We are moving to the UK :)

As any of you who have been reading my posts over the past few weeks and months have probably already worked out, we have decided to move to the UK. I hesitate to say that we are 'moving back', because in reality we are simply moving on, just as we did when we moved over to Australia. We came to Australia from rural Suffolk/Cambridgeshire, but we have no intention of moving back to the same place, hence moving on. We don't know exactly what is going to happen as of yet, but we hope to have everything tied up at this end by the end of May/beginning of June so that we can be in the UK with time to spare before the new school year starts. Alternatively I may take the kids back a bit earlier and get them into school before the UK school year ends, so that they have time to make a friend or two which they could see in the holidays. That would of course mean that OH would stay here and ship our belongings and our cats, along with himself, a few weeks later. I would sort out a rental, school, car etc at the other end.

We have involved the children in our decision making, they deserve an input and we have felt that it has been important to keep the dialogue open so that they know they can ask any questions and discuss any fears with us. They have lived in Australia for the main part of their lives, and so are understandably nervous about the changes and what it means to them, but they are both pretty excited about it. We've been quite careful in how we've spoken to them about the move in terms of not being negative about Australia or overly positive about the UK, because Australia is really their home country and I don't want to put them off coming back as adults if they so choose (part of the reason why we got citizenship), but neither do we want to make the UK seem like some sort of utopia, which of course it isn't. Things will probably be hard for a while, the kids and I may have to move and leave OH here for a time, but they know that whatever happens we will do the best thing that we can for them. They know why we have been thinking of moving over and we've had some interesting discussions about the pros and cons, the whats and the wheres, and they have actually raised some ideas that we'd not thought of.

As for where, we've no idea really. We don't want to move back to Suffolk/Cambridgeshire and I doubt we could afford to move to SE England which is where OH's family live. I think if we'd have wanted to move there we would have done that instead of moving to Australia, to be honest. I've ruled out SW England and Wales (too few work opportunities, not so good transport links), and I have pretty much ruled out the Midlands (I grew up there, and although there are some fabulous areas, including Birmingham which I love, there isn't enough of a draw for OH) and the Manchester/Liverpool/Sheffield/Leeds/Hull belt (not really sure why, just don't tick our boxes). Areas which might suit are around Bristol/Bath, Herefordshire (beautiful, although I worry that jobs might be hard to come by), York/Harrogate northwards towards Durham, and then Scotland, within the central belt from Glasgow, up as far as Perth and as far eastwards as Edinburgh.

The main reason for us looking at Scotland, is that if we moved to England then eldest would skooch forward from halfway through Y6 here to starting high school in Sept 2017, whereas in Scotland, because of the cut off and her birthday, she'd go back six months to the start of Primary 7 which would give her time to make some friends and get used to the new schooling system. Similarly, youngest would go forwards in England but back in Scotland which would give her some breathing space. Since eldest is Aspergers and has recently been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, we need to make things as easy as possible for her.

Anyway, I just thought I'd give an update on where we're at. Any advice on getting the house ready to sell, getting our belongings, cats and ourselves shipped, tax and other financial considerations, and the actual logistics of making it all happen (like how to provide rental references when we own our own home etc), plus any thoughts on areas or the school stuff would be very gratefully received.

Lots of luck on your new adventure and id imagine its not much different to moving here, as in, look where the jobs are before committing to anywhere. I am sure there will be a few members who have gone back come along soon to give you some tips and pointers.

Cal x

Generally with rents I believe you offer to pay six months in advance. That's what we did.

I assume the Sydney housing market is still bouyant. Selling and going into rented may be an option. You would then have cash ready to take advantage of any article 50 rises or falls. It's never a good idea to let prospective buyers know you are leaving, and it's never great to sell an empty house.

What you are doing with the kids sounds smart. You could also see if there are any holiday/sporting clubs they can enroll in.

Do you know where you will be able to find work?

OH is a director/dispensing optician with Specsavers, with a whole heap of experience (25 years with the company, 12 as a director) so he should find work pretty easily. We have spoken to Specsavers in the UK, and they can find something for him pretty much wherever. Whether he wants to buy into another practice or not we haven't decided, but he should get enough work temporarily whilst we decide. I am a qualified optometrist, although I've not worked in Australia due to kids/had to retake professional exams. I could easily register with the GOC though, and find work either as an Optometrist or as a really over-qualified DO.

