The Pioneering Accountant returned from London on Saturday afternoon. Just a few hours later an email arrived with the news we’d been hoping for: our London tenants had seen another house they liked and their offer had been accepted. The way was clear for us to move back into our own house in August. We could hardly contain our delight.
We started to plan: what to get out of storage, how to reconfigure the children’s bedrooms. My husband suggested we put in new floor boards throughout the ground floor. I was keen to paint over the purple wall our tenants have installed in one of the bedrooms. In my head I had already re-hung all my pictures, bought a dog to walk on the Common à la Jilly Cooper and was enjoying catching up on local news with friends and neighbours.
Our minds were racing with the excitement. This morning at 3.30am we were wide awake and talking through our plans, our hopes.
As we got up my husband checked his Blackberry, as is his wont. An “urgent” email had been sent at 11.30pm last night, long after our Hong Kong bedtime. Our tenants had changed their minds and had withdrawn their offer on the new house.
The disappointment hit us like cold water. The prize of returning to our own house had been within our grasp. To have it snatched away is bitter indeed. We have spent the day sighing and grrrrrring through gritted teeth. The frustration is tangible and the roller coaster of hope raised, then dashed, almost unbearable.
We are now back to square one. We have no house to move into and no further opportunity to view prior to our return. Whilst our tenants are, in principle, prepared to move out, I am starting to fear they will find fault with every other rental property in SW15. I’m also beginning to suspect the rent must have been too low if nothing else in their budget is as nice. My husband, on the other hand, foresees a scenario in which we rent another house for a year and a month later our tenants find something they like and move out of ours. Let’s hope that for once he’s wrong.
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7 comments:
Sorry that really sucks, don't they have any heart it's your house.
:-( How infuriating!
Who do they think they are painting a wall purple too? If I had done that in any of the places I rented I would have lost my security deposit when I moved out to cover the cost of having it repainted!
I do hope your hubby's wrong - that would be even more infuriating!
The kids are all set to go back to their old schools though, right?
Grrrr.
I'm really fuming on your behalf!
As for painting walls - that sounds very out of order, was it in the contract that they could redecorate. Our new contract in US specifically says no painting!
NVG
x
I hope it all works out!! Fingers crossed for you.... x
Don't lose hope. We were literally just in the very same situation. Our tenants didn't get back to us at all (we were returning early to the US from Poland) and we had resigned ourselves to renting for a year or whatever. Then suddenly one day they were all "we would like to move out and we'd like you to give us a month's rent free for breaking the lease early and also return our security deposit immediately and ... let us know by the end of today." Good heavens!
We thought about it, and since we hadn't actually asked them to break the lease (just idly wondered to them if they might be interested in moving early) we said, "Never mind."
Strangely enough, they called back 2 days later and said "Fine, we'll be out of the house in 2 weeks, and never mind about all that money hornswoggle we were on about."
Weird, but it worked out brilliantly in the end. So don't give up. A lot of landlords are giving extra incentives (like free months rent) to try to fill their empty properties, so you could be in luck. It may still all go to plan.
But it is really hard to wait. The uncertainty is killing.
ARGH. How infuriating. Don't give up hope. Surprising things can always happen.
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