travel to second homes during the corona virus

Several neighbours have packed their cars with suitcases and they've gone - to get away from London. It's a fair bet that they're 'working from home' in their second homes.

I doubt that many will be cautioned or fined. After all, our police force are understaffed and overworked. They can't have much time to deal with it.

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I just hope anyone who does not visit their holiday homes ( and they should not ) tells their insurance company as you need to change the cover on the property if it is unoccupied for more than a month or so .

MissChateline I think it depends on the ircumstances. If my neighbours held a party with lots of people there, I would report them.

A second home where the owner popped in once a month or so to check on it, I wouldn't. A family from a high COVID area who were down every weekend, I think I would [probably report, but not until I had spoken to them.

What if the whole family comes at half term because the parents need to check on the house and de-winter it?

Depends how long they stay. Arrive Friday night, depart Sunday - and only once, might just squeak through as believable but a longer stay is a holiday visit.

My friend lives in a street which is full of holiday homes and she said people have been visiting their properties throughout and she has been fed up of it fwiw but I also think she is fed up that her street has bled dry of ACTUAL PEOPLE that live there day to day

How dare anyone tell me when I can visit my own property?

GrannyRose I guess his name is Boris.

JaneJudge

My friend lives in a street which is full of holiday homes and she said people have been visiting their properties throughout and she has been fed up of it fwiw but I also think she is fed up that her street has bled dry of ACTUAL PEOPLE that live there day to day

That’s not the fault of the current owners though.

what to be visiting outside of lockdown rules?
nothing is their fault afaik

PamelaJ1

GrannyRose I guess his name is Boris.

Well I'll definitely be having a word with him next time I see him.

Grannyrose I think you are being unrealistic. The argument you use could also be made by an abusive partner or parent wanting access to the home containing their family.. In this case the reason is because of the danger you may bring to those living near the home that is not your main place of residence

I saw a similar item on the news. I think it was a bit mean of one neighbour to report on the one second home owner as it was apparent in my view that the visit was just to check on the house as the owners were already on the way back to London. Although I now live in Devon I used to live in Worcestershire where both Evesham and Worcester are suffering from flooding. Given the weather we've had a second home owner maybe concerned that the property may be in a similar predicament. I would rather face a fine than have my insurance invalidated and therefore check. Not all neighbours are friendly. We lived in Cornwall for 6 months and one person never even said good morning. Ignored any attempt to reply. So no chance of them checking on the home.

I do have sympathy with people who own holiday homes, and agree with you kjmpde. A holiday home is not just a joy but a worry and a commitment too. I wonder if when people purchase their holiday home they should actually factor in the cost of employing, a management agency. This agency could check the property weekly, carry out minor maintenance and call in tradesmen for the bigger work. That would create jobs all round for the area. And less animosity.
I dislike these people in France who bring over all their builder, plumber friends to do up their holiday homes. They should use the locals.

I also wondered re a management agency. I also agree wrt employing locally.

Lillie, there is a program on channel 4 here called a new life in the sun and a lot do as you have described

I wouldn't want to live next door to a holiday let either (which I feel is different to a 'second home') 'Some' people behave appallingly when they are on holiday for some reason, especially the British, imagine putting up with a different version of that each week from the holiday let next door!

MissChateline maybe when the virus is under control .Until then we ALL should be adhering to the rules

Lillie I think most of us, French second home owners, d, generally, use local workmen. But I have some sympathy with those who do import others.

The French system for getting someone in to rewire ahouse or undertake building work or plumbing is slow and cumbersome. The workman has to pay a year's taxes up front and before they do this they like to know they have a year's worth of contracts. When we signed a contract with a mason to to put new window apertures when we were doing a loft conversion. It was 2 years before the work was done. This is not uncommon.

We have never imported workmen - other than ourselves, but we have employed British tradesmen resident in France because they tend to work to British timetables.

When you have flights leaving on a daily basis what difference is it going to make travelling by road ?

My neighbour is still going to Australia in April, nothing has changed.

Lillie A lot of us second home owners are doing it on a tight budget, and all ongoing maintenance and repairs, plus more major projects are done by us and, as well as that, employing agents is expensive.

We (in normal times) go across to France every 5 or 6 weeks so have never felt a need to have anyone inspect it. We have neighbours who write to us if there are any obvious problems, like when we had tiles off in a storm.

We have managed through COVID thanks to the nice Australian lady who runs a grass cutting business and over the summer checked our house out whenever she cut the grass. We are now paying her to continue the inspections over the winter.

EllanVannin

My neighbour is still going to Australia in April, nothing has changed.

Is she Australian? If nothing has changed and she isn’t then , surely, she/he/they won’t be let in.

On the news today - around 20,000 people per day break the rules. How many of those are second homeowners?

I am not being unrealistic at all. In a western liberal democracy no-one should be denying my right to peaceful enjoyment of my property.

We have certain freedoms in this country that have been hard earned. They include:

Freedom of association
Freedom of travel within the boundaries of our own country
Freedom of religion - both in public and in private
The right to work
The right to a family life.

All these are enshrined in the UN declaration of human rights. After the atrocities of the second world war countries got together in an attempt to make sure what happened then would never happen again.

You may think this is all about saving yourself from being affected by a virus. I think it is far more important than that - it is about saving our fundamental freedoms so that we can all live a rich and fulfilled life.

I don't care how often I have to say it - our democracy is at risk and far more people are going to die as a result than have died of Covid 19.

GrannyRose15. The arguments you use are uncomfortably close to those used by many of ex-President Trump's more extreme supporters.

But the limit on all these Human Rights is that in exercising them you do not deprive others of their human rights. In this case, your demand to freedom to go where you will could directly lead to a potential lifetime of disability and even death of other people.

Given, that if you exercise your right to visit your second home, so will everybody else, we could now be looking at a pandemic that has killed, not 100,000 people in Britain but 200 or 300,000. How does that square with their right to life?

Statements like our democracy is at risk and far more people are going to die as a result than have died of Covid 19 are frankly just ludicrous. Of course there must be a balance between an individual's human rights and the rights of Society as a whole, but we have a history of introducing countyry wide curbs in times of emergency, especially health related ones. Do you remember the restrictions on visiting the countryside, walking footpaths, moving in and out of farms with cattle or sheep during epidemics of foot and mouth, disease, swine fever, etc. Controls were introduced, some close to nationwide and when the emergency was over, life returned to normal.

If you want to know how the kind of Libertarian human rights you espouse works out in practice i recommend this link: www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-project-new-hampshire-libertarians-matthew-hongoltz-hetling