for many happy years. Erica.

 

[Guest]

Erica,

I feel you are doing yourself a disservice. You are already using the caravan as much as you feel able, and that is the important thing. Whether it be 2 weeks per year, or as you have stated 6 months, then it is all positive. Enjoy what is availble to you.

Remember there are 2 main ways of becoming a permanent caravanner, one is through choice and you sell up, or rent out the home and travel as fancy takes you. You are not employed so destinations are open to your every whim. If you do not like it after a period of time, you can return back to your old lifestyle with memories. Finances are not an issue. The 2nd is where circumstances force you to make the move, and you have to accept both the good and the bad. Usually employment prospects decide the location you are going to stay in. Additionally, finances are usually still an issue and of course, if things get really bad you have to stick it out as you cannot run back home, or re-enter the property market.

you have highlighted some of the issues than are going to occur especially as you get older, and although there is no question some people can make it a positive experience, I suspect from your own doubts that you would not be 100% comfortable, as would probably most of us. So, accept what you have, and enjoy. After all we all can dream of living in a tropical paradise, but is it really such a paradise?? One day retirement will beckon and then you can enjoy the van every day of the year, if you so wish.

 

[Steve L]

Hi Erica.

Just a couple of answers to your questions and the senarios of Scotish Lad.

We are coming upto our year of full timing and it hasn't been too bad even considering that we have endured the worst winter for a decade.

Both my wife and I are on permanent medication requiring frequent hospital and doctor visits. At the moment we have stayed in our original county to make doctors, dentist etc easy access. We have registered ourselves to a relatives address so that there is a postal address for appointments etc. I suffer from adult sleep apnea which necesitates me having a good electricity suply to run my apnea pump at night. So we have opted for a commercial site with 16amp electric and a hard standing.

Now then as for financial income. I usually work as a self employed contractor in the building industry, but as you can imagine with the reccession Im currently out of work. We ahd been surviving on the money saved by living in the van, but I thought to hell with it! I've paid tax and insurance for 33 years so it's about time we got back some of what we paid in.

I currently get

 

[Surfer]

Steve, the only reason we moved back into bricks and mortar was because I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. We both miss the lifestyle and the missus on a number of occasions has expressed the wish to move back into the caravan. now if we had the money for a 5th wheel caravan we would do so without any hesistation.

 

[Steve L]

Hi Ian.

I can empathise with you on that one. I suffer with artritic joints and have had operations on my elbows and shoulders. The shoulder op was particularly painfull. The consultant remarked that I have the joints of an eighty year old, real nice to know your 30 years ahead of time.

We have an eighteen foot fixed bed van with a ten foot deep full awning. It is probably as small as one would like to go for long term living, but we find the heating system very good.

The trouble with bricks and mortar is, you can't pick your neighbours and sure as day turns to night, you'll find the moany git in the road. These days it isn't the sole preserve of the retired either. Middle aged folk seem too keen to force their oppinions as well. At least with the caravan you can move sites in a few hours and anyway, you already seem to have friendly folk on a caravan site. It is very rare to find a neighbour who is a pain in the butt.

I must admit, if I thought her majesty would wear it, I'd stay as I am till the time I go to the pearly gates. Even then Id probably have the caravan in tow.

Steve L.

 

[Steve L]

Here's a pre easter weekend update on our exploits.

We are on our summer site which is set in a small black & white village just ten mins by car from the market town and all it's supermarket facilities. It has been realy lovely watching spring unfold and just doing what we please when we want to.

We are still quite content to stay at the van as is quite livable in for us two and the dog.

While I'm off work, I've decided to take full advantage of the situation and am currently waiting on an orthopedic consutancey with the prospect of a major operation to both my left shoulder and elbow to relieve the arthritic build up that is reducing mobility and causing significant pain. Once I've had the operation I'll be on a 12 to 16 week physio coarse to recovery. Even the prospect of recovering here at the van hasn't worried me as I think the peaceand tranquility together with the kind neighbours we meet will speed up the recovery. I've also got a couple of minor operations to my other hand soon and again the same applies.

