Caporegime
- Joined
- 22 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 28,320
- Location
- Boston, Lincolnshire
If I was going to be picking an area it would be Cumbria. Simply beautiful place to live.
Good spot to live in the Uk?
- Thread starter Dr House
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Nov 2002
- Posts
- 7,713
- Location
- Under the Hill
Bristol is rapidly leaving the reasonably priced bracket behind....
I love Lichfield personally and love visiting some family members who live there (I say this as someone who thinks 99% of the UK is pretty *****). Most underrated 'City' in the UK. Close to Birmingham but still far away enough to be away from it. One of the most beautiful cathedrals in the UK, cobbled streets, lots of parks and a big lake, plenty of history such as the Erasmus Darwin museum and Dr Johnson, cheaper house prices then even Birmingham, 2 Michelin starred restaurants, direct trains to London....I put City in brackets because it's one of the smallest Cities in the UK
@Amplus - totally agree and would definitely look into Staffordshire (and Shropshire) if work suited. Honourable mention to Herefordshire for stunning countryside, although not really convenient for anything at all!
The major downside of living north of Birmingham is trying to get south by road. The M42/M6 and the M5/6 junction are dreadful whereas the M40 is normally fine. Again it depends on what you’re doing with your life, but getting to Birmingham airport might be a headache. Anyway, no point in complaining about bad traffic and roads as it’s the same everywhere I guess!
The major downside of living north of Birmingham is trying to get south by road. The M42/M6 and the M5/6 junction are dreadful whereas the M40 is normally fine. Again it depends on what you’re doing with your life, but getting to Birmingham airport might be a headache. Anyway, no point in complaining about bad traffic and roads as it’s the same everywhere I guess!
Shush don't tell everyone.
Not sure we have any Michelin stars yet mind, some on the journey (The Boat / Larder) but not sure they are there yet.
Ha yeah it's funny you say that as everyone I know in Lichfield always tells me not to tell anybody about it!
I'm pretty sure The Boat is a Michelin (might be wrong) and Larder is on its way. They are opening up another restaurant next to Larder above the Chinese massage place I believe that has a Michelin starred Chef....love the Belgium beer place there as well 'beer bohm'? I think it's called and The Hedgehog is nice enough.....great place to live and certainly the most underrated place in the UK...like someone said the only negative is it's quite far from the motorways although it's right on the A38 and has direct trains to Brum and London.
I live 20 minutes away but it is a nice city that is seeing a lot of new investment. The Boat doesn’t have a star yet I don’t believe.
This popped up on a suggested read. It certainly paints an excellent picture of the town, although i've never been
https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/new...ws/notting-hoole-chester-suburb-long-21842867
https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/new...ws/notting-hoole-chester-suburb-long-21842867
How on earth are you having your wealth stolen in either of those countries?
Caporegime
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2006
- Posts
- 38,367
I don't want to go into all the details but I used to work in this field dealing with people who had been ripped off by their equivalents of HMRC as well as local cartels. I used to deal with cases from all over the world. Canada, USA, Japan, Asutralia, even Africa (Ghana), EU, etc. By far the worst cases were all from Portugal. Folk that had moved back to the UK and had lost their homes because they couldn't sell them and being chased for tax bills for money they never received.
2 notable cases were;
Guy asks me for help. I ask him what is going on. He says Spanish authorities are going to take his home tomorrow and he can't get hold of a van to take his stuff away. I said well you have left it to the last minute had you called me months ago I may have been able to help you but at this point it's far too late. He's literally begging me but the fact he's left it to the day before they are going to come and evict him out his spanish villa means literally nothing I can do. I remember this case as I can still remember the fear in his voice he was begging me for help. They took his home and all his possessions the following day.
Another guy sold his property for £500K in England and moves to Portugal. He hires a lawyer there to buy some land for him. Lawyer runs away with £20K of his money. He hires another lawyer to buy some land. This lawyer buys him land for £100K but he takes a part of his land to keep as his own as well as charging him £20K for buying the land so he ends up with £75K worth of land and he paid £120K for it. Lawyer then sells that plot on to someone else and likely rips them off too.
He then commissions builders to build a property and tells them budget is £200K, he ends up going through 3 different builders as they kept ripping him off. Every time he goes to the bank to withdraw money the teller tells him as it's a large transaction and from a foreign account he has to charge a handling fee and he essentially pockets money from him every time he goes to withdraw money to pay the builders. He has a fireplace in his property. There is only one person you can buy firewood from in the village. Guess who he is? The local police officer. He essentially has a monopoly and cartel and charged 3 times the going rate to foreigners. This poor bugger ends up with cancer. Portuguese hospital refuses to treat him for it. So he has to move back to the UK. Luckily he still has a bit of money left over from his £500K but it's practically nothing at this point. He buys a small place whilst he receives treatment worth circa £180K which he managed to put a small deposit of £50K down for. He has lost over £450K during his time in Portugal. He can't sell his property over there. Eventually he gets a russian buyer but he can't get a mortgage. He agrees to provide a mortgage to him and he has to pay him monthly like he would a bank. The Ruski agrees and takes the home, he never makes his payments. Now Portuguese authorities are after tax on the sale of the property which he never got a cent for. Remember the poor bugger has cancer they refused to treat and luckily the NHS saved him.
