bettyb22

Hi, my parents currently live in Spain and are returning back to the UK to live after a lengthy time living abroad.

Has anyone else returned back since brexit and how hard is it to get accommodation etc.

Rosemary

This question would be better asked in the return to UK forum so I will move it for you.

Rosemary

durham_lad

What type of accommodation and where are they looking to move to? Do they have a UK bank account and do they have regular income if planning on a rental or lease agreement? Are you in the UK and able to assist? (We found it extremely useful to have good friends that were able to go view prospective rental houses for us). I think factors like these will more determine how hard it is for them to find accommodation than the fact that the UK is no longer in the EU. (I'm assuming that they are both UK citizens)

Helen1964

And whatever you do, don’t let your parents see Dougal’s views on the UK in the Rover’s Return section.

Pollyana

bettyb22

Thank you for your reply they will be moving to Portsmouth area and stay with family until they are able to get anywhere.
They dont have a uk bank account yet and as soon as they are here i have said they need to get one straight away.
Yes I will help them along the way with everything.
they are both UK Citizens yes and my mum will get a job as soon as she is here but my dad is now retired.

Rosemary

So glad that you are gaining help here.

One thing that they will need to do is to make sure that they close down their life in Spain thoroughly so that nothing comes back to bite them later.

Rosemary

durham_lad

Having somewhere to stay initially is a big plus. They may have difficulty opening a bank account without proof of address such as a utility bill in their name so before they come it would be very helpful if the family members they will be staying with could add them to one of their utility bills. Having said that I believe the bank might accept a letter from the family stating that they are living with them, I believe that is what we did for our son when he moved back. For sure when he went for his interview with DWP to get a NI number they accepted a letter from us as proof of address, and I know we wrote two such letters so am pretty sure it was to our bank in order to get him a basic bank account.

I don’t know the Portsmouth area at all as regards availability of accommodation but before we moved back we used Rightmove to look for rental houses and flats.


https://www.rightmove.co.uk/

Pollyana

Another fan of Rightmove here, their emails are pretty good if you set up an alert with the kind of places you want

Helen1964

You could perhaps help your parents open a Wise Borderless account which would give them the next best thing to a UK bank account until they get a fully fledged one opened.

Within a single account they could hold a pot of money in euros and a separate pot in sterling complete with UK account number and sort code. It also comes with a Visa or MasterCard card.
Could be very handy.

Lion in Winter

It is. Very handy. I have one to get paid in the UK as I currently am, but it was very handy to have that card to pay for stuff in the UK.

Pulaski

They, and everyone else, should be aware that while a Wise Borderless "account" can be very useful, Wise is not actually a bank and the account it is not actually a bank account, and therefore isn't covered by deposit protection. This may or may not be of concern to you, but personally I wouldn't keep more money in a Wise account than I need for short term expenses, e.g. the next four weeks.

philat98

Its a good point. I was reading that increasing interest rates might cause problems for companies like Wise Revolut and N26.