Selling up / shipping furniture

[Geordie girl]

Hi everyone, i wonder if I can pick your brains about something please.  I am British, moved to Australia in 1988 then moved back to England in December 2015.  I am possibly looking to move back to Australia next year but i am concerned about the sale of my house proceeding and everything going to plan.

When you sell a house in Australia, you know the house settlement date early on therefore you can schedule the removalist etc, whereas here in England, there's no guarantee until the exchange of contracts and right up until then, the whole thing can fall through. So due to this - how can you progress and book the removalise company etc.  i'd hate to think that my shipping container was packed, then the sale fell through!.

So, if you have moved from England to Australia, what did you do, how did you manage this and how did you make it work?

Thanks in advance 

 

[Quoll]

That's what happened to us. The bastards knew what date our shipping was happening then on that very day came back with a stupidly lower offer! Talk about being over a barrel. We were in a slightly different position though and it's all worked out for us in a very round about way which probably wouldn't be feasible for you. What I would do is to ask for 2-3 weeks following exchange before completion (once you've exchanged they're sort of expensively hooked in) and have  everything ready to go. You can get a move cube, rubbish skip and flight at short notice and just work your but off I those 3 weeks. We lived with most things in boxes for several weeks before uplift. 

In the end, we sent our stuff on the booked date in December, lived with the bare essentials for a while but then made the C19 driven decision to leave before completion. Booked tickets on Thursday afternoon, cleared house and left on Sat afternoon but we'd been selling /giving/putting stuff in a skip for months beforehand (parents house, 90 years of junk!). Even so, we filled another small skip on the Friday/Sat morning. Spent the night with son and grandson, flew out Sunday. 

Or, more likely, I wouldn't move!!!!! It's a right stressful nightmare and my blood pressure has reduced significantly!

Edited May 10, 2020 by Quoll

[Geordie girl]

Awwww bless.  Moving anywhere is stressful, but moving overseas is worse.  I dont know if to sell up and rent somewhere in order to ease the stress, or to just do it and hope all goes to plan.  Thank you for your reply

[AliQ]

15 hours ago, Geordie girl said:

Awwww bless.  Moving anywhere is stressful, but moving overseas is worse.  I dont know if to sell up and rent somewhere in order to ease the stress, or to just do it and hope all goes to plan.  Thank you for your reply

I'd sell and rent if you can. NEVER under estimate the stress of selling a house AND trying to move abroad (been there done that)

We're renting and as soon as the flights to Brisbane open up, we're off. Renting makes the process so easy and eliminates a lot of that stress.

Good luck.

[Wanderer Returns]

On 11/05/2020 at 20:43, AliQ said:

I'd sell and rent if you can. NEVER under estimate the stress of selling a house AND trying to move abroad (been there done that)

We're renting and as soon as the flights to Brisbane open up, we're off. Renting makes the process so easy and eliminates a lot of that stress.

Good luck.

Never a truer word spoken! I flew out to Brissie in January to start a new job. House sale agreed at the time, but that has now fallen through of course. Wife stuck in the UK waiting for a flight, and has lost her job. My income covering bills in the UK and the rent here. Now looking to rent our place out for the foreseeable future. Don't get me started!