My other half has also put in motion an operation for the fith time on her knee for a torn maniscus (cartlidge). I'll probably have to dig out the wheel chair ramp I have for that recovery as she will be on crutches.

Luckily the last firm I worked in as a developement engineer made these ramps for London Taxi Industries, the people behind the famous black cabs. I was fortunate enough to be given one for free as it had a few scratches which ment it failed dispatch inspection and would of been scrapped. In the past I had it fitted on my late father-in-laws caravan and it was a god send for them as they were not able to use steps.

We have looked at one house that came up on the housing association list, if you could call it that. We have more floor space with the caravan and awning. Then there was the "brookside close" type culdisack layout and hords of cars parked on every spare bit of grass verge. The final straw was that the front garden was only 17 foot long and 12 foot wide, so we couldn't even park the van and car next to eachother. Our caravan pitch has more room than that! And we have a 30 acre lawn to wonder around on!

So as you can guess we scratched that one off the list.

One usefull tip for the only annoyance we have onsite. You see the girl who mow's the grass twice a week always does it when we are out, probably as she thinks she is doing us a favor from a noise point of view. But she unplugs the electric to mow the grass. Now as we have sky plus, unplugging the electric buggers up the sky box, sending it back to the start menu and stopping any recordings we have planned. So to cure that I've fitted a 150W 12 volt inverter to power the sky box. This now stops the interuption to the sky signals and saves me from the disappointed gruntles of "she who shall be obeyed".

Ah, if only all things in life were as simple to cure.

Well I must say that if anyone out there is contemplating joining us full timers, take the plunge and do it. You'll have to be a little inventive at times and mend & make do, but that is half the fun of caravanning anyway.

All the best to all out there.

Kind regards.

Steve L.

 

[Gumbo]

Steve you taking the mick or what ???

You live off the State ( taxpayer )you sold your house, and now qualify for a Housing Association house. Then this

" We have looked at one house that came up on the housing association list, if you could call it that. We have more floor space with the caravan and awning. Then there was the "brookside close" type culdisack layout and hords of cars parked on every spare bit of grass verge. The final straw was that the front garden was only 17 foot long and 12 foot wide, so we couldn't even park the van and car next to eachother ".

If you ask the Housing Association nicely they may move the cars off the verge so you can get your Car and Caravan parked. Oh and just wait on the list and you may get a 5 bedroom detached rather than a smaller house just for the two of you.

Yes I have guessed it, It is an early April Fool LOL

 

[Gumbo]

Steve you taking the mick or what ???

You live off the State ( taxpayer )you sold your house, and now qualify for a Housing Association house. Then this

" We have looked at one house that came up on the housing association list, if you could call it that. We have more floor space with the caravan and awning. Then there was the "brookside close" type culdisack layout and hords of cars parked on every spare bit of grass verge. The final straw was that the front garden was only 17 foot long and 12 foot wide, so we couldn't even park the van and car next to eachother ".

If you ask the Housing Association nicely they may move the cars off the verge so you can get your Car and Caravan parked. Oh and just wait on the list and you may get a 5 bedroom detached rather than a smaller house just for the two of you.

Yes I have guessed it, It is an early April Fool LOL

ps Sky can be paid for by the state, as long as you are on Job Seekers and can prove you use to look Sky to look up Jobs on teletext

 

[Steve L]

Great idea about sky Gumbo, hadn't thought of that one.

No, seriously though. After 33 years of working my nuts off and now being made redundant after I had sold the house prior the the crunch, crash what ever you call it. I felt I deserved a bit of my tax and national insurance back.

I'm just finding out exactly how much certain sciving ratbags some of whom I went to school with, have been getting for the last 33 years. As they haven't lifted a finger for all of those 33 years.

What I happen to be doing is actually setting up a situation where me and the misses can have our operations and recover afterwards with a view to going back for another 15 years of work befor I retire at 65.

The house we went to see had got over a hundred applicants on the list and as we are happy to use our caravan I thought someone in far worse circumstances than me might benifit better.

So dear gumbo, perhaps you jumped on your hobby horse a bit too soon.

