Living together - definition
- Thread starter chris_h
- Start date
Living in the same town and neighbouring counties (or even countries) aren't mutually exclusive
Of course if "common" sense was actually common, we wouldn't be in this position in the first place...
Soldato
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My take on it is that you're both right and both wrong. As Burnsy says the law is too ambiguous at present. But I'll explain why I think you're both right and wrong...
If you are spending every night with your partner then you are indeed a household. You can therefore create a bubble with one other person. In that respect you are right and your boss is wrong. But I didn't think you're allowed to move between any other houses at night. So you need to decide which house you are staying at during the lockdown (yours or your girlfriends) and stay there. Otherwise we'd have people flitting between their main house and holiday home without a care. So in that respect your boss is right and you are wrong.
My advice would be to invite the boss for a threesome to guarantee his silence. But either your girlfriend or you will have to take one for the team.
If you are spending every night with your partner then you are indeed a household. You can therefore create a bubble with one other person. In that respect you are right and your boss is wrong. But I didn't think you're allowed to move between any other houses at night. So you need to decide which house you are staying at during the lockdown (yours or your girlfriends) and stay there. Otherwise we'd have people flitting between their main house and holiday home without a care. So in that respect your boss is right and you are wrong.
My advice would be to invite the boss for a threesome to guarantee his silence. But either your girlfriend or you will have to take one for the team.
That's the correct response for many questions
Especially so for me as I'm self-employed
Associate
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That's a looooong way away...............
Caporegime
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It sounds like a riveting argument
I'm not sure what metalwork has to do with interpreting the current COVID guidelines?
Caporegime
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The nail that sticks out...
Tbh I just wouldn't tell anyone what my bubble is not their business, let alone engage in an argument at work over it
So yeah, it's really not a big deal, your boss is technically right perhaps but meh...
As Burnsy has pointed out that the law isn't all that clear - the rules themselves seem reasonably clear but presumably, the definition of a household muddies things a bit here and might need to be tested in court... what are they using to determine what your household is etc..
I mean do you have your post, payslips sent to one address and her to another? Do you pay council tax with a single person discount at your address and she pays council tax with a single person discount at her address? Are you on the electoral roll at your address and she's on the electoral roll at her address?
I suspect you probably tick enough boxes that someone could reasonably argue you are two different households and you've formed a bubble together (since August), in your bubble you're living at each other's houses as is allowed, part of the reason for bubbles is to allow for what you're doing with her. To add a third person would technically go against the rules.
I guess if you were to, together, pick one of the two houses, both move into that house (and therefore have your post sent there, pay the appropriate level of council tax for a two person household at that address etc..) then you could claim you're a single household and you'd be able to form a bubble with another household containing a single adult.
So - what is your council tax situation? Are you paying it as two single-person households or have you picked an address where you pay it as a household containing two adults? And another address where you're claiming a second home discount? If two single person households I suspect your boss is right. That would seem to be at least one way of seeing what you two have already self-defined your situation as legally.
Soldato
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I think there is an ulterior motive here and the boss is trying to find a reason to sack the OP.
It might be worth having some of the responses in this thread written down / printed on paper regarding the bubble (+1) rule. Also check with ACAS. Are you in a union? Big or small company? (the bigger the better)
The boyfriend and girlfriend live together and they form 1 household. The fact that they own an extra house is probably irrelevant because no one else lives in either of the 2 houses. What might be relevant though is if one of the houses is a holiday home. If one of them is, then that is a breach. I heard a lot about people getting caught travelling out-of-area to their holiday/2nd homes back in the Mar/Apr 2020 lockdown.
It might be worth having some of the responses in this thread written down / printed on paper regarding the bubble (+1) rule. Also check with ACAS. Are you in a union? Big or small company? (the bigger the better)
The boyfriend and girlfriend live together and they form 1 household. The fact that they own an extra house is probably irrelevant because no one else lives in either of the 2 houses. What might be relevant though is if one of the houses is a holiday home. If one of them is, then that is a breach. I heard a lot about people getting caught travelling out-of-area to their holiday/2nd homes back in the Mar/Apr 2020 lockdown.
OP has said the houses are only a few hundred meters from each other.
I'd assume the obvious things would be what each person uses as their official address (GP, electoral roll, bills, bank account, PAYE, council tax etc...).
If, for example, two people are claiming single-person households for the purpose of council tax (single person discount) then how can they simultaneously claim to be the same household for the purpose of a support bubble?
In that situation they're surely either being fraudulent re: council tax or they're breaking covid rules by allowing the third person to join their bubble that already contains (what they claim for council tax purposes to be) two households.
As has been pointed out, with no case law to use as precedent it's moot whether you've passed the bar or not. Only the fastest of ambulance chasers would pick this up on a 'no win, no fee' basis and even then just to feather their own PR nest.
Was only joking, thought it was a requirement for any GD thread.
To be honest I've not heard any stats on the number of people reprimanded for breaking lockdown rules? All the headline rule breaks by politicians have been explained away as 'justified'. Would be interesting to see how many people even have a case to put forward to those ambulance chasers