We have four cats, so we were thinking of paying six months rent upfront, plus a higher deposit because of the cats, plus agreeing to have the carpets professionally cleaned on departure.

The Sydney housing market is REALLY buoyant still, or at least it is in this area. Both of our neighbours houses sold within the past two years, so we have an idea of what ours is worth, although ours will be renovated where the other houses weren't. We will have to complete the renovation on our house though, which could take three to four months. The bathrooms are a disgusting peach colour and the plating has come off the taps, so it looks really bad/dated compared to our beautiful modern kitchen and flooring. Upstairs needs new carpet too. We have enough put by to do a basic revamp on the bathrooms/laundry/carpet plus a bit of redecoration/gardening etc as needed. Lots of it I will do myself.

I think you are going about your move in the way that is right for you And I think the moving on train of thought is exactly how I view each move, its never back, its forward, onwards.

We moved to Aus from the Bristol area and I think its a great part of the world. Of course it has its issues but in terms of facilities, access to south west, London, midlands and north its well placed. Its not the cheapest place to live in terms of cost of housing, to rent or buy. And living in some of the smaller towns/village's can see some issues if kids are younger perhaps but its swings and roundabouts.

Sounds to me like you are doing well with it all and have reached your decision without rushing or panicking and I think your move will go well, wherever you end up.

Scotland is nice, but if I could choose, I would live somewhere like Bath or around that way.

Good luck LKC! Onwards and upwards with the next big adventure! I think you are very wise not to go "back" but to move on. I came back to Cambridge because there was no choice given our motivation for moving but it's been so long it was like a new start anyway! You've certainly chosen some lovely possibilities!

The fist thing I would do is sort the cats out. Give dogtainers a call and start the process.

With th regard renting, we were in a similar situation, but did get a reference before we left from the agency we had previously rented with before we had our own house.

We found though that the best aspect we had was that I had a job. We had no issues in finding a rental and that is with a dog.

We live in the central belt of Scotland. We are 18 miles from Glasgow in a very rural area in a lovely village and I would highly recommend Strathaven as a place to look at houses.

We are finding Scotland a lovely place to live. People are very friendly and warm. The weather is a bit wetter and colder than the south, but still no where near as bad as some think. I was sat outside at the pub in shorts and t-shirt until September. We get the bonus that we do get snow. Expecting more over the weekend. The countryside is wonderful. The area is similar to the Yorkshire dales, but the mountains are only a short drive away.

There are loads of parks and things as well. We are still finding new ones and visited a new one pretty much every week.

Visiting other parts of the U.K. is not hard and flight from Glasgow to London can be had for under £20.

Good luck LKC! Onwards and upwards with the next big adventure! I think you are very wise not to go "back" but to move on. I came back to Cambridge because there was no choice given our motivation for moving but it's been so long it was like a new start anyway! You've certainly chosen some lovely possibilities!

Yes! I feel it is a new adventure for us! We weren't pushed from the UK, but pulled by the opportunity. And we have had the most amazing time here, something which most people couldn't even dream of! But now it is time to move on again, and what an adventure!

Good luck, exciting times ahead. You are very fortunate to be able to pick and choose wherever you want to live. I am very happy here in the SE but we had no choice as London is the only option for the OH due to work and even for me it is the best option due to my industry (financial services).

You have already ruled out huge swathes of the country, which is good as it needs to be narrowed down. I always thought Bath /Bristol were just as expensive as the SE though so that might be something to look into.

I would also get onto getting the cats rabies ready, you only need 21 days (plus a bit more for contingencies) but might as well get it off your plate. We moved back with three cats and used Jetpets, we arranged for pick up from home in Sydney as we knew the car would have been sold and then we organised collection and delivery to our home in Hertfordshire as I knew I would find the airport pick up quite stressful. Anyway it more or less went to plan but I am not going to either recommend or not recommend them. The owner of the pets needs to travel within five days of the pet now, a new rule bought in around the time we moved back two years ago.

