Feature Article
Can Unique Property Bulletin Help To Cure Your Brexit Headaches?
A solution for UK residents wanting to live and/or work in Europe. Unhindered.
We are none too keen on touching one of the most toxic debates in 50 years. But several of our readers have asked for help. Maybe if Brexit was less barky, less bitey and more cute…
A friend got in touch and asked if we knew…
How Brexit will affect Brits who live in the EU and if we could help him?
Unique Property Bulletin guarantees there will be life after Brexit – whatever your viewpoint. Whether you are a Brexit supporter or Remainer, we believe 88% of folk in the UK want to see some light at the end of the Brexit tunnel. Our resident legal beagle thinks he has found an approach that will help our friends navigate their way to a nice, new and happy home in the EU and UK after these past three years’ of wall-to-wall Brexit brain-overload.
If you wonder why this subject of Brexit alongside UK and EU property may be relevant, we would declare an interest in our friend’s dilemma. Our Unique Property Club (UPC) has been running since 1997. In 2017 we bought and renovated our 24th project at the north of Scotland. A slight digression from this UK-EU article. But it is a circular debate and will make sense. At Noss Head Lighthouse Station, there are 2 hours more sunlight each day in the summer than in London.
Unique Property Club Project 24: Noss Head Lighthouse Station.
Photo: Oracle Drone Services.
Conversely, in the winter at this northern lighthouse (location here) it can be very dark. However, there are unique buildings in the south of France and Spain where, during midwinter, there are 1 to 2 hours more sunlight every day than in London. All this is to do with the Earth’s axis shift and proximity to the Arctic and Antarctic circles.
We will be covering the subject of adding in excess of 2 years extra daylight in your life in another feature article on another day. But please let this point register…
You may acquire an additional 18,000 extra daylight hours during your lifetime.
The lighthouse buildings that our unique property club own at Noss Head are 551 miles from the Arctic Circle, whereas London, for example is 1,252 from the Arctic Circle. This is why, in the summer, there is up to 14 hours of additional daylight each week in the far north, in the summer, compared to London.
We are determined to put the two-summers-no-winters thesis into a real life test. Currently, 11 of our 365 club members keen to purchase a moat in France with a chateau attached. When we match a far northern home to a southern counterpart we shall be able to narrate and illustrate whether a two-summers-no-winters theory actually works. Unique Property Bulletin and the dedicated club that gets up to all manner of mischief has this gem lined up in France. Vladi agencies are looking for buyers…
Unique Property Club Adventure For 2020. Moated Chateau in France
But this chateau or whatever unique building our group of friends buy for the southern element, it is most likely to be in Europe.
We mention our own UK-EU experience under the shadow of Brexit to illustrate that we can relate to our friend’s dilemma. Since the Brexit vote in 2016, the £/EU foreign exchange has changed dramatically…
Exchange Rate: GBP£ Sterling to EU Euro: Click Here
This collapse in the value of the pound in exchange to the Euro since the Brexit vote has cost Unique Property Bulletin £485 + £810 in foreign exchange losses so far. Total: £1,295. Not a huge ForEx deficit, but it matters because this number gets amplified because of the way our business works. Especially the European element. This year we lose £1,295 because of Brexit worries. Next year is will be £12,950. This is real money. Unique Property Bulletin is free for our readers and has been for 25 years. This publication adheres to a not-for-profit philosophy and is run by volunteers; so £1,295 has an impact. We are APOLITICAL on Brexit (here). We are also receiving help requests from many worried readers such as our friend who lives in the UK and Europe.
We mention the experience above to illustrate and empathise with a real and genuine concern.
Digression over: back to our UK born friend who is worried about losing business and having difficulty with his UK + EU life.
Our website founder actually has some legal beagle training when he was a young pup of a plod being house-trained at police college. Although not quite the right flavour of law to answer the precise plea for help from our reader. Peter just wishes to live life in the UK and EU as he and his EU based partner have been doing. In our endeavour to assist, we came across something that may be of significant help to many.
To torture the puppy metaphor, our editor, Russ McLean dug and dug… until something was unearthed that infers whatever headaches happen with Brexit, hard-boiled, soft-boiled or medium-rare, there appear to be grandfather (and grandmother) rights of residency for Brits wanting to live in both the UK & EU. But to crystalise that solution you will need to buy a home in the EU pretty quickly! Here are the prescient, official quotes. Where the quote states “Netherlands” it applies to most EU countries…
Unique Property Bulletin discovered…
Very valuable words. From Official UK Government Guidance.
Important Source: Here and Here.
We hope this helps our friend. The wording looks very dry and bland. So we have added some appropriate pictorial colour that might actually become part of your life and our friend’s lifestyle. If you are keen on retaining unfettered access between the UK and EU, then perhaps a little bit of studying might be in order? You could well come out smelling of roses. Or even Tulips…
Can You Cure Your Personal Brexit Fears?
