Moving house/Covid/Children

[MoirasRoses]

Due to exchange on Monday & move the following (30th). I’m not holding my breath as sorting out a date has been a joke but this is the current plan.

I’m so torn as to what to do with my eldest who is in pre-school. She goes 3 days a week & so far we’ve dodged any isolation. But I just feel like this will inevitably be the week someone tests bloody positive & her bubble needs to isolate .. I could obviously just not send her but I also need to pack our house 😫 & she is 100% not conducive to that (we also have a 8 month old). Two other families in the chain have school aged children. So there is a risk there as well. Obviously, that’s out of my hands. But I’d hate to have pulled her out for a week, only to not then be able to move 😫

I bloody hate all this. If house moving isn’t stressful enough.. what are all you upcoming movers with kids planning to do? Obviously, appreciate school aged kids, there isn’t much choice!

[Juststopswimming]

I think you can get a covid clause written into your contract (ie so if anyone has to SI the chain is held until the end of the SI period) not sure if that can include kids or not??

We are also hopefully moving soon and if either child has to SI then we will just put them in the car, drive them to the new house and then put them in an isolated room with an ipad! Appreciate thats not really possible if you have pre schoolers though...

[stopgocar]

We are in a similar boat. Hoping to be ready to exchange in the next few weeks. Looks like we will have to go for exchange and completion on the same day and take our chances with removal cancellation costs if we can't proceed. The risk of a school bubble being sent home to isolate between exchange and completion is too great. Not sure how I'm going to hold my nerve for it though!

[TheTeenageYears]

If you are using a removal company get a quote for them to pack. It's generally not as expensive as you would think and can be done so much quicker and more efficiently than you doing it yourself- especially with 2 young children in tow. It really would be money well spent if you can stretch to it.

[Gyptian]

We have this risk as well as we have 2 school aged children. Not got a date yet as the solicitors the vendors are using are beyond a joke and are holding things up.

I was thinking about a simultaneous exchange and completion but I’m not quite sure how it works. Do all parties exchange first and then it goes back to the bottom of the chain and then each one completes? Otherwise, there would be the risk of exchanging and completing on the house we’re selling but not on the house we’re buying risking being homeless! It sounds incredibly stressful, so I think I will ask for a gap. If the children have to self-isolate, as a previous poster said they will just have to go in the car with a tablet.

[123456kent]

Have exactly the same worry. Things i’m considering:
No nursery in week leading up to completion and relying on TV to look after my child a LOT
Taking the risk and if bubble bursts then asking if my parents can vacate their house for the few hours we are ‘homeless’ to hang out there.
A worst case scenario would be if us adults had to self isolate. With kids it feels a bit more manageable