One week to move from London to Durham.. HELP!!!

Tartanmax

Hello, I'll try to keep this as short of I can but it's complicated.

My dad currently resides in London , he's in his late 60's and wants to relocated to me neck of the woods so he applied for a council home.

On Friday, suprisingly quickly the council have offered him a nice wee bungelow in a pleasant village ( they are making the calls etc to me as my dad's useless of the phone) brilliant news .. I agreed that it's a good place and that I wanted to go and have a look just to check it out, I wasn't able to go inside as apparently they can ONLY show it to my dad plus they don't have the keys back for another few weeks but the house is empty.... Ok fair enough, I went to have a nosey through the windows at talk to the neighbours etc to get a feel of the place as my dad is replying on me to make the right decision.

The house itself is fine barr from a rather dodgy looking kitchen but that can be fixed later.

On the Friday i explained again that my dad lives in London and obviously I'll be organising everything so her estimated time scale was two weeks for the full move!! :eek: (panic mode commenced lol)

I figured it'll be stressful but managable... just!

I phoned first thing this morning to work out a few final details and get exact dates etc for the tenancy agreement to be signed and she said she wants to get everything done for Monday the 8th March ( only my dad can sign these and they won't post the letters )
I have explained I can't get his entire house packed up and have him here living in my house till his is organised in 6 days!!
As they are council houses and my dad's in his pension years he gets housing benefit but no matter how I work it there is going to be an overlap with these houses.

Will the council allow an overlap of a week or so?

How can I convince this council that 6 days is just not enough time?
No matter when the tenancy starts he's still going to have to live at my home for a week or two until I've managed to paint/lay carpets and sort out all the utilities :eek:

I'm already stressed to the limit and I haven't even started yet!!

Any help or advice for a rather stressed female?:D

Maxine :-)

puddy

when i worked in hb years ago, hb could be paid on 2 properties for up to 4 weeks so dont worry about that, sounds like you'll need to take plenty of time off work to go down, pack up best you can, move him up and then spend the next 3 weekends moving the rest of the stuff up to durham or down to the tip if necessary

Tartanmax

Thank you for the reply, At least paying rent on two isn't going to be an issue , that's hoping they will realise it's not possiable to move him in a week :-s

I've already book 2 weeks holiday to get everything done and as of yesterday I've been haggling all the usual utilities companies to cancel etc.

I'm also concerned that his application for a community care grant is not going to have a decision made on it until after he needs to move, I've chansed then up every day for two weeks and still nothing.. any ideas of that?

Fire_Fox

Don't get confused between things that are important and things that are urgent. The community care grant sounds important, but as it has already been applied for you aren't losing money by not chasing it just delaying things a bit. Whereas submitting notice on his old place, redirecting post, getting packed are all urgent.

Tartanmax

You're right I'm starting to be a bit panicy thinking of everything that needs doing , I'm going to sort my list into Essentials and Non essentials.

The Community Care Grant was applied for weeks ago for the move but at the time my dad wasn't offered a house and now he has 8 days to get all his packing done, thankfully I've been able to round up some friends in London to help so at least I won't need to be there for that, small mercies!:D

I'm concerned he'll move before he gets a response for the Grant team and the decicion / any documentation will end up at his old address, I can't change his address until he has signed on the dotted line which is Friday the 12 .. what if they send it during the change over time ? :eek:

I can't redirect it either as it's benefit related and they won't let me.

Fire_Fox

Set up a royal mail redirection to cover as much as possible ASAP as this takes a few days to get sorted - you really don't want bank statements being available to strangers. If you have trusted friends in London leave one with the key and then ask them to collect the mail on the last day and forward it on. When you do change the address on anything benefit-related request (in writing/ e-mail so you have a record) copies of anything sent in the last fortnight to be resent to the new address.

Tartanmax

Thank you again Fire Fox :-)

I have enquired about setting up a mail re direction for everything else but as my dad is hopeless doing it I was hoping there was a way I could do a 3rd party one online or something?

I googled but it seems only my dad can do it... any ideas?

Thank for the advice on the benefits front too, 2 weeks back dated post is a relief as I really don't want his details available to every tom, !!!!!! and harry!

I am actually going to load up the van on moving day so I can pick up the last of the post... after that the house will get boarded up so I guess no other way of delivering.

puddy

as long as he signs the redirection form and you have some id for him, it should be fine, worse case scenario, when you go down there, take him to the post office with you when you do the redirection

as soon as the tenancy starts on the new property, get the benefits stuff address changed

prior to that, apply for the redirection, it will take up to 5 days to take place

after dad comes up to durham, a friend or family needs to go in and keep checking for post up until the last day of the tenancy, by then the redirection should be in place and the benefits address should have changed, so dont worry

remember to apply for the hb on the new property for him in good time, you will need to provide proof to them as to why there is an overlap, but because of the timescales involved, its in your dads interest to see if he can get the overlap on the tenancies as 4 weeks because it gives the 2 of you more time. when you are asked about this for hb purposes, obviously it was nothing to do with you that the tenancies overlapped for the maximum of the 4 weeks so can we have our hb paid twice please.....
the hb will only pay on the old and new property from the date he moves into the new property (as far as i remember, but you need to check this as its a bit complex the ruling, something about when you vacate the old one and move to the new one or something)

if you can calculate what furniture needs moving, you can then book a removals van if you are doing this (if not, lots of moving around in your car), so that they can get the furniture up there in good time.

Fire_Fox

Tartanmax wrote: »

Thank you again Fire Fox :-)

I have enquired about setting up a mail re direction for everything else but as my dad is hopeless doing it I was hoping there was a way I could do a 3rd party one online or something?

Will your dad do stuff if you give him one tiny task to do each day? If he will then you do everything you can and just get him to sign and take to the Post Office. There is definitely an online application for Royal Mail redirection, IIRC they send something to your house to check it's genuine if you apply early enough.
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/product1?catId=400040&mediaId=600008

This is good for change of address:
http://www.iammoving.com/

Once he is moved I suggest you get a Power of Attorney set up which means you can legally deal with all sorts of official bodies on your dad's behalf. I have one for my parents who travel extensively, we just use it for one bank account but you can use them for as much or as little as you wish. Obviously you need to keep within the law, nothing for personal gain etc.
http://www.publicguardian.gov.uk/

custardy

if you organise the redirection i recommend you follow up with a call to RM CS to organise a mail hold until the redirection comes into force

Tartanmax

Thank you again for the replies.

Quick update, thankfully my dad has managed to do the little tasks which make my life easier with him doing such as the mail re-direction , he's doing that today so I don't have to mess about sorting ID etc.

I think I will see about sorting out some sort of power of Attorney or something when he moves up as it's a nightmare to explain to everyone why I'm doing everything with out having to get him to call before every phone call I make for permissions and such like.

I'll be sure to set up a Mail hold until the re direction kicks in too.

The move is going to be hard work due to the timescales involved.. the current plan is....

My dad arrives in my home on the 11th.. signs on the dotted line and get the keys on the 12th... myself and my partner will go down that same day and collect all his things (which hopefully will be packed and ready ) we shall drive back up over that weekend and unload everything into his new house.
Dad will stay with me for a couple of weeks while I paint, decorate, get carpets laid and unpack his entire house , set up the gas/electric/phone lines... cooked installation... the list is endless!!

However.. the good news we had this morning which was more than welcome was that London councils are operating an "Out of London" scheme which pays you £1500 per bedroom when you are moving to a new region.
Fantastic news as it will certainly ease off the pressure of paying for all this stuff which is falling to me until his Community Care Grant comes through.