You see from the age of 16 to 49 I have worked on average 50 hours a week and spent all but 9 years as a self employed self made person. I don't intend to rely on the state for any longer than it takes me to have these operations done. By the way, when the consultant operated on the right shoulder he said he had never operated on a person under 70 for this condition before. Trust me, having your shoulder and elbow dislocated, the joints cleaning out and then re assembled is not without excrutiating pain, which is endured for upto 16 weeks.

So a bit of R&R at the tax payers expence is not too much to ask for is it!!

I happen to enjoy my caravanning and normally I can exist on my own cash, but i thought what the hec.

Steve L.

 

[Poppasmurf]

That's interesting that mobile cost's less than your home broadband used to Barking.I take my laptop on trips , mainly to watch TV or DVD's. I have driven to a wifi hotspot to pick up and send messages on the odd occasion but I don't tend to bother with accessing the net otherwise. I did have a plug in connector for my old mobile but the speed made the cost prohibitive.

I guess if you're staying on a site with a good mobile signal it's not a problem, provided that the cost is not too bad.

My question was really intended to find out if the site you where on provided wi fi access as do quite a few nowadays. I do think the prices being charged by the likes of the CC are unreasonable, although they might well retort that there are high set up costs. On the other hand I have stayed at loads of sites where you can pick up a neighbouring house's wireless network and just wished I could log in !

Maybe the well informed Euro might like to be a bit more explicit in how he connects and at what cost too.

I agree. The CC charges for WiFi are ridiculous. I think

 

[g_374369443]

Again steve, thanks for the updates. I hope things get sorted out for you and the ops go well.....

 

[Gumbo]

" So a bit of R&R at the tax payers expence is not too much to ask for is it!!"

Same as Fred Goodwin eh ??, just think if we all decided to do it rather than pay taxes. Sorry paying tax does not entitle you to abuse the system. Which is what you are clearly doing. I thought you couldn't clain Job seekers if you are not available to Work . Sorry to hear about your ops but please go on to Disability rather than Job Seekers

 

[g_374369443]

Come on Gumbo, ease off, its hardly scrounging and cannot be compared to godwin!

You talk about this as if the facts were reversed and steve had been on this system for 33 years, rather than worked hard for 33 years!

 

[Gumbo]

O K I quit on this one, the only facts I had to work on were the ones Steve posted.

 

[Steve L]

Thankyou g for your kind support and pointing "Gumbo" in the right direction.

In the last 18 months I've been through what you could call the emotional wringer of life.

Not only have we had to take the concious decission to sell our home to realise what was left of our capital as the property market collapse was on our doorstep. But also having to endure 5 months of watching my own father who like me had been a self made man for 65 of his 79 years of life, suffer four dibilitating strokes before the last one finally got him.

Also the reality of having to live in our caravan as we could not find anywhere to rent at affordable rates for a livable property that would allow one well behaved chocolate labrador to live with us.

On top of that I suffer with adult sleep apnea of such a magnatude that I have no choice but to sleep with an automatic sensing pump to try to stop me going the smae way as my dad did in August last year. Also I have this bloody arthritis that when it flares up I loose about two inches of movement a week in the affected joints.

On top of all that I get made redundant too!!

So there Gumbo has it, the full story of just how crapy I feel at the moment.

Why am I on job seekers? Well because I'm just too bloody suburn or is that stupid to give up being a self supporting working man! As it happens, I've basically been told that because I've worked so hard for so long, I have apparently worn out my joints prematurely.

The last thing I needed at the moment is someone who has not taken the time to read the threads before they jump on their hobby horse with only half knowledge and no thought for other peoples feelings.

Regards.

Steve L.

 

[Alex_374373826]

This discussion I feel is an interesting one. I work full time and have never claimed benefits, I am lucky and at one time I despised those who used the system. No more.

The reality is that if you have savings over

 

[Guest]

One small possible correction.

Unless the rules have changed in the last year or so, Jobseekers Allowance is paid for 6 months regardless of savings etc. It is however reduced if you have income coming in from other sources apart from your employment, such as rental etc.

However, to get your measly