I lost my house after HMRC sent me a £400,000 税金 法案. After nine nightmare years as a renter, I'm finally 支援する on the 所有物／資産／財産 ladder... though my garden is 十分な of gravestones, 令状s LIZ JONES
Even when I’ve been told by my solicitor that I can 選ぶ up the 重要なs to my new house from the 広い地所 スパイ／執行官 in Darlington, 郡 Durham, I’m 納得させるd something will go wrong.
They will tell me it has all been a mistake. The money never materialised, it was lost, scammed. I have three collies in my car. Their 注目する，もくろむs are 向こうずねing, and I feel so 責任がある them. にもかかわらず it 存在 April, the rain is 激しい, 氷点の. We cannot be homeless. Not again.
Finally, the 広い地所 スパイ／執行官 runs out to my car and 手渡すs me the 重要なs. ‘Congratulations!’ she says. That’s what everyone says when I tell them I have clambered 支援する on to the 所有物／資産／財産 ladder. It’s a good thing! A 儀式 of passage, like getting married or having a baby. Me? I can barely believe it. I never, ever thought I would own a house again.
Liz Jones outside her new house, which is a former vicarage. 'The house is surrounded by 古代の gravestones, which I imagine is why it’s such a 取引,' she 令状s
My darkest moment was in 2015, sitting in the offices of my insolvency lawyers 近づく Bristol, along with my 負債 管理／経営 顧問 and my (new) accountant.
My 破産 was 借りがあるing to a 津波 of events, from 存在 解雇（する）d, buying a house next to a 罪人／有罪を宣告するd stalker and an incompetent accountancy 会社／堅い who 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d me £3,000 a month to mess up my 調書をとる／予約するs. I was a 単独の 仲買人: if I’d had a 限られた／立憲的な company, I could have walked away from my 負債s, but instead I had to sell my house to 支払う／賃金 everyone; no one was left out of pocket.
As everything was stripped from me, I squeaked a question. ‘Will I ever be able to buy a house again? Something for, say, £200,000?’
They laughed. ‘Never,’ the 負債 解答s lady said. ‘HMRC want you to live in a 穴を開ける.’
Going 破産者／倒産した takes years, and I would say the 過程 is worse than when it finally happens. I would walk my dogs, not knowing if when I got 支援する to my house it would be strewn with tape, doors boarded up.
The 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうing 恐れる makes you unable to fight 支援する, explain, stick up for yourself. The lawyers have ゴルフ clubs at the ready, ski trips 調書をとる／予約するd while you sob in 前線 of them. I felt this each time they …に出席するd a 会合, even those on my 味方する!
I would be 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d for their expenses: me, who had nothing. Even the 公式の／役人 receiver (a civil servant 任命するd by the 法廷，裁判所 to divvy up 資産s) appeared to mock me, 説 my beautiful house, with a lawn sloping 負かす／撃墜する to the River Swale, dotted with kingfishers and herons, ‘has a very small kitchen’.
I felt that they 簡単に didn’t want to see a 選び出す／独身, high-profile woman in a lovely home. They made 仮定／引き受けることs that I was profligate because I went to Paris to …に出席する fashion shows, not understanding that it was my 職業.
As I was 破産者／倒産した, they were able to 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 me from 投資するing in a 年金, or health and life 保険. I became a 非，不，無-person, with no 権利s at all. I had to hide that I have dogs and, at that time, two horses.
My first 所有物／資産／財産, bought in 1983, was £35,000, in a slum 通関手続き／一掃 area in Brixton, South London. The 利益／興味 率 was 15 per cent, the guarantor my dad, and I had to 株 the 貸付金 with a sister. I slowly worked my way up the 所有物／資産／財産 ladder.
Next, a teeny terraced cottage in Saffron Walden, Essex, for £90,000. Then, a one-bedroom former 地元の 当局 flat in Old Street, East London for £93,000, way before it became 流行の／上流の.
Then a terrace house in nearby Hackney for around £300k on a road with the highest incidence of knife 罪，犯罪 in Europe: I would come downstairs to find the 支援する door jemmied open many times. I lived there for more than 11 years, becoming 免疫の to the sound of police ヘリコプターs buzzing 総計費. (That house is now up for sale for £1.3 million. Insane! I sold it in 2006, for £4 00,000, having done 抱擁する 量s of work on it.)
Liz with her dog inside her home. She says she has big 計画（する）s for the vicarage, 含むing?a new kitchen, a downstairs loo, a 中庭 garden 十分な of only white flowers, and ferns
Liz, seen outside her? home, says: 'I hope never, ever to have to move house again. And at least my funeral will be cheap. Someone can just roll me a few feet out of the 前線 door to a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な'
By 2006, I had bought a Georgian house on a beautiful square in Islington, North London, with a mortgage of £1 million. The gay couple I bought it from 発言／述べるd, when I moved in, that I had amazing furniture: Matthew Hilton sofa, arm 議長，司会を務める and ottoman, a Vispring bed. A Terence Woodgate sofa for the 地階 kitchen. 中央の-century classics.
