Moving House and Estate Agents
Some of you will probably remember that last month, I posted about the upcoming property searching that Karl and I would have to do. Well, shortly afterwards we went to see a small cottage about a mile and a half up the road. It was pretty, had a lovely garden and a shed. However, it was tiny and the steep staircase would have proved incredibly dangerous, particularly with a cat under our feet.
After having decided against that one as a bad idea, we went to see another property being advertised by the same agent. Bigger house, bigger garden and a garage. However, I will not hesitate to say that it was in a total state. Crooked plasterboard walls that obviously weren’t original, peeling wallpaper, child’s doodling everywhere, holes in multiple places — whoever the last tenants were deserve a bloody good kicking.
Despite some serious reservations — Karl in particular was very anxious about the whole thing, and nearly changed his mind at the last minute — we went for a second viewing and filled in the application forms. This was on the 28th January. Now, bearing in mind it should take about a week for the forms to be processed, you may be surprised to hear they’re still not done… thanks to our current property managing agents (herein referred to as PMA), who are and always have been useless beyond belief, our application has been delayed again and again.
First the PMA refused to give a reference, because our current contract hasn’t ended yet. This despite the fact that a) no sane person leaves it until the very end of their tenancy to find a new place to live, and b) why would we ask for a reference from them if we were trying to bugger off early without notice? After a week of tossing about, I finally called the PMA and was instructed that to give the reference, we would have to officially end our tenancy on the flat. I did so, via e-mail as instructed, and followed it up with a phone call the next day to confirm the e-mail had been received.
Earlier this week we received a letter addressed to both of us confirming our cancellation, and details of what we would need to do before we leave (end the utilities in our name, etc). It had definite snotty undertones but that’s nothing new. I had assumed this would mean our applications could be finalised but by Thursday we hadn’t heard back so I gave the estate agents for the new property a call.
Turns out that the PMA had again refused to give a reference, this time to Karl. The excuse was that he hadn’t ended his tenancy. Why on EARTH they would think this I do not know — the e-mail contained both of our names, and the confirmation they sent was addressed to us both! We explained this to the guy at the new agents, who couldn’t understand it either, and who reassured us that he would get it sorted. He sent the application agency a copy of the letter we’d received, and has set our moving in date for Friday 22nd of this month.
WHOO :D That in itself is of course all exciting and woohoo. What makes this truly fantabulous and amazing is that Karl and I snuck up to the new property today and through the windows we could quite clearly see that all of the downstairs work seems to have been done. New plaster, new paintwork, new skirting around the bottom of the walls. The old dodgy wallpaper has been pulled down, the holes seem to have been repaired and everything is shiny and new. I can’t believe it.. Karl can’t believe it! It looks brilliant, way beyond our expectations. (Honestly, we had no expectations, we were planning to do the work ourselves.)
I am seriously thrilled, and can’t wait to get the keys on Friday next week.
Matt said:
On 15 Feb at 7:45 pm
Ooh exciting! A shame your PMA sucks but meh, atleast it’s sorted now!
Vera said:
On 15 Feb at 7:50 pm
I hate bureaucracy. There was only one time I had to deal with it… and despite the fact that my dad knew someone who worked there, it did take us a couple of weeks. I can imagine those who come on their own would need even more. But all this excitement… I almost want to move right now =P … heh almost.
Aisling said:
On 15 Feb at 7:56 pm
Well, congrats! Even if your old agent needs a good ass-kicking!
Hanna said:
On 15 Feb at 7:57 pm
Good that things are working out. I really don’t understand the logic “your current contract hasn’t ended yet” o_O I was little horrified of those pictures though, but if they have repaired those (and done the work well) wohoo :)
Lene said:
On 15 Feb at 8:10 pm
I’m glad that you finally found a place! :3 Your moving date is so soon too, I’d be really excited if it were me. I usually hate remodeling and fixing up things that break around the house, but when it comes to situations like this it actually excites me to go picking paint colors and getting everything they sell in home improvement stores XD Good luck with everything!
