We're in the middle of selling our flat to buy a house. The flat has been lovely but is too small, and it's part of an old Victorian villa which needs some love and we cannot afford to do it. The people buying it already own two flats here, and are going to do it all up, get it all damp coursed, new windows, etc.
We thought we'd be completed by October, but our searches showed up serious work on the house (movement, underpinning, wood beetles) that we had to have a structural engineer sort out. Then the people we're buying from told us that they can't move before January 15th as they are in a fixed-term mortgage.
The mortgage is based on DP's income as I started a new business in January. The end game, which the mortgage company were on board with, was that DP would come work in the business with me when it earns enough. But he's been made redundant today. He hasn't been there long enough to be entitled to any decent pay-off.
I think we have to pull out. It feels very risky to keep it going and hope he finds something in time, especially as his sector can be difficult to find work in. I could try and maximise new business, but I'd have no guarantee that I'd make enough to comfortably cover new costs... I could stretch, and we have some savings, but that feels risky.
But so does pulling out. If he can't find work, we can't move. We can't afford to have the flat fixed up to the level it needs to be, really, it's been beautiful but is a complete money hole. So we could end up stuck here, where there is barely room for the two of us... and I'm not getting any younger with regards to kids, we'd hoped to start trying after we get married early next year.
(No point cancelling the wedding, we're too close to get anything much back from what we paid, although we can and probably will scale some things down).
How do I go about this? Just tell our solicitors? Talk to our buyer? The estate agent?
DP is feeling like a complete failure and will want to bury his head in the sand, so I want to make a bit of a plan...