To move or not to move - your opinion

[Technik]

Currently I rent a small semi-dettached in a small town outside a big one (Edinburgh). It's a small-ish estate, rather peaceful with no bother. I have very limited space for our preps and a small garden. On top of that it's not easy to hide anything unusual like a 1000 litre IBC tank in a 5x5 garden in a row of other 5x5 gardens
Recently I have received an offer from one of my good clients of renting their cottage in Edinburgh. They have a huge, HUGE house with a HUGE garden and on one end of it there is a 3 bed cottage (originaly built for their gardener). Lots more space for preps, a much bigger garden where I could even practice archery plus I could use their garden, their veg plots and even their bee hives. The rent would be the same as my current one (even though the marekt rent for that is around double that) because they wanted someone they know and trustworthy. So lots of good things and all looks great but..., yep there is a BUT, a big one.
This nice area where they live backs to a not so good area. This may not be the reason but they have been burglered twice in the last year and then again the cottage last week. Two of these 3 were failed attempts and one was half-successful when someone broke into the garage and stole some items.
At the moment the cottage is part-time occupied as the current tenant works abroad a lot so that could've tempted the burglers. I already have a plan in place if I were to move there - close the gate as it's currently wide open, put some cctv around the house, put halogen lights with sensors at front and back, dog to run loose around the garden with warning signs at gate, meet all the neighbours, leave my number and take theirs. Not sure what else but maybe someone here can suggest.

Sooo.... having all that in mind would you move from a relatively safe but limited prep-wise place to an almost unlimited prep-wise one but less safe (or what it appears)???
Thanks for any comments.

[dead-man-walking]

i would personally do it, if not for the extras but for the nicer accomodation

[Plymtom]

The list of pros and cons from a prepping point of view favours moving and you seem to know it, question is how do you address the cons and you've answered those too, with the possible exeption of how bad will it get there? I'm in an inner city area which could get nasty if SHTF, is better prepared in a more dangerous area really a step up? then again in extreme SHTF scenarios I can think of few places where an unarmed family could feel safe and cozy, fewer bug out locations certainly in England.
Everything is a gamble, perhaps as a comfort because we don't have space or resources to be better prepared I like to confort myself with the idea that we prep for hard times and if/when the S may HTF, it often does for many of us, and many of us fear it might do for all of us, before you jump in it could be best to find out a bit about the neigbours, if you are moving to a community as apposed to merely your clients cottage, that could be another pro, as much moving from one could be a con.
Not much help am I? but then I wouldn't want to push anyone into a life changing decision.

[Arzosah]

Got to be your decision, of course, but if what you're thinking about is a major shtf situation - nowhere thats anywhere near a major city will be safe, including areas that are currently quiet - people won't stick to their own area, they'll be walking out, riots would be widespread - you've listed the precautions you can take to minimise present day risk in the new cottage, so it sounds good.

One element you may not have thought of, tho - the person making the offer to you is a client of yours? Doubling up the relationship more than doubles the area for problems - what if a repair's needed on the cottage that they don't want to do, for instance? Or a leak in the cottage damages some of your goods? Or the working relationship runs into problems? Its just something to consider how you'd deal with ...

[tigs]

i would do it

[Technik]

i would do it

Simples!


My thinking is the same, that if the shtf it's going to be everywhere, even the quiet neighbourhood where I am now. In that case I have plan B - a big caravan full of preps (which I'm planning to get very soon) and buggin out in a nice place up north. The cottage is right on the edge of the city so escape shouldn't be a problem. But I'm planning to bug in as long as possible. My biggest worry is that the situation here in UK could get as bad as in Greece. And when this happens it becomes a half emergency situation - not a full scale s**t but also not very easy to live. Then I (and many others) would probably see more violence, thefts, etc. and living in a big city would make it even worse.
As for my reliationship with that client, I don't think that fixing anything would be a problem. I know them and if something needs done, it gets done.

I've still got time to think about it (till Feb) but I'm more towards the move than against it at the moment.

[Arzosah]

I can understand your lean. It sounds very exciting!