shelz Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 So... in short we are all booked to fly out end of November, with holiday rental set up, job lined up to start in January on PR visa. All good, we have the visa's, nearly due to put notices in for work, move cube was packed up and collected last week with most our essential items. Last big hurdle -our house... not sold and we were (short sighted i know) banking on it selling to raise the extra pennies for settling in until I start my new job ie. buy 2nd hand car, deposit for a rental and rent up front, mobiles etc, Christmas...the list goes on and although we technically don't need thousands and thousands about 5k would have tided us over. So house sale fell through at this point and only 'settling in money we can raise would be in the next 9 weeks salary - just isn't going to cut it i think :-/ Really not sure what to do... I have lots of different options in my head - best case scenario - we have reduced our asking price on our house again and hope for a very quick sale; try to get a re-mortgage for a buy to let - but then we would need lots of safety certificates which would cost and end up with no 'lump sum' - unless i found a very good btl mortgage where i could take some equity out of the house; try to re-mortgage on a residential mortgage and request a small lump sum of equity to help us sell the property and continue to market it and pay the mortgage whilst it sits empty...; hand the keys back to the mortgage company and go with what we can manage to raise before we go worst case.. not emigrate in 9 weeks :-( Also I have the move cube which has been collected last week - although not shipped yet and is still in UK - not even sure if i could ask for it back and charges for it! We have paid our £200 deposit and our next payment is due now of £810 before departure...what a mess - dilemma's having a meltdown. Then worst case if we decide not to emigrate in 9 weeks and take a holiday instead (visa validation) work will not allow me the time off (not for 5 weeks) and the children would be classed as missing school, and the payment for flights back :-/ and we will be very sad :-( Any helpful suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robfromdublin Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 The way I see it, this is a cashflow problem and you can get around it. You can live very cheaply in Oz if you need to. You already have a job lined up? Great. You just need to limp through until your first pay cheque. Do you need a car or will public transport do? Can you put the cost of a move cube on a credit card? Can you stay in the holiday rental for a while to save up for a deposit? You can get sim cards and use your current phones, scale back Christmas, avoid expensive food, etc. if you need to. Maybe you could put all your day-to-day expenses for the next 9 weeks on your credit card and that should give you some savings. You obviously need to pay this off as soon as possible though. You need to think about options if the house doesn't sell. Paying a mortgage on an empty house is not tenable and we're finishing up selling season so what if it doesn't sell until next year? You should look into a BTL mortgage and the cost of renting it out as your fall back. Maybe you can't get equity out and maybe you can. Maybe the cost of safety certificates, etc is not too bad. You can't know until you find out. Also consider the long term financial implications of dropping the price even further for a quick sale. Can you live with this? Would you rather a bit of pain now to either keep the property or to avoid selling well below market value? It's easy to feel overwhelmed, so methodically write down all the little tasks you need to get done and work your way through them. Call mortgage brokers, safety certificate people, rental property managers. Figure out exactly how much you will have to pay out, and how much you can put on credit cards, etc. It's a lot to do but you'll get there if you don't panic and just tick things off as you go. Best of luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevsan Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 Agree with all the above. You can manage on a shoestring if you need to and dont make any rash short term decisions. Have you approached your current provider to see if you can get permission to let, so you dont need to change mortgages?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 I will offer an alternative. We were in a very similar situation when we moved. Though slightly worse as we had absolutely no money to move with and didn't ship any furniture! When I say no money, I mean we would have struggled to pay the taxi to the train station. So, we sold to one of those companies that guarantee to buy your house. We got a lot less than the valuation price, but still plenty to set us up and they did the purchase in a matter of a few weeks. It ended up a major win for us, as the GFC hit within weeks after and the house price ended up less than we sold it to this company for. The worst thing you can do is hand the keys into the bank. That would be a major default and destroy your credit rating - and the bank will then sell it very cheaply and you may still end up having a debt with the bank. Remember, that over 1 in 3 Brits who move to Oz end up moving back to the UK - don't burn your bridges. I would also say you are going to need more money than you think. If you have only sent a move cube, then you are going to need furnishings at this end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 25, 2015 Share Posted September 25, 2015 All fair points. If you do decide to go ahead and move when you had planned, keep in mind the furnishings issue once you arrive. But its not a disaster. Loads of stuff is given or sold on gumtree, buy and sell groups on social media and at garage sales. We half furnished our house with things from all of those. Only the sofa and chairs are brand new. Everything else is second hand or free. My best find so far is a big square solid wooden coffee table by the side of the road with a 'Free' sign stuck to it. Brought it home and it fits perfectly. Also another coffee table was in someones front yard with 'free' on it and as I was loading it into the car the guy came out to give me a hand. I said what a great table and he said they had the welsh dresser and table with 6 chairs to match inside but those were for sale on Gumtree. I made him an offer of less than $200 for those and he said sold. Went and picked them up a few days later and here they are. I use the table as my desk, the chairs are spares and the welsh dresser is in the family room seeing lots