I was such a cliche. I would wander from room to room, 一打／打撃ing things, standing on the balcony like the 血まみれの queen. I had arrived!
All the years of 14-hour days with never a break to even go to the loo, long-運ぶ／漁獲高 flights, all the 強調する／ストレス of 存在 a 新聞記者／雑誌記者 and a glossy magazine editor seemed, finally, 価値（がある） it. I had been 選び出す／独身 all my life but now, in my 早期に 40s, I was happy to 株 the house with my brand new husband.
Trouble is, he was jealous, chippy. When he cheated on me, threw my generosity and home 支援する in my 直面する, it 廃虚d everything for me. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to escape. Walking through my neighbourhood, the pavement packed with couples laughing and 持つ／拘留するing 手渡すs, I felt I couldn’t stand 存在 there any more, now that I was all alone.
And so I made a 抱擁する mistake and bought a 50-acre farm in Somerset for £1.6 million: a home for my cats, and my newly 救助（する）d racehorse and pony.
I grew up in Essex, but this didn’t 準備する me for living on the 辛勝する／優位 of Exmoor. I wrote off my BMW in a flood. I ran out of oil for the 爆破d Aga on New Year’s Eve. Th e garden was so big, I had to 雇う a gardener: I didn’t realise that when it snows and he doesn’t turn up, you don’t have to 支払う／賃金 him. No wonder the 地元のs took me for a fool.
In a fit of largesse, I 招待するd my sister and her young son to live with me. I did up a derelict barn for her. We fell out, and so I took out another £275,000 貸付金 to buy her a cottage, and sold the farm to 捨てる together her deposit. I relocated to Yorkshire and bought a Swaledale 小型の-mansion for just under a million that I would 結局 lose to HMRC. It （機の）カム with a cottage, which housed my assistant/animal carer, so when I lost my home she did too.
I was working so hard, abroad for long stretches of time, 支払う／賃金ing for weeks in hotels before （人命などを）奪う，主張するing it 支援する, that I took my 注目する，もくろむ off the ball. I remember 運動ing across the Pennines to the coast 近づく Liverpool to interview the tenor Alfie Boe when my accountant called to tell me I 借りがあるd HMRC £400,000 加える a backlog of 付加価値税. At that point, I considered 許すing the car to swerve off the road, 負かす／撃墜する the 山腹. I still did the interview; Alfie Boe had no 手がかり（を与える） of my 明言する／公表する of mind. I learned to mask the sick terror.
I took part in Celebrity Big Brother, seeing not a penny of the £250,000 料金, as it all went on my 税金 法案 加える my スパイ／執行官’s 20 per cent （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限. When I left my Swaledale house for the last time, to rent 近づく the market town of Richmond, in earshot of the A1, I tried really hard to be 肯定的な.
The 賃貸しの house cost £1,700 a month, but I was 感謝する to the owners who 許すd my dogs and cats (so many don’t).
However, I was soon enmired in 支配するs: put your car in the garage, keep dogs on a lead, put your furniture in 貯蔵 (insanely expensive; I ended up selling everything on ebay, even my 40-year collection of Vogue, at 悲劇の losses).
When that house was put up for sal e for way more than I could ever afford, I then rented a tiny cottage without heating, which I paid to 任命する／導入する: I’ve spent £59,000 in total. I 解任する the day I moved in, and a cupboard door fell on my 長，率いる. I broke 負かす／撃墜する and cried.
In Richmond in the Dales (Rishi Sunak is my MP), or anywhere beautiful, a decent home is 必然的に a holiday let; North Yorkshire also has the highest 集中 of second homes in England. Any 討議するd planning 制限s or 増加するd costs for those renting out furnished 所有物／資産／財産s for a short 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 are too little too late, for me anyway.
I became obsessed with my credit 得点する／非難する／２０ on Experian, which slowly climbed to 95 per cent, checking it almost daily (存在 poor costs money: to 接近 your 得点する／非難する／２０ costs £14.99 a month).
I filled in endless, invasive forms, and 適用するd for a mortgage. I was always told: wait six years since 存在 発射する／解雇するd from 破産, five years, four. I watched in terror as, with Liz Truss in 力／強力にする, 利益／興味 率s 急に上がるd. My rented cottage was put up for sale, and I 耐えるd snakes of 可能性のある 買い手s peering in cupboards, ignoring me 完全に as a 非，不，無-person, a tenant.
The vicarage cost just £295,000. 'Maybe people think it’s haunted,' Liz 令状s
That is what smarts the most, I think, our 欠如（する） of status and 合法的な 保護. Watching the BBC’s 内部の Design Masters the other night, I was 傷つける to hear the presenter, introducing the next 仕事, say: ‘How to help those in 一時的な accommodation.’
Why is a rented house always called ‘accommodation’? Why is it always ‘一時的な’? I grew up in a rented vicarage: my parents had seven children, and couldn’t afford to buy somewhere with enough bedrooms (I still had to 株 a room with two sisters). But my dad, a retired captain in the Army, duly mowed the lawn, painted the high 天井s. I don’t think he felt shame, or at least he never said. My mum polished the 木造の 床に打ち倒すs on her 膝s.
