INFLATED FLAT LIFE

This is one of those special blogs I warned you about.  A special subject or moan or a view of life on the slow lane but from my off-grid perspective. 

according to arcouk.org:-  "Around 74,750 older people in the UK live in approximately 57,500 Retirement Community units, with 51,500 units in England, 3,500 units in Scotland and 2,500 units in Wales1. There is an uneven distribution across market segments, with 66% of UK Retirement Community properties available for affordable or social rent."  Doing the sums on the statement then 57.5k units house 75k people with occupancy at about 1.3.  

According to audley villages 26Jun2024 "Sheltered housing refers to purpose-built property developments with extra support for older people. Properties could be one, two or three bedrooms in the form of a flat, apartment, retirement bungalow or something similar. which translates as Home Nene is not sheltered housing by their definition. But when you see their prices it is obvious they in in a very different ballgame

best advice here

Be very careful with terminology.  In this blog a "living unit" means a single property in which lives a single person or a 'married' couple. In accordance with this site similarities to a canal boat are expected. However, a canal boat at law is not a property. It is a chattel in the same way as a car a tent a camper or a suitcase is a chattel.  However, in this site a "living unit" serves the same purpose of giving the occupant a place to sleep to cook to rest and to entertain on land and of secure tenure.

as many as a million 'living units' in England, usually flats, usually small, which are 'reserved' for older people to live in a 'protected' environment. These are people  but who by and large cope in their own way without interference or help.  However, the 'sector' is a spectrum where age is an issue and the minimum is 60 and the oldest may be centenarians. 

The Home Nene building was completed in the 80s and intended originally to be offices and workshops but was quickly seen to be non-viable and was converted into 48 flats.  A superficial Land Registry search shows that a number of flats were 'sold' with price tags of £200,000 all in the same day in 1986.  This coincidentally is the same date as today's leases were drawn up although more carefully scrutiny will show that dates were played with.  It is not feasible  to examine leases in bulk but it is fair to assume they are mostly  identical.  It is known that some flats have always been owned in toto by the beneficial owner and that some leases fell back to the beneficial owner over the years.

As living space and accommodation, the complex gives no impression from the outside that it runs on a similar template as a prison albeit without locked doors.  However, the management company is seen as oppressive and inflexible with a cavalier attitude to the interpretation of the prison rules aka lease. Socially it has its trusties and it's narks.  It has inmates who never emanate from their cells and others who choose to live in alternative establishments either temporarily of permanently  and this is the case for those who 'own' their lease as much as those who rent

Home Nene then has 48 cells not all occupied and with a floating population.  There are regular mortalities, the 2023 figure being 4, as may be expected where by definition inmates are old, and there are cases where residents have been moved to care when it is found or decided they are not able to care for themselves. There are cells rented out  having been purchased speculatively because there is no age barrier to buying the leases only to living in them.

Of the 48 units in Home Nene it is believed that no more than 15 are lived in by the 'owner' of the lease.  Is is believed,  as of 1st Nov 2024, that there may be 15 flats unoccupied or 'in transit' and as many as 15 which are lived in by individuals or couples who are renting.  And there are a few whose status is not possible to establish

Elsewhere in this website is a section dedicated to this land based off-grid living.  It is WIP and has a page entitled "Haven For Bewildered" quod vide 

I am pushing it in this blog because it is a hidden present and future social problem involving the older and oldest members of our community.  I have been one of these now for about two years when I bought a lease as insurance and came to experience a strange form of existence I am now learning much about.  My living unit was bargain basement as far as outlay was concerned and the 70year lease was  secured for about the same money I would get if I sold my boat. 

However, there are other flats on offer here and elsewhere with similar facilities as mine for rather more money. 

This blog is not my complaint nor my moan.

I am satisfied with my bargain but I sense that an enormous amount of money is being made off the backs of old and frail people across the country and vast amounts of profits are being siphoned out  of the country to offshore accounts without any reckoning ...

WIP to be developed over time.