Changing Times: The Fight to Preserve a Time Capsule of Family Memories

Earlier today, we had a family meeting.

No, not just here at the house; this was a family meeting of multiple generations from back in my native Denmark — who today live spread out around the world from Thailand to the US to the UK and back in Denmark.

The subject of today's family meeting...

From time to time, you might recall me mentioning that I had an elderly Auntie who partly raised me, when my parents were away on their many travels, and that she lived in this rather idyllic summerhouse out in the woods some 50 miles north of Copenhagen, Denmark.

After her death, it was her wish that this quaint old house — which was a favorite of hers as well as of numerous summer visitors since the 1930s — were to continue as a sort of family timeshare/trust. And so it has done, for over 25 years.

So today we were all getting together in a sort of emergency meeting *(online, via Microsoft Teams) to discuss how some new property tax legislation in Denmark is putting the future of this particular family legacy at risk.

More Than Just "A House"

In a sense, this old house is a bit like a time capsule in more ways than one. Mrs. Denmarkguy and I have gone there on several occasions and she too remarked that it is as if — when you drive up the driveway and into the grounds — time stands still and you actually move back in time to a place before Internet and cell phones and most modern technology.

Many of us spent summers here as children, and subsequently visited as adults... as a place to relax and pretty much forget the world exists for a while.

Unfortunately, rather Draconian new tax laws are going to come into effect in Denmark on January 1st, making it all but impossible for the family to keep the house under its current ownership format.

At this point our only hope to save this family retreat is for a couple of my cousins to purchase it as individuals — it was previously in a sort of Family Trust — and for all of us to do our part to carry forward from there. Thankfully, we all get along, and are all pretty much on the same page, as far as this particular matter goes.

Sadly, even this plan isn't guaranteed because it has to be legally approved, and all the transactions have to be completed before December 31st in order to grandfather in the current property tax laws, which are considerably more "friendly."

Like my cousins and many of their children, we spent much time here when we were younger. It is perhaps a summerhouse, but it really is also a time capsule and repository of memories, and should the plan not go through and a public sale ensue... that of course would all be lost.

I am not normally somebody who gets attached to "things" as it were, but this is one of the rare exceptions. Naturally we're all hoping that the proposed change of ownership format can be executed and successfully put in place before the end of the year.

For those of us in what you might call "the older generation" in my family this represents the last strong and direct connection to our roots.

Of course, change is inevitable and the march of this thing we call "progress" ensures that... although some changes don't actually feel a lot like progress.

The sad thing is that this particular tax law — or rather, the law governing the official property valuations — has turned into a bit of a circus and outright political scandal in Denmark because it will result in some places (like ours) being valued in ways that bear no connection to reality.

To wit: the forested land around the house would be valued at the equivalent of US $3.1 million, even though if you parceled that land out into individual lots and sold them, you'd be lucky to collect US $800K. How that's supposed to "work" nobody understands...

This is not exactly my typical fare for a Blog post, but one of the nice things about having a personal type blog is the fact that periodically we can use it as a way to insert "a note to ourselves" for future reference about something that happens. And that's primarily what I'm doing here.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!

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Created at 2023-10-29 23:45 PDT
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