We think perhaps you may be able to banish the Brexit blues, whether you are pro or anti this Brexit phenomenon.
Moving away from the political dimension to a pragmatic solution in the current challenging climate, Unique Property Bulletin is not just about unusual buildings and places to call home. We seek interesting locations as well as buildings. Sometimes overseas. So do thousands of our readers. Many of whom have become enduring and lifelong friends.
One new friend, Peter has had his life is inextricably linked between the UK and the EU. Peter had served as a soldier in the British Army and was stationed in Münster in Germany. From that time serving in Europe, he nurtured a relationship with a lady from Holland. Since leaving the army he very much enjoys life in Germany + the Netherlands and back in Old Blighty where he still has strong family links. We commend Peter on his past service and new style of life. Peter is very happy and now far removed from his old regimented job where an angry sounding man with three stripes on his shoulder made the platoon march around a big piece of tarmac…
An Angry Regimental Sergeant Major In Your Face.
Oft heard with the refrain…
“Stop marching with your arms waving around like a windmill you ‘orrible little squaddie”.
With more than a little irony in respect to his former regimental sergeant major, Peter has asked us to help him locate an actual windmill to buy. In Holland. Hence the Brexit issue is a real life worry for our friend. He is not alone. At least 10% of our readers have mentioned the UK/EU challenges they face during conversations and emails inbound over the past three years. Coincidentally, when we moved this publication from the 1992 paper format to the internet version in 2011, such was the huge increase in readership numbers in the UK, that by 2016 we registered the EU and USA domains…
www.uniquepropertybulletin.eu
The plan is eventually to have dedicated publications in each of these geographic areas. Indeed, since we and a core group of friends took the decision to buy Noss Head Lighthouse Station with the aim of securing a permanent office and employed staff to support our volunteers, the prospect of the American and European version of Unique Property Bulletin is drawing closer. So our interest in the dynamic between the UK and Europe grows from month to month. However, that expansion of this publication is for another feature article.
For this essay, we are concerned with our friends who have a strong desire to…
Maintain their personal rights to live and work in the EU whilst being citizens of the UK.
Almost by accident, and the fact our founder has the same DNA as Inspector Morse running through his veins with curiosity and interest in pragmatic problems solving brings back to helping our friend seeking to buy a converted windmill, but worried about what the future holds for him and his girlfriend from the Netherlands.
Windmills Are Scarce
After several conversations, our Unique Property Bulletin website founder, Russ McLean is of the view that those amongst our readership who live a life such as Peter: between the UK and the EU., many would be well advised to read through the official government information that relates to EU residency for British citizens…
An Old Photo of Russ McLean, During Service on the Island of Islay.
Long before he hung up his handcuffs, Strathclyde Police trained this young plod well. Anyone who works in law will likely advise you that it is not a case of knowing every law, but being able to find the relevant passages of law, locate precedent, read and absorb fine print.
In this segment, Russ believes found some further fine print he hopes will be of help to Peter. There may some relief our readers who have a bit of worry as to their ability to live and work in the UK and the EU unhindered by the B-word. Perhaps further your knowledge base by reading the UK Brexit pages that cover this precise issue…
Click Here
Learn about solving your Brexit dilemma.
What works for the Netherlands is likely to apply to the other 26 EU countries.
One final nugget in this segment. Russ and the UPB crew here have so far been unable to find Peter and his new partner a suitable windmill to purchase. This is why the team at UPB-HQ love volunteering on this publication. There are a lot of decent folk about who help each other.
One of those is Anna from Holland. During a conversation with Anna a few days after we heard of Peter’s plight, Russ discovered Anna has a Houseboat for sale in Edam towards the north-eastern coastline of Holland…
Houseboat For Sale.
In the EU.
This home afloat is within a 30 minute commute to Schiphol International Airport.
A unique property that might just help to keep your residency in the EU.
Houseboat For Sale.
In The EU.
A little bit of reading may hand you your own set of keys to Europe and the UK…
For further details of this Dutch Houseboat for sale...
Click Here
This houseboat in Holland may help solve your UK/EU residency anmd work problems.
Though maybe best not to be slow as the Brexit clock is ticking and the legal allowances will close sooner than later.
Best wishes.
The Unique Property Team.
In deference to both Brexit supporters and Remainers, here at Unique Property Bulletin, we are none too keen on politicians of any flavour. The charity we helped to register has been treated dreadfully by politicians. So we are profoundly apolitical. The article above is given in good faith. Readers will by necessity need to educate themselves as to their position living abroad in the EU. If in doubt, please can you obtain professional advice to satisfy yourself as to the veracity of details and sources above when combined with your own situation. Thanks.
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