Jaynemw

Our council tax for a 2 bedroom flat is £157-£200 pounds per month, a lot more than I was expecting considering we live in a small flat, with no garden . Rent here is expensive and it's really hard to find rental accommodation compared to Oz, there is a definite shortage � ����

elonii

We are quite lucky with rent prices where we are, and with renting from family we are getting a good price as no need for agents etc. The place I used to live before we left - we couldn't actually afford a family home there in our current circumstances.

Fortunately I still own a flat there so we are still on the UK property ladder as it were... but jeezo things are definitely more tight. Although the area I lived in Aus when we first moved wasn't much better - 15 people turning up on the open day for family rentals with applications in hand!

Moses2013

£157-£200 per month just tax for a 2 bed apartment???? I haven't been living in the UK for a while, but that does seem pretty high. We pay €225 per year for a 4 bed house 0.6 acres here in Ireland and that seems to be too much for most people here. Ok, you might be getting more services in the UK for the money, but still seems way too much for an apartment and you're not even in a city if I'm right?

Tr1boy

Christ on a bike, are your bins emptied daily by Elton John? We live in a large two bedroom townhouse, smack bang in the middle of Winchester and in a conservation area, with on street resident parking and we ' only' pay £177 per mth.

Englishmum

OK guys......bet you can't beat this.....we have a very modest 3 bedroomed house in Essex county (New Jersey, USA) on a third of an acre plot of land.

Drum roll..... $16,000 per year in our housing (council) tax

There aren't even any sidewalks/pavements in our neighbourhood.

elonii

Them's Donald Trump prices surely?! What a shocker lol

cheers

Our property tax went up this year.
We paid them on Monday when they were due. $410.

Cheers

feelbritish

Oh does the accounts but we pay approx £120/month in Buckinhamshire for an end of terrace house. We get excellent services, in fact too good as we have to keep 3 large wheeliebins plus box for paper and cardboard and then our food waste box and every week either garbage or recycling is collected. We do get more for our buck here than we ever did in Canada where we paid about $3200/year and got no services like sewerage or garbage collection. We were disappointed to find out pensioners do not get discount though!

cheers

Addition

spouse of scouse

Have you checked that you're being charged the correct council tax band? That seems an awful lot. We pay 1,340 quid per year (works out to about 110 per month) for a 5 bedroom semi in a nice part of the Wirral.

ottotheboar

That is in line with our detached in a village four miles from Aylesbury it is around 160 a month. Like you in Canada we get nothing in the USA, our children went to private schools as the local ones are some of the worst in the state.

Jaynemw

I have checked the council tax is the correct amount, we live in a block of 14 flats in a 2 bedroom flat and it is between 167- 200 per month, we live in Buxton, Derbyshire. We are quiet central to town but as far as I am aware all they do is empty the bins. Our body corporate , or management committee look after other services like garden maintence ( mind you there is really no garden to speak of ) and lift maintence .

Tr1boy

I don't understand how on earth it can be that high but I also don't understand how it can between those two amounts. ? Huge difference there.

My council tax varies by £3 for the first two months and then is exactly the same for the next 8 mths.

Snap Shot

Hello elonii, how are you ?

I've been living in New Zealand since 2011 in a small town on the west coast of the central north island of New Zealand. I'm married to a British born kiwi, so I have a family category visa which gives me Permanent Residency in NZ. I will be able to apply for NZ citizenship next year. I'm guessing your husband is doing the reverse of this in Britain, i.e. he's got his visa because of his relationship with you, a British citizen. Sorry to put it so bluntly. How many years does he have to live in Britain before he can apply for British citizenship ?

I'm a bit fascinated by you being able to live and work in Aus on a special category visa for Aus because you are married to a New Zealander. I understand, as you say, it's a temporary special category visa - renewable every five years. The whole special category visa for Kiwi's is dependant on the Aus government's grace and favour anyway. Albeit, the same could be said for any government as they write laws for their own country.

Again, I don't mean to be blunt, but how did you get a special category visa if you weren't yet an NZ citizen ? I realise it was extended to you because you're in a relationship with a kiwi. New Zealand permanent residency is not recognised by the Aus government for living and working in Aus, but NZ citizenship is. It's not a route to Aus citizenship as you know. That seems grudging to me from the Aus govt, but hey. Especially as you have already mentioned Kiwis in Aus can work and pay tax there but will not get any public assistance if they lose their job or need any other benefit.

Where about are you living in Britain ? (sorry if you've already said and I missed it.)

We have it in mind to return to Britain. I'm not expecting my family to get particularly excited about our return. We will go back to things being at arms length, so to speak like they were before we left for NZ.

My husband's family live in Auckland. We only see them when we visit them. As it goes, that suits all parties. Doesn't stop it being the best part of an 8 hour drive to get there . His sister has children which he has been able to get to know. His old mum isn't getting any younger.

We did look for work on arrival in Auckland but after three weeks and no offers we decided to continue our journey to Christchurch as planned, not least that's where our furniture was headed to. Three and a half difficult months living there ended when we moved to where we are now on account of my husband's job offer. I've only been able to get temporary jobs which have been few and far between. We don't want to live in Auckland. Property as you've said is overpriced. There's also to much 'emotional baggage' because of family ties there. For me, happiness is Auckland in the rear view mirror !

I know you are missing your old house and Australia itself. I expect I will miss the house that became home for us in NZ. Especially as, like you, we put time, money and effort bringing it up to our taste. I will probably miss our old New Zealand home town, not least because everything is familiar. However, for the first few months after arrival in NZ (which were something of a debacle despite years of planning. I blame the Christchurch earthquake myself but that's a whole other story) I very keenly missed our old home in Surrey where we had lived for ten years. Where are you from originally in the UK ?

I expect the process of returning to Britain will be frustrating at times. Yes, there will be reverse culture shock. I doubt Britain will have improved in the few years we have been away either. It is unlikely that we will return to Surrey. Been there, done that. I thought anywhere from Dorset to Birmingham to Norfolk down to the south coast. Although, I've heard good things about North Yorkshire. Manchester would be a busy city too........

elonii

Hello

It's a 5 year wait for UK citizenship, we've already done one year. The difference between the UK and other places is that Perm Residency isn't awarded after say two years. ILR is after the 5 years then you apply for the old passport.

The Aussie visa is open to any spouse of a NZ citizen regardless of whether they have NZ residency rights. It's not a great visa I must say. The only reason they covered my medical care was because of the reciprocal agreement with the UK. However, I guess given Australia's strictness on immigration it's fairly generous I was allowed in at all!

I might have ended up in NZ but for Auckland. Part of me wishes we had gone there now, we could have afforded a house in Albany in 2007. And golly would that be worth selling right now hehehe. But yeah - awful traffic and a CBD that just felt empty. Loved the suburbs and access to recreation though. Those islands!

I'm living in South West Scotland north of Dumfries. It's a really nice area with lots to do for young kids and it's cheap to live. Issue may come if we are still here at Secondary School age - job prospects are zero for school leavers.

The reverse culture shock - yes I think most people will go through that. Hopefully if you are prepared for it you'll cope. Key seems to be getting out and being social for me. Even if its just a quick chat with the ladies at the School gate (the ones that'll talk to me, hahaha). I have been shocked by the empty shops on the UK high street. That is really sad. One of the reasons I came back to this area in the UK was that the small high streets have bucked the trend and there's not an empty shop in sight. I love that.

Drop me a PM if you want to chat further about returning to the UK. More than happy to talk and I would love to hear about your experiences of life in NZ too. I'll be surprised if we don't end up there at some point for a few years at least!