Polar Bear

Pre-book it in the app. If you can't pre-book because it's full, allow extra time because they may not have drivers available. But I've never had trouble getting a car at that time. It starts to get difficult after about 6 am, but it probably depends a lot on location.

I was including that in the visa hoops that have to be jumped through. But technically, the residency requirement for naturalisation is 3 years for a spouse (https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-spouse), but they still have to be considered settled first. UK immigration laws seem to be designed to make it as difficult, complicated and expensive as possible for Brits to return home with a foreign spouse.

Try https://www.veteransgateway.org.uk/ They can also direct you to other related organisations. https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/what-we-do/armed-forces/ With You, the alcohol and drug support charity have specialist services that you might find helpful as well.

It wouldn't even automatically guarantee them a UK visa, let alone citizenship and a passport. But once you get the visa, and you live in the UK for at least 3 years, pass the tests and so on, then they can apply for citizenship. Any kids born here would usually (but not always) be entitled to British citizenship, but they wouldn't be able to pass that on to their own kids unless they had them in the UK.

Did you rent it out when you weren't living in it?

I am also not an expert, but this is my understanding, unless things have changed recently. The initial valuation will be taken from 31 March 1982. (This date is the same for everyone who has owned an asset longer than that, as CGT was rebased.) You will need to get a valuation of what it was worth then. Let's say it was worth £100,000 and it's worth £220,000 now. The gain is £120,000. Let's also say you have receipts/proof to show you did improvements to the property, and for the costs of buying & selling it, and these total £20,000. Now the gain is £100,000. The CGT will be calculated monthly. March 1982 until now is ~ 495 months. The gain is ~£202/m You rented it out for 5 years/60 months and lived in it for 435 months. However, because it was once your main home, the last 9 months are exempt whether you live in it or not (the 'final period'), so it is chargeable for 51 months (60m-9m) and you get private residence relief for the other 444 months. So with a total gain of £100k, you would get PRR on ~£89,698 (444 months), and you would be liable for CGT on ~£10,303 (51 months). You get a £6k annual exemption, assuming you haven't sold any other assets that year. £10,303 - £6k = £4,303 gain. Assuming you are a basic rate tax payer, you would be liable for CGT at 18% of £4,303 = £775 to pay. Aside from the random 'valuations' I've used, there are a lot of assumptions here. If you are officially non-resident, the calculation is completely different, as is the valuation date. There are calculators on the HMRC site that will help you.

I'm sorry to hear about your cat ???? If you can't find an individual who can use them, try Paws Bangkok rescue. You can find them on FB.

We've had problems with soi dogs (and carry a short stick in unfamiliar areas, just in case). We've also struggled to find interesting places to walk outside our usual areas. But we've never had difficulty finding places to stay, and we've taken our dog with us to many places around Thailand. Obviously, you have less options, but it's always been easy to find somewhere we were happy with.

I went to that Serenade store in Emquartier a few months ago without realising what it was. The staff were lovely and helped us anyway. It's the only time I've seen one though, and there is another big regular AIS store there somewhere as well. I think it's on the floor below, but I get lost with the different buildings.

Is he small enough to go in the cabin with you? If not, does he have a poodle's nose or a snub nose like a Shih Tzu? If he has a poodle nose, just call him a poodle cross as realfunster says, and he should be fine. If he's snub nosed, you will struggle to find an airline willing to fly him due to the higher risk of death. Even if you don't declare him to be a Shih Tzu cross, the airline will inspect him when you check in and will usually refuse to accept him if he's snub nosed.

The National Institute of Animal Health in Bangkok is accredited now for the rabies titer test by the UK/EU/USA (but not Japan). You can take them there for the blood draw, or another vet can take the blood and send it to them. (The USA has other restrictions on who can do the blood draw, but the UK doesn't). The blood has to be taken at least 30 (or 31, check the gov site) days after the last rabies booster. Then you have to wait (3 months? 90 days?) after the blood test. That's from the date the blood was taken, not from when you get the results back. Once you've got the titer test results back, they are valid indefinitely as long as you always have the rabies booster done on time. One day late with a booster and you have to start again.

The rules for the UK are complicated and very different from other countries. The dogs have to fly as cargo (not excess baggage), which is expensive. They cannot travel in the cabin. And they will be rejected for the tiniest error on the paperwork. They can only travel on specific routes with specific airlines. Each route is licenced individually. So just because an airline can fly pets from City A to Gatwick, doesn't mean they can fly them from City B to Gatwick or from City A to Manchester. The list of licensed routes is on the gov website. A lot of people avoid flying them into the UK by flying to Europe and then travelling to the UK via ferry or train. (That's what I would do if I had to take my dog back to the UK.) If you don't want to do it yourself, look up Action For Dogs. They specialise in Thai-UK pet transport. They re-home Thai dogs to the UK but also transport pet dogs at the same time. They occasionally have flights straight to the UK. However they have flights via Europe & ferry/train pretty much every month. Because they transport multiple dogs regularly, they have better prices than most pet transport services can offer. They will help you with the paperwork as well. You need to allow 6-12 months to get the paperwork together. They need to be chipped, vaccinated and have the rabies titer test. It has to be done in that order, and the vaccination record has to be completed in a specific way. Good luck!

