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Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Old Nov 5th 2004, 10:12 am
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Question Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Hiya everyone

I am at the stage with my visa now that I am hoping to be out in Oz next March. The house is on the market with a second viewing tonight ( fingers crossed they want it !!)

The visa has now been passed to Centrelink and as we dont have to have an interview I am hoping to get the visa early next year ( i would love it before Xmas but I dont think its going to happen !!)

Anyway !! I really need some advice from those who have already done the move as to how I plan the next few months.

If the house sells soon- I guess we will move out at the end of January sometime- if we dont have the visa at that point I'm not sure what we do next. Renting is an option but nowhere seems to do short term rental and I don't want to spend another 6 months in blighty if I dont have to !!

Can't really stay with family/ friends as we have two cats and I can't expect people to take them aswell ( putting them in a cattery will cost a fortune and we are already paying nearly £2000 to take them to OZ)
I am just unsure of our options ???

Also if the visa is there by the time we move out of the house , how do we go about booking flights etc

When you exchange contracts, its normally only a week or so until you move out isnt it ?? If so then we cant really book flights etc until we exchange ( especially as you hear all these stories about people pulling out at the last minute )

So after this long long post- basically I would love any advice from those who have done it all before or those in the planning stage like me !!!!!


Many thanks in advance

Nat xxx
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Old Nov 5th 2004, 10:43 am
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Default Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Originally Posted by natty
Hiya everyone

I am at the stage with my visa now that I am hoping to be out in Oz next March. The house is on the market with a second viewing tonight ( fingers crossed they want it !!)

The visa has now been passed to Centrelink and as we dont have to have an interview I am hoping to get the visa early next year ( i would love it before Xmas but I dont think its going to happen !!)

Anyway !! I really need some advice from those who have already done the move as to how I plan the next few months.

If the house sells soon- I guess we will move out at the end of January sometime- if we dont have the visa at that point I'm not sure what we do next. Renting is an option but nowhere seems to do short term rental and I don't want to spend another 6 months in blighty if I dont have to !!

Can't really stay with family/ friends as we have two cats and I can't expect people to take them aswell ( putting them in a cattery will cost a fortune and we are already paying nearly £2000 to take them to OZ)
I am just unsure of our options ???

Also if the visa is there by the time we move out of the house , how do we go about booking flights etc

When you exchange contracts, its normally only a week or so until you move out isnt it ?? If so then we cant really book flights etc until we exchange ( especially as you hear all these stories about people pulling out at the last minute )

So after this long long post- basically I would love any advice from those who have done it all before or those in the planning stage like me !!!!!


Many thanks in advance

Nat xxx

Do the cats have to stay in quarantine at all once they hit OZ??? and if so how long??? and then could they be sent before hand and then you stay with family/friends????
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Old Nov 5th 2004, 10:52 am
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Default Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Originally Posted by Siren
Do the cats have to stay in quarantine at all once they hit OZ??? and if so how long??? and then could they be sent before hand and then you stay with family/friends????
I think cats (and probably dogs as well) have to stay in quarantine for 30 days when they arrive in Australia.

After exchange of contracts, it can be as little as a week to completion, but most Mortgage companies like to complete 4 weeks after exchange of contracts. As the seller, you can negotiate a completion date that suits you, but in this market it's best to keep your buyers happy. One of my colleagues has told his buyers they cant move in for another 2 months and this is before they have even exchanged contracts, I personally think he is mad!!!!!
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Old Nov 5th 2004, 12:08 pm
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Default Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Just a little thing, If your cat or dog/s go to Fremantle you can see them every day but in Sydney its once a week.
They normaly stay in for 30 days and then you have to pay the animal pound about 700 asd to get them out, not sure if that is for one or two animals.
We are gonna Use Golden Arrow shippers as they seem the best.
PM me if you want their details. I am not linked to them in anyway

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Old Nov 6th 2004, 8:52 am
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Default Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Thanks everyone for your replies

I knew that the cats have to stay in quarantine for a month but that suited us really as that gave us 4 weeks once in OZ to find a property to rent ( we are lucky that we can stay with my sister for the first couple of weeks but her dogs wouldnt like our cats !!)

Thats good news about the month between exchange and completion- that gies us a lot more time to get things sorted.

Our cats are going to be in Melbourne and we won't be able to visit them as we will be in Tasmania- it will be heard to leave them for a month but thats life I guess.

I am also going to use Golden Arrow I think- they seemed really nice when I rang up- the only query is that they didnt mention whether they can pick the cats up- we are in Cambridgeshire and they are in Shropshire !! Hopefully they will be able to do this for an extra charge.

