Adventures of a Non-Binary Author – Setting a date

Mortgage offer through. Enquires satisfied. Home buyer’s survey complete. What was next? That’s what we ask ourselves, as we wait for you offer to reach our solicitor. Should we be thinking about moving dates now? It doesn’t take long for us to have our answer. Yes. The next step is setting a completion date. And it can be from as early as two week’s time.

But what about our tenancy? Before we can make any decisions we need to speak with our landlord. We’ve already spoken with him previously, with a plan for July. We need an idea of what would happen if it’s earlier than that. Our talk with him is productive. If we wish to leave earlier than July, we would need to help fill the rooms. Else the July plan is still good.

My partner and I take some time to discuss. We know we want some overlap between the two places. We are currently in May. The end of June is so close it makes almost no difference. If we have to pay for July here, completing in July would make more sense for us. But the overlap could work from the last week of June. We can move out whenever we need in July, we just need to be here in July.

We agree the July plan is the least stressful. We can move on our timescale, without the pressure of others waiting to move in. We tell our solicitor only about the July plan. He doesn’t think an end of June, beginning of July completion should be an issue. He puts the ball into the seller’s court.

It doesn’t take long to hear something. Last week of June would work best for the seller, when’s the earliest we could complete? I straight away contact my business manager. I don’t know what I’m working that week, but it’s likely she’s working on the schedule soon. I ask about the first three days of the last week of June. Do I have any of them off. I let her know I’m asking for completion, but that we would be moving in July. I don’t want days off I don’t need. We wait. It doesn’t take long for us to get our answer. I have two of those dates off.

It makes the most sense for us to complete on the earlier of the two dates. The later one can be used for white goods. So that’s the date we give our solicitor. Now we just need to wait for it to become official, and decide when in July we are moving. With everything we went through last time, who’d have thought it would all go so smoothly? Our new house is within reach. It’s only a matter of time now…

To be continued…