We have to move out of our house.....

[LaCerbiatta]

The landlord just told us he won't be renewing our contract... I can't believe we're moving again after just 18 months.... Moving house is such a hard, expensive, stressful thing to do...

Not sure why I'm posting this.... sympathy, I guess! And if any of you nice ladies knows of a house to rent near Queen Edith school, please let me know!

Gloom. That really sucks. All that nonsense one hears spouted on the radio by people who "just can't understand why people aren't happy about renting in this country, like they are on the continent"...

Oh no. Did he give a reason?. Is he a buy to let landlord who is just selling up?

That's exactly what I thought umf! This is why people buy! Why would you want to live in the permanent fear that you'll have to move your self, your children, your furniture, your stuff, with a 2 month notice, not knowing if you'll find anywhere decent?

I'm sure in the continent is not like this. I know in Portugal it isn't, the law protects the tenants, not the landlords. Of course this can be frustrating if you have a house you want to rent out just for a couple of years, but today I don't care about landlords!

I don't know Boris, I assume so. We are not allowed to communicate with the landlord, it's all done via the agency...

tugamommy i sympathise with you. we were renting and had to move - its not like renting is even a cheap option! hope you find somewhere soon x

Well, if I can persuade dh to move to portugal as we had sort of planned, ours will be up for rent - it's in morley area but q e not far.. but not till next year - sorry that was really unhelpful...

I want to move back to Portugal (it's home )!!

Why are you thinking about going?

tugamommy, hi. Do not remind me of moving out. This is our 4th house in just over a year because of landlords and agents (one dodgy agent, two dodgy landlords). We hope the present landlord does not sell it soon. We are just tired. Even though we are not prepared to move out I am still checking the websites just in case. What a life.

It's not fair, is it? Some houses should come with long term contracts for tenants who know they want to stay.

I really feel for you Colourworld! 4th house in over a year?? I feel almost blessed with our 18 month contract!

Thanks tugamommy :)
And you know that when you have a child at school you have to leave within the catchment area or somewhere next to it. This house is not in the catchment area whereas the previous house was. The demand for the houses near the school is very high if not extremely high. So, if we have to move out again (I hope not that soon) we will be lucky if we find something within the catchment area. Our previous landlord had to move to another county so had to sell that house to buy a new one (I guess the deposit was huge). Otherwise we would stay, of course we would. Moving out with children is only easy when you have enough cash to pay for the removal company. In our case we had to do everything ourselves. Fortunately we did not have lots of things but then you have to submit the house as clean as a mirror even though it was FAR from that when we moved in.

I know! If you're restricted to a certain area it's 10 times harder to find a place.

I also sympathise with having to the move yourselves. We did that last time and it was hell! I was pregnant and working full time with a 1.5 hour commute each way and it was hell! This time I've managed to convince dh that we have to get help. I prefer to go into debt than to have to do it again!!

Fingers crossed you can stay where you are until YOU want to move out!

Next time we will hire Man & Van; they can do a job £30.00/hour. Very good. As for cleaning, I think we will have to do it ourselves. Windows take a lot of time because the frames get dusty very quickly.

Wishing you luck!

Portugal because it is DH's 'spiritual hone' - he is wierdly the least spiritual person I have ever met, but spent years there before he saddled himself with me, three kids and a mortgage - I mean, settled down . He finally got us as a family to go there on holiday twice this year, and we're planning to go again. For me personally, i was really interested in the amount of homelessness there, and, as that is my trade, as it were, would love to go and work there to see the difference betwen here and there. Obviously, for the children, the benefits would be huge and DH can relive his youth and lounge about shagging ladies running a bar. Typical brits abroad pipe dreams I guess [grin}

Yes, poverty and homelessness are up to really high levels with a tendency to increase, unfortunately. The recession has hit people really hard, with rises in taxes, salaries being frozen or cut and the few benefits that exist being badly affected.... Last time I was there, a couple of months ago, I saw people going through bins looking for food

But, it's a wonderful country and I can't wait to be back there for good!
Your children will love it! Where would you go?

Me too - the bins thing I mean. There was a fabulous poster campaign I used at work recently that was done in Portugal - words inside bins saying 'this is someone's dinner' or similar..Read an interesting article out there as well about benefit claimants coming more from cape verde, south america etc. It would be the eastern algarve I think.

The eastern Algarve is lovely!! I always go there on holiday!