nun

After 25 years in US I'm planning to return to UK to help my mum out as she's starting to have health problems.

She lives in Middlesbrough and I'm looking at buying a place in Teesdale or Weardale as they are a short drive and you can get a very comfortable home there for around 200k GBP.

Does anyone have good estimates of what the council taxes are on such a house and general living expenses in the area. I'll probably be on a fixed income as work in my field isn't very available in the NE and I'm budgeting 1500 GBP per month for everything, there won't be a mortgage as I'll pay for the house outright.

john5655

council tax bands are normally quoted on house sales information and can vary quite significantly so quoting what I pay may not be relevant

best idea is to check the local authority for that area, the website will have the info you need

after tax income of £1,500 per month with no mortgage/rent to pay is quite a handsome sum for most workers in UK who on average pay out 30-40% of their income on their home costs

if you are single, you will be even better off

nun

Thanks I checked out the Durham cc website and a 200k GBP house is in band G. I'd get a 25% discount for being the only occupant so the total for 2010/2011 is 1900 GBP. In the US I pay annual estate taxes of $6k or 3750 GBP. That's not the only saving either, there's health care and food is cheaper too. Transportation is more expensive, but as I already do most of my travel/commuting on my bike that's a wash. Moving back is looking better and better just form a financial point of view.

robin1234

Sounds good! Best of luck on your move, sounds like good news for your mother too! Nice part of the world to move to.

Yes, taxes in the US are a killer, property tax; state income tax; out-of-pocket medical expenses.. the list goes on.

roaringmouse

Remember that the property value refers to the value on 1 April 1991 - so a house bought for £200,000 today would likely be in a different council tax band.

You can check council tax bands for specific houses on this website.

john5655

agreed, Band G is too high for a 200K property, I'd guess at Band C or D

Schbang

or E, we recently bought a 3 bed semi quite near by, in Darlington, for 155K and that is band D.

Schbang

correction, I've just double checked with the link supplied above and it's a C, that was a nice suprise

nun

This gets better!!! I checked a few houses that I like and they are in band D which puts my annual council tax at 1143 GBP.

J.J

Hello nun,
I think you are looking ok for a return. Last year when we were making prep to come back we did a comparison with UK based friends of UK costs vs. US and it came out pretty even in the total, not counting a mortgage.
We been back only a few months but everything panning out as expected.
One saving we made was change from fixed water rate to meter as there are only 2 of us. Installation was free and it reduces water rates.

dontheturner

Sorry, to interpose- but for a three bed semi, your Band, is high.

The home I own, in the UK, is about a mile out, of Wellington, in Telford Shropshire, in an area, of all ten year old detached houses, and a four bed, is D band, so for an F or even a G band, it would be very ostentacious.

That seems quite high to me particularly for a semi, which we could do with -, I would check that with the council concerned. - just my thoughts. regards Don

JUST SAW YOUR CORRECTION!!!!