We had our second viewing last night and the couple ( first time buyers so no chain !!! ) bought their mum with them- they seemed to really like it and the mum said it was a lovely house so this morning I am hoping for a call from the agents with an offer- PLEAAAAASSSEEE


Please keep your fingers crossed for me as I will for all of you lot that are selling at the moment !!!

Once again thanks for all the advice and anymore is most welcome !!!!!

Nat xx
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Old Nov 6th 2004, 9:10 am
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Talking Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Originally Posted by natty
Hiya everyone

I am at the stage with my visa now that I am hoping to be out in Oz next March. The house is on the market with a second viewing tonight ( fingers crossed they want it !!)

The visa has now been passed to Centrelink and as we dont have to have an interview I am hoping to get the visa early next year ( i would love it before Xmas but I dont think its going to happen !!)

Anyway !! I really need some advice from those who have already done the move as to how I plan the next few months.

If the house sells soon- I guess we will move out at the end of January sometime- if we dont have the visa at that point I'm not sure what we do next. Renting is an option but nowhere seems to do short term rental and I don't want to spend another 6 months in blighty if I dont have to !!

Can't really stay with family/ friends as we have two cats and I can't expect people to take them aswell ( putting them in a cattery will cost a fortune and we are already paying nearly £2000 to take them to OZ)
I am just unsure of our options ???

Also if the visa is there by the time we move out of the house , how do we go about booking flights etc

When you exchange contracts, its normally only a week or so until you move out isnt it ?? If so then we cant really book flights etc until we exchange ( especially as you hear all these stories about people pulling out at the last minute )

So after this long long post- basically I would love any advice from those who have done it all before or those in the planning stage like me !!!!!


Many thanks in advance

Nat xxx
Hi Nat,

We're in a similar position to you. House sold, aiming to complete by the beginning of Dec. No family local to us and want the children to continue school. Hoping our visa will arrive soon but not interested in a six month rent agreement.

We've rented a holiday cottage near here for Dec and Jan (homeless in Feb!!) :scared: so we can pack and store our stuff and hopefully ship it the minute we get the visa. At least this way we'll be provided with all kitchen paraphenalia, bedding etc. Of course we could still fall flat on our faces

Our time scale suggests we should have the visa in Dec, so it's kind of an educated gamble, but of course we're at the hands of our case officer......so who knows?????

Best of luck with it all,

Phil x
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Old Nov 6th 2004, 1:19 pm
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Default Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Originally Posted by natty
Hiya everyone

I am at the stage with my visa now that I am hoping to be out in Oz next March. The house is on the market with a second viewing tonight ( fingers crossed they want it !!)

The visa has now been passed to Centrelink and as we dont have to have an interview I am hoping to get the visa early next year ( i would love it before Xmas but I dont think its going to happen !!)

Anyway !! I really need some advice from those who have already done the move as to how I plan the next few months.

If the house sells soon- I guess we will move out at the end of January sometime- if we dont have the visa at that point I'm not sure what we do next. Renting is an option but nowhere seems to do short term rental and I don't want to spend another 6 months in blighty if I dont have to !!

Can't really stay with family/ friends as we have two cats and I can't expect people to take them aswell ( putting them in a cattery will cost a fortune and we are already paying nearly £2000 to take them to OZ)
I am just unsure of our options ???

Also if the visa is there by the time we move out of the house , how do we go about booking flights etc

When you exchange contracts, its normally only a week or so until you move out isnt it ?? If so then we cant really book flights etc until we exchange ( especially as you hear all these stories about people pulling out at the last minute )

So after this long long post- basically I would love any advice from those who have done it all before or those in the planning stage like me !!!!!


Many thanks in advance

Nat xxx
Hi Nat
Hope all goes well with you and your visa/house sale - not sure if this will help you at all but this is our experience.
We hoped our visa would come through in May-ish 2004 but was actually granted at the very end of March. We had decided to wait until our visa was granted to even think about putting our house on the market so were quite shocked by the speed of the decision - lots of weekends spent painting and tidying followed until we were ready to put the house on the market - sold in about a month so we were really lucky. We booked our flights/movers/cat shippers (also two cats - also Golden Arrow who were superb by the way) once the sale was confirmed but prior to exchanging contracts as we were worried we wouldn't be able to get everything booked in time (trying to co-ordinate two cats NOT being in the house for the shippers was a real priority for us). We took the risk although did book the actual flights for two weeks after the agreed completion date, thus allowing us a holiday in Italy beforehand with some of our family...at the last minute the buyers buyers changed the completion date to the day we were due to fly to Australia!!!! Totally unmovable date -if it wasn't that date then they wouldn't buy!!!! You can imagine the stress at the airport!!!! The money went into our account literally a couple of hours before take off as the buyers money had 'got lost in the system' - had to buy a bottle of Aussie wine in the bar to celebrate and down it as a matter of principle !!!Still we did complete and everything worked out really well in the end for us. We then also had the problem of trying to find accommodation here in Oz quickly that would take our cats, again lucky as the first place we looked at were happy with the cats and although we love it here I think we could have found better so I would say spend as much time as possible viewing several places.
With our cats, we used to live in London and Golden Arrow picked them up from our house (actually cheaper than Airpets to take our cats from LOndon to Heathrow!!!) Would recommend Golden Arrow without reservation as we are sitting here now with two healthy, happy cats. Our solution was to put them in their cattery for a few extra weeks to buy time re the house sale etc

We had to make decisions and keep our fingers crossed - any plans we had were changed by circumstances and we were lucky.

