Help! New house in Brussels

[rushingrachel]

Hi all. Sadly I was made redundant yesterday. Big shock as have been working really hard and everyone seemed happy with my work. Our current house is very much too expensive on 1 salary and we need to downgrade. I would like something in Auderghem or WSP (liked the Stockel area recently on the cinema trip) max eur 1700 pref with 4 bedrooms. If any of you see such a thing that looks pleasant on your rounds could you let me know? I've had a look on immoweb today and there doesn't seem that much in that price bracket but never know what will come up I guess. We need to move in December so have a bit of time. I need to channel my energies into a move as I'm really depressed!

Well done, that was very quick, blimey took us 4 months to find our house! I can recommend a cheap and efficient removal company for you which is even based in Auderghem.

Not so good on the spots front though :-(

I'm not sure it was quick so much as luck. My husband is very keen to stay close to where we are (creature of habit), he'd like a proximate metro, and he wants somewhere where we can still feel like we have a nice house and somewhere nice for the kids. I've a vague sense for what's on the market at what price and in what condition, and as soon as I went into this house I felt we could be happy with it, it ticked the boxes and although smaller in some ways is nicer than what we have. And the price is very competitive and I know that's why she has so much interest. I could look at 20 places and this one would still tick the boxes even if others did so just sort of went with it. However I don't think the SPRL issue is closed, just parked because husband is away, so we may yet not get the place and have to start looking again. At least for now we still have a bit of time.

Would be really interested in the name of the expert and the removal company. Our current landlord will try to screw us. Even though on balance he's always been quite reasonable now we are leaving I know the gloves will come off. So a fair expert not one just totally instructed by him might be useful.

The spots are quite something!! Really there are a lot of things I am still learning about being a mum and had my Miriam Stoppard "Children's Health" out trying to compare the pictures!!

If you have put curtains/pictures up, it might be worth getting those bits painted via cheapish labour. When we did our exit from apartment (relative new build) we were charged 1500 euros for repainting various parts of rooms. We were even charged for a lightbulb that had just gone in the bathroom.

We were "asked" to leave our house early, in the end we were glad to leave early after him virtually moving in on us in the last month. Anyway, when we left our house in August, all our light bulbs were working, we even checked back at the house the day before exit inspection and found the light bulbs working. Suspiciously, the next day when we had our exit inspection, the landlord had been into the house again and 2 light bulbs had blown!!! Never in 3 years did we ever have 2 bulbs blow in a week, never mind a day. What a co-incidence. Cost is 10 euro per lack of working light bulb, I'm certain the landlord had deliberately changed those bulbs. Last laugh was on us, we had kept some spares!!! It was us who looked smug when we put new bulbs in during the inspection, landlord looked rather angry, he had just failed to get 20 euro extra out of us.

Our landlord has just been around and says he has already appointed an expert and the etat des lieux will be on 30th December. Is this normal ... I'm not really sure 30th december suits us.

Is this for the current house or old one. Hm you have the right to appoint your own expert but if the landlord does not like who you choose, then you will end up with 2, usually there is a bit of negotiation on this point, also on the day you start the contract, it is usually negotiable - for example we wanted to take up our current contract around 15th August, but since the landlord had been so reasonable, we agreed to him proposing 1st August.

Now I'm getting depressed. Having not received a contract from the new people for a week I mailed them yesterday to chase, as we now have only a month before our move date, and of that I'm supposed to be in the UK at half term for a week. Anyway the woman writes back and says "I don't have any contracts at home so I will have to go into town to get one and I'll try to do it this week, but please already let me know the name of the person the contract will be in and your bank for the guarantee". I'm not sure if I am the only person on earth who doesn't actually trust anything will happen until ink is dry on paper but I want to see the contract first before she assumes I will just agree to anything. Also with this issue with my husband's SPRL we need to see this standard form contract to see whether we need to make any changes and whether the landlord will be furious about it all.

And the fact is that if they really won't live with the SPRL thing we'll have to find something else and I really don't see much on the market at the moment and we're running short on time.

