I may be entirely wrong, but when we've grown chillis in the past, at the end of the summer, we expect these plants to die, and root them all up, sowing and planting out new ones next spring. I haven't come across anyone treating them as perennials. I shall be very interested to read other people's comments.

I've found that they never overwinter in the UK even in a greenhouse. They usually go fluffy with mould. Best to pick the remaining fruits and consign it to the compost heap. Start a new one from seed or buy a new plant in Spring. You can save the seed that are in the chillis and sow them next year...for free.

Thanks for the advise. I thought too that they were not a perennial but i thought i heard someone on here actually over wintering their chilli plants, maybe i was wrong.
Anyway i must say that I've learnt something, i didn't know i could re use the chilli seeds for planting next year.

I told you i was a novice, embarrassingly so!

They can be grown as a houseplant, but they need lots of light--which probably means artificial, in an UK winter!
Good air circulation, careful watering, and regular feeding, also help.

I kept mine on the living room windowsill last winter and it was fine. Moved it into an unheated conservatory in Spring so there was probably more light in there than in the house. It's now indoors again as the conservatory gets too cold overnight. It was a present so I feel I have to do everything I can to hang on to it ;)

i have had mine in my conservatory for 6 weeks now and more chillis seem to be growing lots of light but not too warm do chilli plants grow into a bush ??

In the tropics, they do--google "Chile de Arbol", for pictures.

Maybe I won't compost it just yet then. Thank you all for taking the time to reply.
John