was reading a thread on twitter about this. i know it’s a topic that comes up every so often on communist spaces too, how do we approach house ownership - i don’t mean a house to live in, I mean owning a second home that they won’t live in?

I might come into a second home through inheritance at some point (hoping my parents still live long though lol). getting through a first home is probably going to be a mess bc of how i live in it with my siblings and here you get a mortgage until you die, because it makes more sense for taxes. Usually when kids inherit a home, they sell it because they’re already living somewhere else and the next owner inherits the mortgage + a new one. oh well it’s still far off lol, we’ll see when we get there.

but if you come into inheriting a second home… what is the best solution? sell it to someone who will rent it out instead of you?

i know usually these discussions revolve around no ethical consumption in capitalism but they never seem to reach a final answer.

  • busesftw@lemmygrad.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    I know it might sound like a stretch, but there are possibilities/situations where the third solution you opted for becomes oppressive. As there is no way for the person to move out of that house in a capitalist society, they end up working there as bonded labour. I’m sure there are ways out of it through some sort of communitarian model which guarantees equality

    • OrnluWolfjarl@lemmygrad.ml
      0·
      2 months ago

      I’ve heard of arrangements like this in my country. They have a legal framework however. And usually they allow the home-dweller to pay an extra fee on top (like regular rent), which goes towards buying the house at a pre-agreed price. So at the end, they end up buying the house but paying for it in doses.

      I can see how it could be abused by either party though. The home-owner could take advantage of the home-dweller, and the home-dweller could avoid paying the full fees agreed, ending up screwing the home-owner who is liable for things like property tax and minimum maintenance laws. It definitely would take effort and trust to make it work.

      Having a contract drawn up for this sort of thing would be ideal, but that depends on the legal framework where OP’s inherited house would be.