I think there are only two things that any landlord cares about. Will the tenant pay and will the look after the house. I think if you focus on evidencing those two things you will be fine getting a rental and UK is not as competitive as Sydney for securing rentals anyway - tenants market generally.

Anyway good luck again for the next chapter.

ETA: oh if there was one thing I would have done differently, it is that I would have shipped the car back. We loved our car and wouldn't have upgraded it but moving back we bought newer and spent a small fortune!

Good luck LKC! From our experiences of moving back here, in terms of housing it's much easier to move this way - we haven't needed rental references in any property we've rented here and, in general, pets are much less of an issue for landlords. We've had hamsters, Guinea pigs, rabbits, dogs with no problems.

I think your reasoning for moving to Scotland is sound. Our youngest daughter had to move from Sydney at the end of year 5 to mid year 7 in England. She doesn't have the additional needs that your eldest does, but she still found it a challenging time (she had gone back to her 'old' school where the teachers knew her, but moving around for different lessons, different subjects etc made it a bit tricky for a while). Scotland hasn't had the major changes in curriculum that have been imposed in England recently either, so that might also make Scotland a more attractive prospect. We have family in and around Edinburgh (some are teachers) and they seem very happy with the education their primary aged children are receiving.

As long as you don't mind the weather, I think it'd be a great place to live.

Woohoo, well done on your decision and all the best with it.

I can thoroughly recommend Herefordshire, sparsely populated so little in the way of traffic issues, slower pace, lovely people and MUCH more affordable.

Plenty of Specsavers around as well lol.

Our kids were also part of the decision making process and they really haven't looked back.

All the best.

OH is a director/dispensing optician with Specsavers, with a whole heap of experience (25 years with the company, 12 as a director) so he should find work pretty easily. We have spoken to Specsavers in the UK, and they can find something for him pretty much wherever. Whether he wants to buy into another practice or not we haven't decided, but he should get enough work temporarily whilst we decide. I am a qualified optometrist, although I've not worked in Australia due to kids/had to retake professional exams. I could easily register with the GOC though, and find work either as an Optometrist or as a really over-qualified DO.

 

We have four cats, so we were thinking of paying six months rent upfront, plus a higher deposit because of the cats, plus agreeing to have the carpets professionally cleaned on departure.

 

The Sydney housing market is REALLY buoyant still, or at least it is in this area. Both of our neighbours houses sold within the past two years, so we have an idea of what ours is worth, although ours will be renovated where the other houses weren't. We will have to complete the renovation on our house though, which could take three to four months. The bathrooms are a disgusting peach colour and the plating has come off the taps, so it looks really bad/dated compared to our beautiful modern kitchen and flooring. Upstairs needs new carpet too. We have enough put by to do a basic revamp on the bathrooms/laundry/carpet plus a bit of redecoration/gardening etc as needed. Lots of it I will do myself.

We renovated to sell also, most if not all I did myself, and here in adelaide we had fist wide cracks to hide!! only advice I can say is paint is your friend! that and IKEA bathrooms, everything else paint it!

Woohoo, well done on your decision and all the best with it.

I can thoroughly recommend Herefordshire, sparsely populated so little in the way of traffic issues, slower pace, lovely people and MUCH more affordable.

Plenty of Specsavers around as well lol.

Our kids were also part of the decision making process and they really haven't looked back.

All the best.

you would want to be a bit further north than the m25. The bit near Enfield is pretty busy. Lovely countryside in the north though. My step auntie used to have a kennels up there.

Hereford is nowhere near the M25 or Enfield.

Great that you are making decisions and progress in the direction you have chosen.

Lots to research and focus on.

Best of luck with it all!

B

I think for us we needed to be able to get in and out of London fairly quickly (for work) but also have access to good transport ports, i.e. airports and ports, It could not be easier to get to airports, Gatwick is 1 hour door to door, that includes long term parking and checkin, Heathrow about 2 hours, south coast ports to the continent , I'm a huge fan of drive on, get a berth, have a meal and sleep most of the overnight crossings, it's the nearest thing to teleportation, we do avoid the M25 dyring peak, it's just not fun!

