If you are new to this series and would like to start at the beginning, please go to Moving to Australia Part 1
In part 12 of moving to Australia, we finally sold our house and were celebrating homelessness. It’s difficult to put into words the contrast between what was happening in our lives before we sold the house compared with what happened afterwards. Especially as the house isn’t sold until contracts are exchanged, as we had discovered twice before.
Nothing much can be done with any certainty before the exchange, so it is a period of much inactivity. But once you have exchanged it is go go go! We had just three weeks in which we needed to cancel the gas, the electric, the rates, the telephone, change addresses on all credit cards, cancel the household insurance, sell the car, cancel the car insurance, pack, have a party, visit relatives, cancel Sky subscription services, cancel mobile phones blah blah blah blah blah and, on top of all that, find somewhere to stay in Australia as well as move out…..
All our worldly goods are sealed.......
...before disappearing into the night.
We promised ourselves or we wouldn’t do it, but in the end we did. We bought our house in Brisbane, sight unseen, (by us anyway) over the Internet. The alternative was to rent for the first 12 months, but we just thought that might be a waste of 12 months rent. And then we would have the expense of moving again when we wanted to buy somewhere.
So we bought this house where planning permission had already previously been obtained to build a second house behind it. Perfect we thought. If we don’t like the house we have bought, we can build one we do like out the back and sell the existing one. What can possibly go wrong?
I’ll save that for another post.
The other interesting thing about buying a house in Australia is that legally, they do it differently. As soon as our offer for the Australian house had been accepted, we had to pay 10% deposit. We were given two months to pay the balance in full. Failure to do so would result in loss of our deposit and invite possible legal proceedings against us if the seller chose to pursue it.
We had to commit to this before exchanging in the UK. As you can see, you may have to take some risks during this period.
Our final couple of weeks in England were hectic and nostalgic. I took the time to make one final visit to the park I used to play in when I was a small child….
say goodbye to the ducks…..
And take one final look at the house I grew up in from the age of two until I was about 13……….
Then on Sunday evening, the 11th of November 2007, I had my final beer in a real English pub. On the Monday, we were gone.
For a full chronological list and brief description of all the posts in this series about how I moved to Australia, please visit my page How to Move to Australia.
Related posts:
- Moving to Australia – Part Twelve
- Moving to Australia – Part Eight
- Moving to Australia – Part Fifteen
- Moving to Australia – Part Fourteen
- Moving to Australia – Part Six
