Thoughts about bugging out

[Paul]

Your life is much more important than valuables in an emergency situation BUT making prior arrangements about correspondance (especiallly banking and statements) got me out of a few scrapes when I took time off from work a few years ago and on reflection is useful in case you have to bug out.

First the obvious.
Leaving your home means it's undefended. You may come back to squatters or worse still nothing at all. You'll probably lose your stores and valuables anyway to looters. BUT leaving your home for a protracted time, typically 30 days, can affect your home insurances.

Scenario 1.
You decide that things are looking bad so you move into your prepared B.O.L.
After a month or so nothing happens so you return home to find damage or looting.
As you left home more than 30 days ago, the insurance company is not obliged to pay up as you effectively deserted your home.
All in the small print and something to check on.

Scenario 2.
You are ordered out of your home by the authorities for your own safety.
In a conflict or civil unrest time, the chances are your insurances are automatically invalid BUT, under law, you need displaced person status to receive aid and ultimately financial assistance (if available).
That status is usually automatically awarded if you are ordered to leave your abode.
It also helps you regarding any benefits you are claiming.

If you are lucky enough to receive benefits, you may lose them if you volentarily leave your address and they find out.
They will probably claim back what they paid you whilst you were absent too! A no win situation unless you were ordered to leave.

Your bank or other financial institutions won't be happy if you go walkabout without telling them and they get funny about using temporary or accomodation addresses for statements.

If you haven't previously set up a "copy to" address for statements, correspondance, etc, to your B.O.L. or family address, typically after 3 months most proof of address you are carrying in the form of bills or statements becomes invalid.

After that taking out a loan, renting, claiming benefits, or even buying a property becomes hard as you can't prove your current address. Not forgetting that your debit and credit cards will be difficult to renew as they are normally posted to your home address UNLESS you have previously made another arrangment. That's something you wouldn't want in the hands of looters.

Your ID is safe whilst your passport is valid and you are carrying a birth certificate BUT as most agencies want multiple CURRENT proofs of address as well as ID, your driving licence won't be enough.
As for your passport, you need current proof of address to renew it.

Effectively no current proof of address renders you as having NO FIXED ABODE.(N.F.A.) and is a bad state of affairs as it affects everyone in your family.

For example.
Quality or protracted medical care becomes difficult to obtain.
Even prescribed drugs can be difficult to get.
Same thing with NHS dental care.
Got kids? Schooling is hard to obtain and will be basic, not forgetting that taking your kids out of their school without good reason is an offence.
Need benefits to survive? N.F.A. greatly limits what you can claim.

For course you are still going to have to pay all the bills, debts (loans, etc) and taxes of your old address even if it gets flattened!

Just a little food for thought.

[bigpaul]

maybe you/we dont have a choice?? its either bug out or die?? bills and insurance and the like wont mean much if the mobs are looting and burning everything in sight, just grab what we can carry and get out FAST!!

[Skean Dhude]

I have my key items in a hidden fire safe. I'll bug out and leave it if I am short of time and hope it is not discovered. It is not very big but birth certs, passports, folding cash, etc. don't take upmuch space.

[bigpaul]

i've got emergency stash of notes and coins in a bag, just grab it and run! useful for buying stuff/bartering after everything goes haywire.

[TOF]

I have to say, I never thought about it to that extent. I have all copies of all my important documents. Paper copy and copies on my Kindle and a usb widget. I shall definitely investigate further.

[bigpaul]

i'll only be bugging out if its TEOTWAWKI and the place has gone to the dogs, in that case passports,birth certificates, bank statements wont mean a heck of a lot, anything less than that and i am sitting tight and bugging in.

[Prep Girl]

I have all my important papers in a plastic zip lock bag ready to grab if I had to go, but I would only bug out if the place went to hell and if so there would be nothing to come back to anyway, I don't leave any money in the bank, I would not worry about insurance nor would I hang around long enough to get any assistance, one of the main reasons I became a prepper is so I never become a refugee reliant on the Government for help.

[bigpaul]

it was the great and knowledgeable Northern Raider who said to me:"NEVER BECOME A REFUGEE"

[Prep Girl]

Yep NR knows his stuff. only gota look at what happened after Katrina.

[Scythe13]

If something happens before the Bristol Group is a mirror of Patriot's characters, I'll become an urban scavenger! Also known as a looter! haha.

Then, after a few months, I'll be headed towards the parks, forests, and things like that.

Ideally I want to be one of the last to leave the city, simply because, that will allow me to avoid many violent situations, much of the die-off, and it gives me more time to check out people's houses and see how they've decored my new home! haha