Cutting it close <=Random

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Cutting it close

Wed 2008-04-30 18:36

[Update 2008-04-29 (3): Now I've booked storage as well, at least that is less than 100 quid. There should be less stress now:

pick up van tomorrow
have all of Thursday to move stuff into storage
cleaners come in on Friday
meanwhile we sign documents and check-in to new place then move in essentials
on Saturday we take final meter readings and give keys to agents
for rest of Sat/Sun we move stuff from storage to new place
on Monday we rest
on Tuesday I do check-out inspection of old place
and back to work!

We end up paying about 400 quid more than planned, though save maybe 150 on rent-overlap. Given I'm putting a week of leave into it too I guess we'll just call it a "holiday" and put other holiday plans back to later in the year.

[Update 2008-04-29 (2): Hrmph, "because it was professionally cleaned before you moved in you must have it professionally cleaned before you check out." Now, I know I can clean the place to a better condition than it was in before I moved in myself, especially since the condition report specifically states there was dust on everything! Anyway, it isn't worth arguing ... so there goes 210 quid. sigh Of course, this really pushes on the time pressure. Now I have to have everything out by Friday morning, so I guess I'll try to get everything but the bed into the van on Thursday and hope that everything will fit in one van. We may end up disposing of some of our old 2nd hand chairs, no great loss, just lucky we own no sofas/etc I guess.]

[Update 2008-04-29: Finally have confirmation and Friday it will be. Though the check-in can't be earlier than Friday midday. This gives us Friday evening and Saturday to move – not enough time. So my plan to hire a man+van is quashed. Instead I've hired a van for a week, from tomorrow through to Tuesday, and we'll be able to store some larger items in it to make space for proper cleaning of the apartment. Having the van will make things somewhat more flexible at least. On the bright side, having only 2 days of lease overlap means we save about as much in overlapped rent as we'll spend hiring a van (compared to having the 7 day overlap I'd originally hoped for.) Plus, hiring the van for 6 days is only a little more expensive than the man+van for 5 hours. The drawback is that I'll have to do all the heavy lifting on my own – we're two flights of stairs up from the car-park and there's no lift.]

So, I was told the place we're moving to was available "right away." Here we are, 5 days before kick-out date, and we still can't have access to it! It's two weeks since it was supposed to be available "right away" too. At a pinch they think they might be able to give us access to it on Friday (we're in the current place until Saturday) – so long as we're OK to have the place cleaned up around us in the coming weeks.

Here I studiously avoid typing a long string of expletives, the effort makes my brow sweat.

Love this, such fun, I should move more often.

Looks like it might get expensive or difficult. At worst case it'll be hiring self-storage and booking a hotel – fingers crossed it won't be that bad.

And I was planning to move on Wednesday… ho ho ho.

On the bright side, on Sunday I made a chicken stock good enough that it set like jelly. Tonight I'll make a mushroom (standard agaricus) and porcini (dried) risotto. That'll be the last real meal I make here, from then onwards it'll be reheated soups and take-outs (given potential costs I think we'll rein in on the eat-outs.)

2 Responses

sam wrote: (2008-04-29 13:47:27 UTC)

On this side of the Atlantic every lawyer in a 50 mile radius would be hearing ka-ching sounds...

All my recent moves (NY->CA->CT) in 6 months have made me swear off ever owning furniture ever again. Of course I doubt that will last long...

Yvan wrote: (2008-04-29 13:57:14 UTC)

I wondered about "legal recourse," must be a brain-infection spread out of the US. I think that sort of thing is "not done" in the UK, at least not for trivial matters. Surely this sort of crap is painful enough without involving lawyers. As if dealing with real-estate agents wasn't already painful enough!

Furniture-wise we're lucky - almost everything we own packs flat. Hooray for Ikea furniture. Also, in Australia you usually own and lug around your own fridge and washing machine, here they're almost always part of the deal.

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Cutting it close

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