I wouldn't mind all of this uncertainty and bother if it were just us but with the kids it's a big deal and a lot to organise in a short time.

In addition to all of that the landlady is obsessed with the people who previously rented the house and does nothing but go on and on about what a charming wonderful lovely woman she was and how sorry she was for her that it all fell through. So in her mail yesterday she said she was seeing the wonderful charming lovely woman at the weekend and would let me know her actual date when she will be getting their stuff moved out. I am a bit fed up about this too because although I don't care about the date they move, I do think it needs to be sufficiently long before we are going to move in that if we need to get an etat des lieux done we can.

It's all totally annoying. If it wasn't so much the right house, and if I hadn't paid her money, I'd be seriously considering ditching it and starting again.

Grrrr.

Here's a house near Ecole du Bémel in the Chant d'Oiseau area of WSP, only 1200 euro 3 bed + office which could be 4th bedroom
www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3333129&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1

Here's a house 5 minutes walk from me, near rue au bois tram stop, just on edge of Stockel, exceptionally cheap for the area, 5 beds. 1600 euro.
www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3363173&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1

5 beds near Hermann-Debroux in Auderghem. 1600 euro.
www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.Estate.cfm?IdBien=3355168&xgallery=gallery&xpage=1

Possible 4 bed on Ave des Meuniers near Beaulieu in Auderghem, I really would go and look at this one!!! 1230 euro.
www.immoweb.be/en/Rent.estate.cfm?idbien=3344152&ongletactif=2&jpgnameinp=3344152_9.jpg&xincludedetail=2&xgallery=gallery&mycurrent_section=Rent&xbg=N#onglet

PS what is so hard about getting hold of a contract, here is the one we have with a few amendments?

www.pim.be/telechargement/bail_principal_v2009_bruxelles.pdf

I know that last house - friends used to own it before the wife moved to Greece and the husband moved to England!

Actually I don't think it would be suitable as it appears the third bedroom has been taken out (it was very small) to put in a proper staircase up to the attic (the stairs used to be a spiral staircase in the small bedroom). This would mean that you and the children couldn't all be on the same floor unless you put the boys in together.

Hope you get something sorted out soon. Fancy a visit some time next week?

The landlady finally sent the contract and it looks ok so it seems we may get the place we want after all. So we'll be contemplating the skip again I hope. All the same, there's loads we need to sort out, loads of timing issues etc. But feeling 100% further forward on this than I was yesterday. We would love a visit ... for a lady of leisure I am keeping remarkably busy (D has started school, bless) but you know how O loves to make eyes at you!

Ha, ha, I'd just like to point out that O is rr's ds2 and NOT her dh!!

How about Tuesday afternoon?

lol

Ha ha. No, confirm I was referring to the 7 month variant not the 37 year old.

Tuesday pm would be fine. D has a school trip in the morning (?!?!?!?!?!?) and they get back to school at 1.30 ... so could do 2.30 onwards.

Actually, Thursday at around 10h45 would be better. Is that possible?

I'm going to sign the lease on Thursday morning! Hurrah! So no, can't do that.

Aha Good news now.

I can offer you perhaps a few boxes, bit unsure as friend is moving on around 12th november and I am supplying her with boxes at the moment and don't know how many more she needs, we had around 150 of them. I'm very good at packing though if you want a hand.

Tuesday pm it is then! Congratulations!

Ooooh, boxes would be much appreciated. We are not moving until first weekend of December as we have a lot of stuff already planned in November and I don't want to cancel good stuff just for the pesky move. So whenever you know how many you have begging let me know! I think the issue at our place is the amount of sorting out we need to do, combined with the fact that the kids are not really at an age compatible with sorting, combined with the way the tip here is so draconian about what volume of stuff you can take. We could do with a weekend where we could make about 6 trips to the tip!!

Longtime, sorry for delayed response, was in UK at weekend, yes lovely to see you tomorrow afternoon.

Hope the lease signing went well. Drove past the house on the way home from school yesterday. Looks nice! It will be great to have you so close :)