It makes me see red when articles in the 所有物／資産／財産 sections of broadsheet newspapers denigrate renters. A 最近の news story was about a woman who returned to her home after living in the U.S., and a 離婚, to find the garden ‘neglected by tenants’.
We aren’t all bad. My god, I barely dared breathe while renting in 事例／患者 the owner turned up: you have no privacy. It’s 特に galling when you are in your 60s: as Polly Neate, 長，指導者 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある of 避難所, told me: ‘With home 所有権 an impossibility and a 干ばつ in social 住宅, older people are now 罠にかける in expensive and 安定性のない 私的な renting.
‘We 定期的に hear from people in their 60s and older who are 緊急発進するing to 対処する with spiralling rents in often shoddy 私的な 賃貸しのs instead of enjoying the safety and 安定 we all need in old age.’
にもかかわらず 政府 約束s, the 法律 on no-fault (Section 21) evictions has not been changed. I recently read a news item about a woman, 立ち退かせるd in her 80s, 軍隊d into a 宿泊所. There must be a better 解答.
I finally managed to get my credit 得点する／非難する／２０ up to a 近づく perfect 100 but I am now 65, which means the 最大限 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 of a 貸付金 is ten years, making 返済s expensive. All the while I have been browsing Rightmove, inigo.com and themodernhouse.com, dreaming of how happy I would be if I lived somewhere I owned.
After losing my home, I would see lights on in windows, families cooking, 解雇する／砲火／射撃 lit, and feel insanely jealous. Why do they have a home, and I don’t? I finally chanced upon a vicarage for sale, not far from where I rent land and a yard for my 生き残るing horse.
It was once a spa town, with a 鉄道 駅／配置する, meaning all the houses are Georgian and very grand, surrounding a 保護するd green. I went to 見解（をとる） it on the first day it went on sale, 落ちるing in love with the church next door, the 石／投石する staircase, the skylight, the 抱擁する windows and fireplaces, the 見解（をとる） of the river from what will be my office.
I put in an 申し込む／申し出, barely able to believe it cost just £295,000. Maybe people think it’s haunted. The house is surrounded by 古代の gravestones, which I imagine is why it’s such a 取引. They don’t bother me. One thing the past 15 years has taught me is that it isn’t the dead who might 害（を与える） you, it’s the vultures, circling, keen to 選ぶ your bones 乾燥した，日照りの.
Liz says she does one day want to 株 the vicarage with someone
開始 the 前線 door, I felt the 強調する／ストレス of 存在 watched, of 存在 a 失敗, of belonging to a sub-class melt away. I could put anything anywhere! I could shut the 前線 door and feel 安全な.
Of course, it has been terrifying, as I have lost all my 信用／信任. I know the worst can happen. I look 支援する at 2023, my annus horribilis when I lost my collie, Gracie, to 癌, and my 救助（する）d pony to a burst tumour.
I lost my sister, Lynnie, just before Christmas. She never owned a home, living first in a London bedsit, then a rented house in the 郊外s of Sydney that she hated. I now have a spare room, and I only wish she was still alive so that she could come and stay. Oh my God, I can have a friend to stay now!
The shame of renting, the 不確定, the stigma, the way we are written about in the マスコミ, 影響する／感情s every corner of your life.
I watch Married At First Sight, the bit where your partner sees where and how you live for the first time, and I realise our homes are intrinsic to our self-価値（がある）, our attractiveness. The thing is, ending up in a 賃貸しの can happen to anyone: 離婚, illness, redundancy, bad luck.
I have big 計画（する）s for the vicarage ― a new kitchen, a downstairs loo, a 中庭 garden 十分な of only white flowers, and ferns; when you rent, you think very hard before you 工場／植物 anything ― but I think for now I will sit 支援する and take my time.
I feel more stable, 肯定的な, and I’ve returned to my old ritual of walking from room to room, 一打／打撃ing things l ovingly. Every time I do a piece of work, it will go に向かって my 未来 and not into someone else’s pocket.
I realise, finally starting to breathe ― and sleep! ― that the constant 緊張 from renting has 影響する／感情d my mental health: I have been on 辛勝する／優位, so careful that I would never hang pictures in 事例／患者 the nail left a 示す. I’m tired of taking photos of メーターs, sending readings, 調書をとる／予約するing 除去 先頭s, きれいにする, きれいにする, きれいにする someone else’s mess.
Now, I feel like a grown-up. If the boiler breaks, I’ll get it 直す／買収する，八百長をするd: there is something infantilising about having to ask your landlord.
I do one day want to 株 the vicarage with someone, but am 用心深い given what transpired in the past. I hope never, ever to have to move house again. And at least my funeral will be cheap. Someone can just roll me a few feet out of the 前線 door to a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な. No way am I leaving this house anything other than feet first!