Karl said:
On 15 Feb at 8:12 pm
Oh, the work was nothing really..We both like DIY, so the fact it obviously needed work didn’t put us off (unlike the other 2 viewers we saw, who were unimpressed). However, we anticipated needing a few weeks to straighten the place up and living between here and there before we could move Hex in. Nothing like a cat to complicate DIY, painting and all that. It all has to be done before I’ll move him. But, yes..all the ground floor looks really nice and fresh now! I see a few little jobs I want to do (garden, hedging, some fence repair, some guttering painting), but the ground floor looks done. Upstairs I don’t know about…this house has a story to tell. Lock on the OUTSIDE of childrens bedrooms, and holes in walls that are foot shaped..hmm. Babys room, no door. Bathroom, no carpet, peeling wallpaper..hmm. It’s quite spooky. If all that’s been done as well…I’ll feel very, very unworthy, We were more than happy to do it! I’ll be watching the garage with interest as well..it has a half built stud wall running through the middle, and the Astra won’t fit right now…
Vasili said:
On 15 Feb at 8:25 pm
Wow, congrats :) I can’t imagine having child drool on the wall of a new house o_O
Matt said:
On 15 Feb at 8:34 pm
LOL there wasn’t DROOL on the wall :P Doodlings as in .. drawings.
Jordan said:
On 15 Feb at 9:32 pm
Wow, the picture of the drywall is fucking ridiculous. I don’t give a shit if you live with rats (well, okay I do) and I certainly don’t care if my apt needs a bit fixing up, but I don’t get why someone would show a place in the state it’s in. When my parents sold their house, they made sure every little dent/crack/etc was fixed. The only thing they didn’t worry about was our bedrooms (the paint namely; I had painted mine several colors and had stenciled shit all over). It just seems strange that they wouldn’t try to fix the imperfections, to give the future tenants more reason to go with a certain flat.
Chien Yee said:
On 15 Feb at 9:52 pm
Congrats! *kicks your agent and previous house tenant*
Ashley said:
On 15 Feb at 10:39 pm
YAY!! :D I’m so glad things are getting all sorted out for you. I am soooo jealous still!! (Hey, any chance that mysterious rainbow paper might still be lying around somewhere?) ;) I’m glad that wallpaper is gone. Hideous stuff. And yay for a lot of work already being done on the place. I’m just so excited for you! I wish I could help you paint! Oh, the smell of fresh paint! *squeals!*
Belinda said:
On 16 Feb at 1:58 am
Blargh moving house sounds so tedious! I’d love to move out soon, but the potential problems that could crop up makes it intimidating. o_o
Hev said:
On 16 Feb at 3:30 am
Oooh congrats, Jem & Karl. Send pics if you want. Remember to send me the thing I asked for so I can send you the stuff for Hex.
Paddy said:
On 16 Feb at 3:33 am
I am so jealous that you are so excited. Rental in Sydney majorly sucks balls at the moment, you can’t even get an application in because all the listed properties are snapped up within hours! Is it true that all property managers are tossers?
Mumblies said:
On 16 Feb at 6:09 am
Diddly dum diddly dee!!
Niki said:
On 16 Feb at 6:33 am
Reading this made me think: “Ooh I need to do some redecorating”
Annie said:
On 16 Feb at 12:13 pm
Congratulations on your new home. Good to know everything is sorted and that the house is getting a bit of a revamp. Good luck with the move.
Christine said:
On 16 Feb at 7:44 pm
renting a place in the UK seems a tad more complicated then in canada ~_~ but in either case! gratz on the new place! i hope you post some pics of it when you get all moved in. moving for me is like a love/hate relationship. there’s the excitement of a new place, but all the work and packing and cleaning…. eeewww.
Sarai said:
On 16 Feb at 10:14 pm
Reading about other people’s positive moving experiences gives me hope. P.S. I only JUST found out your stylesheet switcher. *facecement*
Arwen said:
On 17 Feb at 10:03 pm
Congrats!!
barbilee said:
On 18 Feb at 3:14 am
Congrats on finding a plase me and justin are looking for a biger place but we have no luck
chanel said:
On 18 Feb at 5:30 pm
The previous tenants were probably enforcers of domestic violence. lol.