Good Luck with the move back, hope it's everything you hope for xxx

As any of you who have been reading my posts over the past few weeks and months have probably already worked out, we have decided to move to the UK. I hesitate to say that we are 'moving back', because in reality we are simply moving on, just as we did when we moved over to Australia. We came to Australia from rural Suffolk/Cambridgeshire, but we have no intention of moving back to the same place, hence moving on. We don't know exactly what is going to happen as of yet, but we hope to have everything tied up at this end by the end of May/beginning of June so that we can be in the UK with time to spare before the new school year starts. Alternatively I may take the kids back a bit earlier and get them into school before the UK school year ends, so that they have time to make a friend or two which they could see in the holidays. That would of course mean that OH would stay here and ship our belongings and our cats, along with himself, a few weeks later. I would sort out a rental, school, car etc at the other end.

 

We have involved the children in our decision making, they deserve an input and we have felt that it has been important to keep the dialogue open so that they know they can ask any questions and discuss any fears with us. They have lived in Australia for the main part of their lives, and so are understandably nervous about the changes and what it means to them, but they are both pretty excited about it. We've been quite careful in how we've spoken to them about the move in terms of not being negative about Australia or overly positive about the UK, because Australia is really their home country and I don't want to put them off coming back as adults if they so choose (part of the reason why we got citizenship), but neither do we want to make the UK seem like some sort of utopia, which of course it isn't. Things will probably be hard for a while, the kids and I may have to move and leave OH here for a time, but they know that whatever happens we will do the best thing that we can for them. They know why we have been thinking of moving over and we've had some interesting discussions about the pros and cons, the whats and the wheres, and they have actually raised some ideas that we'd not thought of.

 

As for where, we've no idea really. We don't want to move back to Suffolk/Cambridgeshire and I doubt we could afford to move to SE England which is where OH's family live. I think if we'd have wanted to move there we would have done that instead of moving to Australia, to be honest. I've ruled out SW England and Wales (too few work opportunities, not so good transport links), and I have pretty much ruled out the Midlands (I grew up there, and although there are some fabulous areas, including Birmingham which I love, there isn't enough of a draw for OH) and the Manchester/Liverpool/Sheffield/Leeds/Hull belt (not really sure why, just don't tick our boxes). Areas which might suit are around Bristol/Bath, Herefordshire (beautiful, although I worry that jobs might be hard to come by), York/Harrogate northwards towards Durham, and then Scotland, within the central belt from Glasgow, up as far as Perth and as far eastwards as Edinburgh.

 

The main reason for us looking at Scotland, is that if we moved to England then eldest would skooch forward from halfway through Y6 here to starting high school in Sept 2017, whereas in Scotland, because of the cut off and her birthday, she'd go back six months to the start of Primary 7 which would give her time to make some friends and get used to the new schooling system. Similarly, youngest would go forwards in England but back in Scotland which would give her some breathing space. Since eldest is Aspergers and has recently been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, we need to make things as easy as possible for her.

 

Anyway, I just thought I'd give an update on where we're at. Any advice on getting the house ready to sell, getting our belongings, cats and ourselves shipped, tax and other financial considerations, and the actual logistics of making it all happen (like how to provide rental references when we own our own home etc), plus any thoughts on areas or the school stuff would be very gratefully received.

Hi, just sent you a PM as a fellow DO, can you take a look, work for either of you won't be a problem, especially OO! Consider Cambs/Herts too, easy access to most places!

As any of you who have been reading my posts over the past few weeks and months have probably already worked out, we have decided to move to the UK. I hesitate to say that we are 'moving back', because in reality we are simply moving on, just as we did when we moved over to Australia. We came to Australia from rural Suffolk/Cambridgeshire, but we have no intention of moving back to the same place, hence moving on. We don't know exactly what is going to happen as of yet, but we hope to have everything tied up at this end by the end of May/beginning of June so that we can be in the UK with time to spare before the new school year starts. Alternatively I may take the kids back a bit earlier and get them into school before the UK school year ends, so that they have time to make a friend or two which they could see in the holidays. That would of course mean that OH would stay here and ship our belongings and our cats, along with himself, a few weeks later. I would sort out a rental, school, car etc at the other end.