of use. Places like KMart, Target and Ikea are good for cheap basics if you need them to start. And also rock up to garage sales and you can find loads of stuff to haggle over and be going on with. FWIW with the move, I'd be coming over still when planned and doing whatver to rejog the mortgage or selling. You have a job to start, have a bit of a cheapie summer holiday till then and perhaps pick up some casual work before then. If you really want to make it happen it should come together somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelz Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 So... in short we are all booked to fly out end of November, with holiday rental set up, job lined up to start in January on PR visa. All good, we have the visa's, nearly due to put notices in for work, move cube was packed up and collected last week with most our essential items. Last big hurdle -our house... not sold and we were (short sighted i know) banking on it selling to raise the extra pennies for settling in until I start my new job ie. buy 2nd hand car, deposit for a rental and rent up front, mobiles etc, Christmas...the list goes on and although we technically don't need thousands and thousands about 5k would have tided us over. So house sale fell through at this point and only 'settling in money we can raise would be in the next 9 weeks salary - just isn't going to cut it i think :-/ Really not sure what to do... I have lots of different options in my head - best case scenario - we have reduced our asking price on our house again and hope for a very quick sale; try to get a re-mortgage for a buy to let - but then we would need lots of safety certificates which would cost and end up with no 'lump sum' - unless i found a very good btl mortgage where i could take some equity out of the house; try to re-mortgage on a residential mortgage and request a small lump sum of equity to help us sell the property and continue to market it and pay the mortgage whilst it sits empty...; hand the keys back to the mortgage company and go with what we can manage to raise before we go worst case.. not emigrate in 9 weeks :-( Also I have the move cube which has been collected last week - although not shipped yet and is still in UK - not even sure if i could ask for it back and charges for it! We have paid our £200 deposit and our next payment is due now of £810 before departure...what a mess - dilemma's having a meltdown. Then worst case if we decide not to emigrate in 9 weeks and take a holiday instead (visa validation) work will not allow me the time off (not for 5 weeks) and the children would be classed as missing school, and the payment for flights back :-/ and we will be very sad :-( Any helpful suggestions? Thank you for your helpful replies - it really has helped us to think a little clearer about the 'do we go as planned or not' - we have decided it would cost just as much to return to the UK and get our furniture back, as to set up in Oz. So we have decided we will risk it and go for it :-/ So we have added everything up we can possibly save (and still pay the bills here until end December including the mortgage) and reckon we could muster up 4K. Not alot to set up but this is worst case scenario and hopefully I start my new job on 4th January - our holiday let will be paid for until 11th January. Think it will be hard though as we need to get a cheap car, find a longer term let from 11/1/2016, eat and sort out Christmas! In regards to the house, we have reduced the price again and if their is no more interest before next week we may look into re-mortgaging, taking some equity and over a longer term to reduce the monthly payments until its sold - maybe we will get accepted/maybe not - but i guess they can only say no... Unable to get a BTL mortgage as with the new rules I would need another UK residential property - so we don't meet the criteria... we have asked if we are allowed consent to lease as a back up - we await the response... At least we are focused in our plans in our goal to go with our original plan and make it work - fingers crossed! Although we continue to be worried... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dxboz Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Could you delay coming over by three or four weeks? Would give you longer earning an income in the UK and less time in Australia without a wage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sm02fly Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Take a payment holiday on the mortgage for the time you move- most will allow a couple of months? Also if you decide you must sell soon rather than BTL, you could look into switching it to interest only? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpingjellybean Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 best case scenario - we have reduced our asking price on our house again and hope for a very quick sale Sounds like a plan..........and advertise like crazy. Are you on Facebook? If so, I know of several people who have advertised their house on there and got a quick sale from friend of a friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adaminoz Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 Hi Mr mortgage company: 1) can we take out a BTL mortgage - NO 2) er..ok..can we have permission to let out the house on the current mortgage - NO 3) can we change to interest only - NO Okie dokie then, I'm posting the keys back. That's pretty much what happened when I moved over. And what do you know, a week later we got permission to let out the house for a 200 quid 'admin fee'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheeny89 Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 Just to put my two-penneth in We sold ours via auction as a year had gone past and no dice. Sure we got a lot less than we were initially after which meant we didn't have the lovely lump of cash we wanted to bring over here - but we got rid in an otherwise bleak outlook. Did consider renting out but to be honest i didnt like the idea of getting a dreaded phonecall from the other side of the pond to tell me my house was on fire and suchlike (i am one of those 'worst case scenario' types) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 I rented my house out on a regular mortgage with only a vague verbal permission for two years but in fact we tenanted for five years. As mortgage was being paid, I took my chances that the bank would not notice or care. Landlord insurance obtained of course. Still for OP, lowering the price and selling appears to be the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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