Relocating into rented & leaving empty home while selling

[humidityhair]

Hello, we’ve had a huge change in circumstances like many people since Covid 19 and we’re having to relocate for new work.

We’ve got new good jobs, found a house to rent and now the focus is on how to manage an empty property while it sells.

I’m assuming that conveyancing will take anywhere up to 9 months (hopefully less!)? So I’ll be looking at empty property insurance.

What else do we need to do / plan for? We’re only moving about 150 miles away so able to pop back for weekends for maintenance until completion.

Is there anything else we need to think about? Apart from the additional council tax & bills

Thanks in advanced

I tend to catastrophise due to a panic disorder so am anxious about all of the change

Do you have a trusted neighbour who you can give a key to? Have you informed Council Tax - you used to get a discount on an empty property but not sure if that's still the case? You might want to switch off the boiler and gas and the stopcocks.

@Lightsabre yes we have a wonderful neighbour. She has access.

We haven’t informed council tax just yet - going to do it either today or Monday. We get a small discount thankfully.

I’ll look into water and heating. Thanks

Check your insurance situation carefully with a broker, don't rely on online. If your house is unoccupied for more than 30 days then most normal insurance becomes invalid. Conversely, if you stay one or two days per month, you may be able to hang on to normal domestic house insurance. If you have a mortgage, be careful not to let insurance become invalid; then you are not just uninsured, but also in breach of your mortgage conditions.

What's your security situation? If you will have internet available (or neighbours will let you log onto theirs) then a Blink XT2 from Amazon is great for keeping an eye on the house.

Not sure why you think that selling will take 9 months?

Good luck

@filka thank you! Will have a careful read.

I just thought 9 months would be worse case scenario. It took 5 months to buy it

We do actually have a camera and I might ask the neighbour if we could use her WiFi. Such a good idea thank you!

We are able to sleep over every month if required. But will examine the insurance very carefully

What sort of price bracket is your house in?

Many homes looked better furnished.

We have paid for a professional house dressing company in London. Worked a treat.

I did it and had to pay rent and mortgage for 6 months - that was a catastrophe for me, it nearly broke the bank.