 

We have involved the children in our decision making, they deserve an input and we have felt that it has been important to keep the dialogue open so that they know they can ask any questions and discuss any fears with us. They have lived in Australia for the main part of their lives, and so are understandably nervous about the changes and what it means to them, but they are both pretty excited about it. We've been quite careful in how we've spoken to them about the move in terms of not being negative about Australia or overly positive about the UK, because Australia is really their home country and I don't want to put them off coming back as adults if they so choose (part of the reason why we got citizenship), but neither do we want to make the UK seem like some sort of utopia, which of course it isn't. Things will probably be hard for a while, the kids and I may have to move and leave OH here for a time, but they know that whatever happens we will do the best thing that we can for them. They know why we have been thinking of moving over and we've had some interesting discussions about the pros and cons, the whats and the wheres, and they have actually raised some ideas that we'd not thought of.

 

As for where, we've no idea really. We don't want to move back to Suffolk/Cambridgeshire and I doubt we could afford to move to SE England which is where OH's family live. I think if we'd have wanted to move there we would have done that instead of moving to Australia, to be honest. I've ruled out SW England and Wales (too few work opportunities, not so good transport links), and I have pretty much ruled out the Midlands (I grew up there, and although there are some fabulous areas, including Birmingham which I love, there isn't enough of a draw for OH) and the Manchester/Liverpool/Sheffield/Leeds/Hull belt (not really sure why, just don't tick our boxes). Areas which might suit are around Bristol/Bath, Herefordshire (beautiful, although I worry that jobs might be hard to come by), York/Harrogate northwards towards Durham, and then Scotland, within the central belt from Glasgow, up as far as Perth and as far eastwards as Edinburgh.

 

The main reason for us looking at Scotland, is that if we moved to England then eldest would skooch forward from halfway through Y6 here to starting high school in Sept 2017, whereas in Scotland, because of the cut off and her birthday, she'd go back six months to the start of Primary 7 which would give her time to make some friends and get used to the new schooling system. Similarly, youngest would go forwards in England but back in Scotland which would give her some breathing space. Since eldest is Aspergers and has recently been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, we need to make things as easy as possible for her.

 

Anyway, I just thought I'd give an update on where we're at. Any advice on getting the house ready to sell, getting our belongings, cats and ourselves shipped, tax and other financial considerations, and the actual logistics of making it all happen (like how to provide rental references when we own our own home etc), plus any thoughts on areas or the school stuff would be very gratefully received.

On to the next adventure ...have you got your Aussie passports ,for all ...forever giving your children two choices ?....dont particularly love brum ( iam a brummie ) ...but I do love solihull ...warwickshire and a good bet ...worcestershire

Yes! I feel it is a new adventure for us! We weren't pushed from the UK, but pulled by the opportunity. And we have had the most amazing time here, something which most people couldn't even dream of! But now it is time to move on again, and what an adventure!

Exciting time for you and your family LKC. :smile:

Looking forward to all your updates.

Best of luck with the move back

you would want to be a bit further north than the m25. The bit near Enfield is pretty busy. Lovely countryside in the north though. My step auntie used to have a kennels up there.

I think you are thinking of HERTFORDSHIRE lol

Thanks ever so much for the advice/good wishes etc. We've started getting things organised for the house sale etc and the bits of advice given has been very helpful.

However, I have decided that I won't be posting any more of our plans on here as I suspect that a family member has worked out who I am and has been stalking my posts. There have been a couple of instances when said family member has passed comment on things that they haven't been told. My OH and I feel very strongly that we are best placed to make decisions regarding the future of our family unit, and we can't allow other family members to try and influence our decisions, because they only come here for holidays and don't see the bigger picture over the year. We will always do the very best that we can for our girls, and we don't fit the mould that this family member is trying to force us into. Consequently we will continue with our plans quietly without asking for help or advice, neither here nor in real life.

Having lived in the Bath/Wiltshire area I would seriously recommend it. Good links to London and Cardiff as well...