Relocating within the UK - how did you do it?

[purplemack]

We are relocating from London to Bristol next year (I have to move for work) with twins who will then be going into year 4. I'm a pretty good problem solver and planner but this seems like the worst kind of logistical nightmare!

How did you go about it? Did you sell or rent out your old house? If you rented at first in the new location, at what point did you commit to paying rent (were you paying rent AND your mortgage for a time)? When and how did you actually move? And then the biggest question... how did you manage the timings of the in-year school applications??

Help! My head is spinning...

No idea about how to do it
But just wanted to say Bristol is great!
What areas are you looking at? X

It's a total nightmare I agree!
We relocated a couple of years ago and the plan was to buy/sell at the same time and do an in-year application. We found a house first, applied to the local school (primary) having been for a visit and been told by the head it'd be fine. Aaaaaaand the house fell through last minute and we were rejected for school places but had to move anyway because the new job started. Cue a scramble to find a rental house and a school, we went for a private one in the end.
So in hindsight, I'd either plan to rent first, or have good backup plans in case things fell through.

Good luck.

We've just relocated from Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire to Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. My husband has a job in Spalding and Peterborough is the nearest large town. It's a 35minute drive from home to work, the distance is 20 miles.

We came to Spalding for a couple of days to look for property to rent here and in Peterborough.

My husband started his new job on 25th July. We paid for a rental car for the week, I had our car to get to work etc. We paid for him to stay in a hotel for four nights in Spalding.

We paid just short of £2,000 for a removal company to move us. A three bedroom house lot of stuff. No kids, no pets. (No grand piano or crystal chandelier either !)

We gave one month's notice on our old house on 13th July. We took up the rental of our new house on 1st August giving us a 12 day overlap where we were renting a vacated house and the 'new' house.

We moved out on 31st July. Prior to that we paid someone to tidy the garden, shrubs, flower beds, patio and hard standing back to how it looked in the marketing photos. We also paid for the windows to be cleaned inside and out and we had all the carpets vacuumed and some professionally cleaned where necessary. This was at the request of our letting agent. All in this cost, a few hundred pounds. So, we don't want to hear any whining about things not being up to scratch as an excuse not to refund our deposit in full.

We could have left it but we wanted control of what it cost to do what had been requested.

We kept the keys and sent them back to the letting agent on 10th August.

Our movers brought the furniture, fridge freezer and washing machine into the house. The bought all the boxes in too. We unpacked as that was the service we had paid for. We're still unpacking boxes now or rearranging furniture etc. In fact, this morning we took an old short book case and an ottoman/blanket box to the charity shop as it's become surplus to requirements. (Why wasn't this done before moving ? Oh I dunno, ask me another !)

We should get our deposit back from our previous rental next week.

We got a council tax refund though as the 'old' house was vacated and empty of furniture.

We just took meter readings at the 'old' house e.g. gas, water, electricity. The same at the, 'new' house.

We set up a mail forwarding service and are systematically working through the other changes of address i.e. car, insurance company etc.

We've done this several times and have moved into a rental in close proximity of the school we wanted each time. You can't really be too choosey regarding property in a certain location - just view it as being temporary and a means to an end and you will survive it. We've either sold our old house or rented it out for a period before selling. It's always good to negotiate a good relocation package in your new job so that your first year of renting in the new area is at least subsidised. On only one occasion when our sale dragged on for 9 mths with the chain breaking down twice did we get majorly stressed. Yes, we were paying both rent and mortgage for that period so it was a strain. The upside is that you can take your time buying and you are chain free so you can get to know the new area and local housing market really well before committing to a purchase. Good Luck!

Thanks for taking the time to reply! God, it really is a minefield.

Agree that any rental we get at first in Bristol will have to be purely a location decision. Having played the primary school lottery in London (and got our 5th choice) I know that we'll pretty much need to be able see our chosen school from the window to get in! 😬

Sadly a relocation package is off the cards... it's my own business (my biz partner, and indeed the business itself, is in Wiltshire so we're moving closer) and we don't have the cash in the bank for relocation. But, my biz partner will put me up while I search for schools and a rental property which will save some money.

What about the in-year applications? Did you guys all apply to the school after moving your whole family? I'm wondering if I should take a short lease on a one bed flat and start the process on my own... or is that crazy?!?

In answer to the question about areas (thanks for the reassuring Bristol love!) we're looking north of the city centre. Probably the usual places for relocating Londoners in fact: St Andrews, Montpelier, Westbury Park, Henleaze.... those places all feel most like home to me 😊