A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

Forward_thinking

We won't be moving - we're happy for the first time ever and after living in about 20 different places. So yes, house prices are high but I would prefer to live in a tiny house than leave the area. Perhaps we might be able to look a couple of miles out....

thegreenone

Oh FT, what a ******* When you say "no updating has been done" surely that's not up to you. You just need to get an end of tenancy cleaning company in to super clean the house in the last day or so. Fingers crossed you find somewhere. Use your new found enthusiasm for money saving to bombard the local letting agents.


Pelirocco (plus others), thanks for your comments, way back on FT's thread. After a low garage bill (phew) last week DH has decided to keep his ageing car for another year, pay off his directors loan this Friday and then save for another car.

MoneyMission

brizzledfw wrote: »

Oh b@llix. So sorry to hear this. Agh. Another stress. Well it might be a silver lining? You never know. Stuff comes in and off the rental market all the time.

Try and negotiate an extension if you can. Fair wear and tear is usually Ok too for a residential lease, so argue the toss on every penny.

Thinking of you.

Spot on as ever Brizz.
FT - that truly sucks. So sorry to hear that.

lynnejk

Forward_thinking wrote: »

:wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall:Just when I was so fired up!!!!! Just been served notice on the house today - we have to be out in 8 weeks. We've been here several years so I didn't see that one coming. What a disaster!! I've just been looking on right move and there's nothing. Perhaps it's a chance to get the rent right down as I did suggest earlier but there's still nothing around here so it looks like we'll have to look further afield. And it's going to cost a fortune - we expect to lose a lot of our deposit as no updating has been done in here for years so it's got quite grubby and moving is going to be so expensive. Plus on top of that I have just changed the gas/telephone etc. How annoying!!! Just when I wanted to start working and focusing on that we need to start looking for a new roof over our head.

This could be the universe granting your wishes so don't panic.


At least now you have all the details of all your suppliers to hand if the need arises to change to a new property.


There are various regulations regarding notices to quit. I suggest you contact SHELTER in the first place, and they will be able to point you in the right directions.


Secondly, there will be rentals available in or near your area. There will be lots of agents, not just the one you mention, and I suggest you 'Google' estate agents/rentals agencies in say a five mile radius of where you are and get registered with them asap.


Your deposit should be secure, so long as you have not caused any actual damage to the property. As previous poster said - just book a professional cleaning company for when you leave.
Lx

splatt30

I would try and see the silver lining on the house issue.
See it as an opportunity to downsize and reduce your rental / council tax / utility bills.
Might hurt for a couple of years being in a smaller property but in the long run will help you clear those debts.
Good luck. Having just moved house 3 months ago, I know it can be stressful but needn't be desperately expensive. Look on Facebook selling pages if anyone is giving away their packing boxes, we got all ours this way and then passed them on in the same way once we had unpacked.

Willowpop

Eugh, landlords do this at the worst times don't they? I remember renting and getting notice out of the blue!
So, look on the positive side, egister with loads of agents and find a cheaper property if you can.
Take the opportunity to have a good clear out, sell what you can on fb/ ebay.

Look on freecycle or fb pages for moving boxes.
It needn't cost yiu a fortune to move. I'm not sure why you're worried about your deposit...unless you've trashed the place then you will be fine. Wear and tear is not something you will lose a deposit for, and the general upkeep of the place is not really your job as a tenant. You just need to leave it clean so perhaps hire a cleaner for when you've moved out and you'll get the deposit back no problem.

Queen.Bess

Oh blimey FT, that's a bit of a shocker!

But no matter, with your enthusiasm and drive, this will be no problem!

As someone who rented and moved recently, the agent took fair wear and tear into account and the only issue we lost money on was the oven, which wasn't as clean as it could have been (and it really wasn't very clean!), so £25 went for that and I really couldn't be bothered to fight over that amount. Everything else was fine.

I totally agree that for the children, staying in the same area makes sense. Put a call out to all letting agents for them to keep an eye out, but also get in touch with the local authority. They might not be able to help directly, but they might have a list of approved landlords and that could help you. Don't ignore any avenues; go down them and if they're a dead-end then so be it, but at least you went down there - you never know the avenue might lead somewhere!

Also a good opportunity to have a clearout - stuff to charity, things on ebay etc. Are there any secondhand shops in your area? Near me there's a children's shop where you take your stuff and they sell it for you. Alright they take 60%, but it's hassle free and you still get some money at the end of it!

Wishing you all the best with this latest adventure!

getmore4less

Forward_thinking wrote: »

We won't be moving - we're happy for the first time ever and after living in about 20 different places. So yes, house prices are high but I would prefer to live in a tiny house than leave the area. Perhaps we might be able to look a couple of miles out....

If that's what you want it is even more important you find out how much money you really have available for living in this area and having the lifestyle you want over the next couple of years.

You can then set a propper allocation for rent or you are going to fall back into the trap of thinking you can stretch to something that is out of reach.

Thats whats left including a plan to fix the tax issues and start addressing the debts.

Forward_thinking

Thanks everyone. Been a bit quiet because I've lost my mojo. Just feel a bit defeated. I totally agree that this is the PERFECT opportunity to downsize and get our costs down. But I spent hours last night/early morning looking into this and there is nothing. The landlord actually never put our rental fee up because he didn't want us to leave (we almost did at one point and even went to give in our notice but they helped us to stay - another story). So the kind of house we are currently in would be about £2500. I have looked at 4 beds but they are really not very nice and still around £2300. I have looked a few miles out but again it's an expensive area. There are a few really horrible 4 bed houses but they all say students only. I know this sounds like I am not being flexible enough but it is an honest reflection. There's a couple of houses in a not-so-nice area with four bedrooms, no space outside and even those are £1700 and there is no way OH is going to agree to that plan. The only option I have seen would be a town house which is actually quite nice for £1700 (certainly not like our current house!) but it's in the wrong part of town and the school run would be difficult because there is constantly a traffic jam that side of people trying to get out of the town. Need to be careful here for anonymity. Anyway, I asked OH if that might work but he said it would be a disaster and we would have to sit in a traffic jam every time we took the kids to school. There is a cheaper area three miles out but OH would never want to live there (ok, me neither). Plus my daughter is the sensitive one and has had a lot of problems lately which have only just sorted themselves out. I don't want to go into details of those but she cried yesterday when I told her and is desperately sad that we have to leave. To take her from this current house to a cheaper, smaller one is absolutely fine. But to pull the rug out totally and put her in a really horrible rental away from all her friends (she already won't be able to walk to school when we move) just seems too much - especially as the rent would still be about £1800. I do feel that somehow the universe has made this decision for us so I need to embrace all options but I just can't find them right now. The only possible house is one that is quite nearby on a main road and is a similar price. But that's not very helpful as it's the same price, same bills plus all moving out costs.

Defeated but not quitting. We're off to see a car in an hour : )))

Forward_thinking

Read my post back. Does she know how to use paragraphs!!! It also rings of someone who is not facing up to her debt and prepared to bring the costs down to help. I really am happy to downsize - we don't need this size - we really don't. But I really don't want to live in a shabby student let, or a terraced house in the grottiest part of town for the difference of £400. I would prefer to work my socks off. I know that sounds incredibly snobbish but I'm being honest and this is what this diary is for. This is perhaps questioning whether I have indeed had my LBM.