It matters. Superrich has an 800k limit on transfers to GBP. If he is trying to exchange 100k, he's fine. If it's 1 mil, he's not. Stop looking for ways to get offended-by-proxy, and let people get the correct information to give him the answer he needs.

Did you find out how long they are valid for? I was told today it's only 1 month, but that doesn't sound right. (I think they were confusing it with the medical certificate.)

http://www.sukhumvitvet.com/ at Sukhumvit 51 and http://gammaexoticpet.com/ used to be on Sukh 77 but they have moved further out towards Nong Bon now They both do house calls, but a house call is pretty useless in an emergency. You can get the animal to a clinic faster than you can arrange a vet to come to you. And once they get there, there is very little they can do with what they bring with them. Better to just go straight to the clinic where they have everything they need on hand.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangkokexpats/permalink/3561535984068320

Is that a special rule for Thailand? I've had 16 & 17 year old relatives travel on their own from the UK to visit me in other countries. None of them needed written permission from anyone. They are all over 18 now, so I don't know if travel to Thailand is different.

You can still speculate about his missing days ????

Speak for yourself. I left home at 16, worked, supported myself, etc. etc. It was the best decision I ever made. I was already more mature then a lot of supposed adults I meet now, many of whom are still dumb and full off it despite being decades older.

According to posts on FB, he's already been found and has a flight back to the UK today.

Yes, it's in the process now, but it's not law yet. As usual, the gov are being very coy about the details, but from what little they've said, it looks like a Section 8 for something classed as mandatory grounds will be the same process or possibly easier than a Section 21. The proposed list of mandatory and discretionary grounds is here. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tenancy-reform-renters-reform-bill Residential letting regulations are not intended to cover this situation. These would be short lets, holiday lets or could even come under rent-a-room rules. If people have been using loopholes to make that work, then I guess the loophole is about to close. Until we know what the actual court process is, which will probably be about 6 months after it happens ???? it's impossible to say, but for the most part, I don't think this makes much difference. Decent landlords will be doing it already, and good riddance to the others. Having said that, the one part I do disagree with is furnished and unfurnished lets being treated the same. Ours our unfurnished anyway, but if you have furnished properties, I do think you should be able to have blanket bans on kids and pets. Although the new rules are pretty meaningless anyway because they only require you to 'reasonably consider' it, it doesn't say you have to have allow them, so maybe it doesn't really matter. And, while not exactly a disagreement, I'd like to see them actually enforce the Decent Homes standards against social (council/housing association, etc.) landlords and not only private. The standards are already supposed to apply to them, but too many of their tenants are still left living with mould, damp, exposed wiring, etc., and no one does anything about it. It's wrong on so many levels. It doesn't matter how much legislation they bring in if it's never enforced.

Wanting to sell is still grounds to end a tenancy. As is wanting to move back in yourself, or have a relative move in. The notice period is still 2 months. I don't see how these changes will negatively affect you at all. Also, I'm sure you realise you can sell a tenanted property to another landlord. (That's our preferred option these days.) The selling price is usually slightly lower than market value, but not much. And that's offset by continuing to get rent up until you complete and saving on the costs of a refurb to get it ready to sell But these are people's homes we are talking about. Tenants should not have to live with the constant threat of unexpected eviction at the whim of a landlord. If someone wants the convenience of being able to liquidate assets whenever they feel like it, there are other more appropriate investments that don't screw other people over in the process.

I do, and I have no issue with these changes. We've been landlords of multiple properties for decades, and we've never evicted someone without cause. And 'without cause' is usually a euphemism for 'requesting maintenance' anyway. If you can't afford to maintain your property, you've got no business renting it out. This won't actually change anything though. Decent landlords will continue as they always have, and the slum landlords will still find tenants who are desperate and will take whatever they can get no matter what the law says. If we are forced to sell up, it'll be because of the potential EPC changes, not because tenants are being given basic rights.

This is what I read in an article, but I can't find it now. The shares are part of his father's estate and he currently manages the trust while the estate is settled. Also, the law isn't a blanket ban. It says you can't own more than 5% stake of a media company and the shares account for less than 1%. The implication was that they are really scraping the barrel if this is all they could find on him. I wish I could find the original article again. If anyone comes across this from a reliable source, please let us know.

I haven't. I got my dog tested before we came here. As far as I know, the only lab in Thailand that does rabies titer testing (or at least the only one with international accreditation) is the National Institute of Animal Health in Bangkok. They charge 3,000 THB for the test and certificate. They will draw the blood as well for another couple of hundred Baht. Or you can have it taken at any vet clinic and just send them the serum for testing. If I didn't need to keep his papers valid, I wouldn't bother getting him repeatedly titer tested, I'd just get a booster every 3 years instead of yearly