JaneSmith

Along with most of the other respondents, I suggest you go for the change. I'm from London which I think is the best city in the world. There's always been a lot of immigrants. It's one of the things that makes Britain great. After a generation or quicker, they're not immigrants anymore, they're Brits. I've a feeling that the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings and Normans were all considered dodgy immigrants in their time! There have also always been dodgy people around. This is not unique to Britain. They are found elsewhere, including Australia. Britain has good police force to deal with them - far more community spirited police than those I've met here who seem to be yearning to be living in gangland Miami or somewhere and are very aggressive and insensitive. You've hit the nail on head (sad to say) with some of the items you've listed about Australia. Many parts of Australia are quite lovely scenically (not too grey and dusty) but it's a bit like how youth is wasted on the young... The Australian climate and scenery is...oh well. Also, having lived here you would now that the idea that Australia is always lovely and warm a total myth. Many parts of Australia also have long, cold and bleak winters, and without the saving grace of centrally heated homes to make them comfortable.. Personally (among other things) I miss British humour and the ability Brits seem to have to laugh at themselves. Go foward to Britain and have a great time, I say :laugh:

I've just found a bunch of companies in the UK who rent furniture to property owners and real estate agents so that places can be let as furnished! I'd have to pay the rent on the furniture for the tenants to pay rent to me, but there must be some difference in price between those two figures which would go towards paying the cost of the loan (I hope). I'm in the middle of getting quotes. :rolleyes:

School Fetes often have Trash and Treasure areas that sell furniture, though the school fete season is generally during the winter months and you're arriving at the start of summer, so you may most of your items by then, but it might be worth browsing the fetes in your area when they start happening. Also Brisbane City Council does Kerbside Collections every year - timing of these depends on location in Brisbane. People put their large unwanted items on the kerb for collection. Then a lot of people drive around picking up the bits they want before the council trucks arrive and take it to the dump. There are also some local dump sites that have 'recycling stores' located nearby. I haven't been to any of these but my son was taken along with one and came back with some useful articles (for him), like a scooter etc. I'm sure they'd also have furniture as well. I know that there's a recycling depot at the Logan council dump, not so sure about Brisbane City Council but you could ring their general number and they'd tell you.

Hello, thanks so much for that advice. I'm not planning to work in Central London but rather around the outskirts (I expect that's where most of the community sector work is anyway), but I do want to be near to trains because to keep all kinds of things accessible. I know that parking is a nightmare in most parts so we don't want to be totally car reliant. I was thinking that around Lewisham would be a useful area myself. I've read that schools in London are actually pretty good on the whole - due to a range of reforms over the past few years? and I've found the Good Schools and Ofsted sites, but they don't provide much info about how to ensure support for a child on the high functioning end of autism spectrum, which my son who will be in secondary school, is. All the focus on those sites is on the academic side of things which is fine for my other son, who will also be secondary school age by the time we get there. :cute:

Yes, it might a bit much to hope that someone might want to rent it empty - those other suggestions are good and I'll keep them in mind. With leaving it empty, that would be okay if just for a few weeks, but it might be up to 6 months or more, which would pretty difficult to withstand financially as I'd essentially be paying mortgages on two houses for the duration.

Thanks Dave, but I'd guess that the income would be offset against the borrowings. That side of it isn't something that worries me greatly, but a good point.

Hi, not sure whether anyone can help me with this one. I'm looking at moving back to the UK from Oz. To ensure some stability (as best as poss in the circs) for my children, I want to purchase a house before going back there. That way we'll know where we're living and they can get settled into the schools and community straight off. We moved out to Australia as children and I have memories of a horrible transitional time when we had no stable housing and we kept moving around and changing schools. It was horrible and scarred me for life. So I want to buy the house back in the UK before we get there. The thing is, it could be some months before we get there. :jiggy:Paying the mortgage on that will get very expensive while still living over here. So - finally the question - does anyone have any experience of renting a house out on short-term rental terms in the UK? How did it go? Do you have any tips? An info gratefully received. NB the location will be on the south side of Greater London.

Thanks for those tips - I'll have to work out what to do with all the stuff we won't need. I wonder if I can get a charity org to come in and take it all away... I agree about store prices in the UK, they seemed pretty good when I was there recently (if only the same were true for housing!)... Being new to these forums, I'm having trouble working out how to do PMs and emails. I haven't found the instructions on the site all that enlightening I'm afraid to say.

Thanks for the reassurance Aymie!

Thanks for that info....er, I don't actually have statutory experience (does that mean child protection work?) - I've worked in counselling, family support (preventative) type roles in rehabilitation, disabilities, and hospital settings...

Hello, I'm trying to sort out how to move back to the UK but without a job I'm going to (ie. I'll need to search when I get there, and won't have time to do that initially as I'll be needing to get the children settled into school etc). Hence, I really need to work out how to do this as economically as possible. Does anyone have any tips on this? Eg. If my car's reliable but only worth about $8,000 is it worth shipping it over? Is it worth bringing all our furniture and household goods with us, or just some essentials and better quality items? Eg. Some removalist quotes I've filled out have asked if we're packing mops and brooms - is it really worth shipping that kind of stuff? Also, does anyone know how hard/easy it is get employment in social work/community services sector in the Greater London area? And also, since I'm looking at moving to the Greater London area and can only afford the SE/Kent borders locations and some outer SW locations at a pinch - any objective advice on locations and schools in those areas would be avoided. There is horrible hate site called ChavTowns UK or something, that keeps coming up in all my searches of these locations, but having looked at ChavTowns UK more closely the contributors seem to be generally pretty prejudiced people from private school backgrounds and almost no London suburb seems to escape being accused of being Chavish except Chelsea and Mayfair, from what I could work out. So not very helpful. I'm really seeking objective advice here. My income level and life circs. probably put me in the Chav group anywhere, but I do want to keep my children away from violence and drug dens, so really, where are the spots are I really need to avoid? I'm bound to think of some further questions - the ones above are just for starters.