When you move to these places first of all they have different taxation rules for foreigners especially foreigners that buy property. France as an example used to have a rule where after 15 years foreigners don't pay tax when they sell their main residence they recently adjusted that to 30 years. Also the Spanish authorities refuse to speak to you in English. All communication is in Spanish. You need to translate all their documents at your own expense. They will also only speak with you over the phone so you need to be able to speak Spanish or hire a local lawyer / tax specialist (which going back to previous example in portugal will rip you off as he knows you can't speak the lingo)
Foreigners are basically seen as bags of money to be plucked bare in both those countries not only by locals but by the police and government.
Spain for example if you owe them money and they don't have your current address. Their way of notifying you is putting your name on the official government tax website. So you nee to check this daily. Oh and as soon as your name is on the website you from that date only have 30-90 days to appeal. As you can imagine nobody knows this and months pass before they find out and boom they have zero rights to appeal as time has lapsed for the appeals process.
So can you answer my question how long did you live in both countries for and did you buy property in either country and sold it after you left?
To be fair, i'm not sure where the complaint is about being chased for tax on a property the guy sold without payment. That's fairly stupid, although can imagine he was fairly desperate.
I've not lived in either yet, however i am aiming to move to Spain in a few years. My parents live over there though and have bought and sold a few properties without any issues. Haven't heard of any horror stories from either them or their friends/neighbours.
Same with medical treatment, they've both been well looked after.
Similar here. We've had a fair few friends move to Spain/Portugal and it looks like a lovely place to live. They have had no issues at all.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2006
- Posts
- 38,367
Must have had decent lawyers. Like I say I had cases from all over the world but the worst ones were all from Portugal and Spain runner up and all the stories were similar.
Or it's different provinces which are running things differently. Spain is a big place.
To give you context my team must have had 12 large filing cabinets full to the brim with active cases. My experience form dealing with it is I would never ever buy property in either country.
Or it's different provinces which are running things differently. Spain is a big place.
To give you context my team must have had 12 large filing cabinets full to the brim with active cases. My experience form dealing with it is I would never ever buy property in either country.
Eastbourne. Not sure about a&e's but south coast, warm climate, better than London for raising children.
Norwich, flat and spacious, probably find good properties with good sized gardens.
Bournemouth
Also, any of these South coast villages, Angmering (Ham Manor Golf Course), also Angmering-on-Sea, East Preston (Willowhayne Ave.), Rustington, Kingston, Ferrying. Some very nice celebrity type properties around these places. A&E at Worthing within about 4 miles or less, Chichester or Shoreham probably around 9 miles away across the A27.
Norwich, flat and spacious, probably find good properties with good sized gardens.
Bournemouth
Also, any of these South coast villages, Angmering (Ham Manor Golf Course), also Angmering-on-Sea, East Preston (Willowhayne Ave.), Rustington, Kingston, Ferrying. Some very nice celebrity type properties around these places. A&E at Worthing within about 4 miles or less, Chichester or Shoreham probably around 9 miles away across the A27.
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I guess working in that kind of industry will always put you in a position where you see the horror stories, and Spain/Portugal probably made up a lot of cases due to the popularity. I think the only issue my parents had were with an architect when they were extending their house, and then some issues with builders doing a poor job, although they tried to pay cash to avoid VAT so had no proof of the works. The main issues appear to come from stupidity and not being careful it seems.
I think the point about having decent lawyers etc is a good one though. I've found what seem like a really good Gestoria who can take on a lot of the tax/legal side of things.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2006
- Posts
- 38,367
Yes I will only have worked with cases that went bad that's why they are asking me for help.
But the types of cases and stories all were worse there. Majority of our cases actually came from Norway. A lot of people working in the oil and gas industry over there. Their cases weren't all horror stories and again a decent accountant at the time rather than after the fact would have remedied it.
Honestly I'd make sure anyone is extremely cautious and makes sure they do their research again and again before dipping their toes into property in either country.
But people usually don't have any issues until they sell up and move back here to the UK that all of a sudden they are made aware of something wrong and they now owe a lot of money.
A lot of my cases from elsewhere were usually to do with fraud, income tax, etc. But Spain and Portugal was usually property related, especially Portugal, Spain did have a lot of income related issues but the way their authorities deal with these cases is disgusting.
We in the UK offer translators at our own cost for example. This isn't cheap by any means and a very very expensive offering. Which is why Spain simply doesn't bother even if they can speak English they will only converse in Spanish.