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In Europe there are some people who buy lands for which you cannot have a building permit: they're way, way, way cheaper that lands on which you can build a hou

In Europe there are some people who buy lands for which you cannot have a building permit: they're way, way, way cheaper that lands on which you can build a house. As in: they can be 20x or 30x cheaper or maybe even more. Then they park their own car / RV / caravan/trailer on it. This way it's extremely hard for authorities to kick them out. Bonus if you can get a family member or someone from your community buy the land for you: that way even if you own money to the state, the land cannot be seized. It's extremely common in the gypsy community, for example (now that nomadism is getting more and more complicated). FWIW my father (who wasn't a gypsy but who was totally broke) used to live, for years, in a caravan on a plot of land owned by someone he knew. It was bad, but not hobo-bad. He had an old totally beaten up and ultra high-mileage Mercedes car, gypsy style (gypsies love old Mercedes cars). His friend was renting, for pennies and illegally, the rest of his plot of land to actual gypsies. P.S: nowadays my brothers and I are helping our father, who now lives in an apartment

aitchnyu 3y ago
Why are Mercs preferred?
- gumballindie 3y ago
  Not op, but mercedes used to be known for reliability and ample inside space. It could do 1 million km without issue. Probably the reason it was popular among people that would travel a lot (ie traveler gypsies).
pi-e-sigma 3y ago
You forget to mention that such land also is not connected to the electrical grid, sewage or running water. And you can't force utilities to provide the connection because the land is not meant to be used for buildings so they don't have to provide such connections. And in many situations you can't officially live there, so can't provide the address of that land as your home address in a bank, to your employer etc. In fact, it's quite common that such a piece of land doesn't even have an address to begin with so no mail or Amazon delivery for you
- yetihehe 3y ago
  > it's quite common that such a piece of land doesn't even have an address to begin with so no mail or Amazon delivery for you In europe we currently have a lot of automatic package boxes/deliveromats, where you can actually provide ANY nearby address and receive the package when you want. Only valid phone number is required to get notifications when your package has arrived. It's typically the cheapest delivery option. As for utilities - you can get some solar panels, water pump and some large tank for rainwater and self-contained bio-degrading sewage tank, which will only need some cheap bacterial pellets to work without any need for sewage truck. I don't know how it's professionally called, but I've seen it installed and working for several years without any problem. The trees and grass on discharge pipes were pretty fast growing, so you could probably plant some nice vegetables there after several years. But such installations probably cross the threshold for "oficially living there".
- ghusto 3y ago
  None of that seems like an issue to me, all of them can be worked around. Especially the Amazon delivery, which I think wouldn't be in keeping with the type of need that someone who wants to do this would have.
  - pi-e-sigma 3y ago
    Like what? You enter 'the blue RV behind the big Oak on that dirt road that doesn't even have a name' in the address field for the deliveries?
    - Turing_Machine 3y ago
      I don't know about Europe, but in the United States there are private mail centers that you can use for both letters and package deliveries. UPS Stores (a private company, not USPS, which is quasi-governmental) are one among several. They give you (what looks like) a normal street address, so Amazon or whoever has no way of telling. https://www.theupsstore.com/mailboxes/personal-mailboxes https://www.theupsstore.com/mailboxes/personal-mailboxes
    - 3y ago
pjmlp 3y ago
I can assert that car / RV / caravan/trailer doesn't work out on lands only allowed for farming in Portugal. If the autorithies happen to leave the persons there, it is only because they happen to have bigger stuff to worry about, or someone knows someone that knows someone that allows them to not care that much about it.

aitchnyu 3y ago

Why are Mercs preferred?

gumballindie 3y ago
Not op, but mercedes used to be known for reliability and ample inside space. It could do 1 million km without issue. Probably the reason it was popular among people that would travel a lot (ie traveler gypsies).

pi-e-sigma 3y ago

You forget to mention that such land also is not connected to the electrical grid, sewage or running water. And you can't force utilities to provide the connection because the land is not meant to be used for buildings so they don't have to provide such connections. And in many situations you can't officially live there, so can't provide the address of that land as your home address in a bank, to your employer etc. In fact, it's quite common that such a piece of land doesn't even have an address to begin with so no mail or Amazon delivery for you

yetihehe 3y ago
> it's quite common that such a piece of land doesn't even have an address to begin with so no mail or Amazon delivery for you In europe we currently have a lot of automatic package boxes/deliveromats, where you can actually provide ANY nearby address and receive the package when you want. Only valid phone number is required to get notifications when your package has arrived. It's typically the cheapest delivery option. As for utilities - you can get some solar panels, water pump and some large tank for rainwater and self-contained bio-degrading sewage tank, which will only need some cheap bacterial pellets to work without any need for sewage truck. I don't know how it's professionally called, but I've seen it installed and working for several years without any problem. The trees and grass on discharge pipes were pretty fast growing, so you could probably plant some nice vegetables there after several years. But such installations probably cross the threshold for "oficially living there".
ghusto 3y ago
None of that seems like an issue to me, all of them can be worked around. Especially the Amazon delivery, which I think wouldn't be in keeping with the type of need that someone who wants to do this would have.
- pi-e-sigma 3y ago
  Like what? You enter 'the blue RV behind the big Oak on that dirt road that doesn't even have a name' in the address field for the deliveries?
  - Turing_Machine 3y ago
    I don't know about Europe, but in the United States there are private mail centers that you can use for both letters and package deliveries. UPS Stores (a private company, not USPS, which is quasi-governmental) are one among several. They give you (what looks like) a normal street address, so Amazon or whoever has no way of telling. https://www.theupsstore.com/mailboxes/personal-mailboxes https://www.theupsstore.com/mailboxes/personal-mailboxes
  - 3y ago

pjmlp 3y ago

I can assert that car / RV / caravan/trailer doesn't work out on lands only allowed for farming in Portugal. If the autorithies happen to leave the persons there, it is only because they happen to have bigger stuff to worry about, or someone knows someone that knows someone that allows them to not care that much about it.