A Diary of Reinventing Ourselves

getmore4less

Given the number of very doggy tenants that still find places I think you will find that agents are more interested in getting their fees than blacklisting a source of income.

As has been said you need to be on the agents list, waiting for adverts will not secure you the best properties.

If you find somewhere that is not to timescales your current landlords want you have the upper hand to negotiate, just remember that you have to give notice when you do want to leave.

You need to research your rights here in case you need a few weeks.

Start with has the notice been served legal.

greensalad

Forward_thinking wrote: »

Surely if we go down that road getmore, we get blacklisted with all agents, marks on our backgrounds? We've always been squeaky clean and I wouldn't want to change that.

There is no central system for letting agents so nowhere for "black marks" to go.

You should be fine to get a property as long as you have no CCJs and meet the affordability requirements.

Haircut wise, have you considered a mobile hairdresser? I get mine done by someone who comes to my house. She used to work for Toni & Guy and is excellent. She charges £20. I wash it myself but she blowdries and styles it after the cut.

getmore4less

Also be careful how much info you give agents they will mark new places up if they think you are desperate.

mummyroysof3

Read whole thread and I hope you don't mind me commenting. I think you are doing really well managing what you have so far. I'm sorry to hear you have this added stress of moving to contend with though. For what it's worth I think you are doing the right thing in tackling the outgoings before trying to earn more as a two pronged attack will much more effective. Hope you don't mind me reading and I'll cross my fingers you find something suitable to move to soon...no affence but your bills are quite scarey figures compared to me up north with lower bills lol

getmore4less

greensalad wrote: »

There is no central system for letting agents so nowhere for "black marks" to go.

even if you stop paying rent it does not get onto the credit files.

They are wanting to add this to credit reports.

Forward_thinking

Evening!! Thanks for the posts and the comments - as usual, all points considered. Great idea about the mobile hairdresser and would certainly save a lot of hassle; don't think OH would be convinced for himself though!! He's far too into the whole pampering experience!

A bit of a non day really - it's difficult to get much done with the children off school. It's also impossible to keep the diet up so I'll be back on track next weekend. There are absolutely no houses to look at at the moment. I have registered our details and we are looking at one tomorrow but it's £50 more than this place which isn't the idea!!! There's just not much movement around here - we found that when we first arrived and that's why we eventually gave up and took a house we both didn't like.

Not really much to say tonight so I'm going to bed. Tomorrow is another day!

getmore4less

Forward_thinking wrote: »

we found that when we first arrived and that's why we eventually gave up and took a house we both didn't like.

How long have you been there? (rhetorical)

Plenty of time to be on the lookout for and find somewhere you would like and potentially cheaper but you just stayed living somewhere you did not like.

There is a pattern forming, house, hire car, hubbys job, company tax...

get backed into a corner, take a non optimal solution, then stop trying to fix the problem or make the situation better.

Forward_thinking

A very astute observation get more.....

brizzledfw

Hope you've had a good day FT

Forward_thinking

Evening!!! Thanks Brizzled. It's been an interesting one. I spent the day registering with 15 different estate agents and we also went to look at one. It was quite nice but completely isolated and not very practical. I imagine the bills would be even higher than here, there would be no chance of walking to school and I think I would feel quite vulnerable in there at nights when OH is away. So it's not going to work - even more importantly it was a bit more expensive than our current place. I am extremely nervous that we won't find anything in time - even if one comes up if it isn't ready in time I'm not sure what we would do with all our furniture! I dread to think - I know getmore says we can just stay here but we tend to be a bit too squeaky clean and this wouldn't feel right. We may be able to persuade the landlord to give us a couple of more weeks perhaps.

My Facebook page is going well and I have actually offered an old friend of mine an appointment for free. The thing that is holding me back is fear of getting started so I thought if I did a little work for free it will actually necessitate getting all my work out and getting set up anyway. I need to push myself in head first - sounds ridiculous after spending so many years studying and practising but charging feels a whole new board game.

Right, off to check YNAB and bank accounts - haven't done it for a few days. My ironing pile is also massive - haven't done any for almost two weeks. I have spent a lot of time setting up my business page which needed doing.

OH and I are getting on okish - definitely not great and there's definitely a lot of grumpiness going on with one another. But we'll get there. No news on the car - there's nothing around here. Interesting times.