Hope all goes well with you and that my ramblings are of some use

Susan
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Old Nov 6th 2004, 3:05 pm
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Red face Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Originally Posted by sunny_samantha
Hi Nat
Hope all goes well with you and your visa/house sale - not sure if this will help you at all but this is our experience.
We hoped our visa would come through in May-ish 2004 but was actually granted at the very end of March. We had decided to wait until our visa was granted to even think about putting our house on the market so were quite shocked by the speed of the decision - lots of weekends spent painting and tidying followed until we were ready to put the house on the market - sold in about a month so we were really lucky. We booked our flights/movers/cat shippers (also two cats - also Golden Arrow who were superb by the way) once the sale was confirmed but prior to exchanging contracts as we were worried we wouldn't be able to get everything booked in time (trying to co-ordinate two cats NOT being in the house for the shippers was a real priority for us). We took the risk although did book the actual flights for two weeks after the agreed completion date, thus allowing us a holiday in Italy beforehand with some of our family...at the last minute the buyers buyers changed the completion date to the day we were due to fly to Australia!!!! Totally unmovable date -if it wasn't that date then they wouldn't buy!!!! You can imagine the stress at the airport!!!! The money went into our account literally a couple of hours before take off as the buyers money had 'got lost in the system' - had to buy a bottle of Aussie wine in the bar to celebrate and down it as a matter of principle !!!Still we did complete and everything worked out really well in the end for us. We then also had the problem of trying to find accommodation here in Oz quickly that would take our cats, again lucky as the first place we looked at were happy with the cats and although we love it here I think we could have found better so I would say spend as much time as possible viewing several places.
With our cats, we used to live in London and Golden Arrow picked them up from our house (actually cheaper than Airpets to take our cats from LOndon to Heathrow!!!) Would recommend Golden Arrow without reservation as we are sitting here now with two healthy, happy cats. Our solution was to put them in their cattery for a few extra weeks to buy time re the house sale etc

We had to make decisions and keep our fingers crossed - any plans we had were changed by circumstances and we were lucky.

Hope all goes well with you and that my ramblings are of some use

Susan
Hi Susan, just had a quore from airpets ...gulp, so would appreciate a link to golden arrow, do they go the same time as we would fly, hopefully feb, or do they do it on seperate flights...
Confused cat lover Vi
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Old Nov 7th 2004, 8:41 am
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Default Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Hi Phil

Just wanted to say thanks soo much for the advice regarding renting a holiday cottage- I had not thought of it before and now it seems the perfect solution.

Not only would the holiday cottage rental proabably cost less than a normal rental agent but also there would be cooking stuff like you said and no huge deposit

I know the cats would probably not be welcome but I have resigned myself now to probably putting them in a cattery for a month or so before the move.

Once again thanks for the advice- I am now busily surfing holiday cottage websites !!!!

Nat xx
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Old Nov 7th 2004, 8:57 am
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Smile Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Originally Posted by natty
Hi Phil

Just wanted to say thanks soo much for the advice regarding renting a holiday cottage- I had not thought of it before and now it seems the perfect solution.

Not only would the holiday cottage rental proabably cost less than a normal rental agent but also there would be cooking stuff like you said and no huge deposit

I know the cats would probably not be welcome but I have resigned myself now to probably putting them in a cattery for a month or so before the move.

Once again thanks for the advice- I am now busily surfing holiday cottage websites !!!!

Nat xx
Glad to help

It took a while to find a place as a lot charge thru the nose and especially at Christmas. But we got one that welcomes pets (we don't have any) not too far out of the city and only 150 per week! We are really please with it as it has a big garden (handy when you have 4 kids!) & really nice owners who live next door.

In fact everything is falling into place at the moment after months of stress.....just that visa now :scared:

Phil x
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Old Nov 8th 2004, 12:28 am
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Default Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

Originally Posted by vivi
Hi Susan, just had a quore from airpets ...gulp, so would appreciate a link to golden arrow, do they go the same time as we would fly, hopefully feb, or do they do it on seperate flights...
Confused cat lover Vi

Hi
The Golden Arrow details are -
Golden Arrow Shippers
Lydbury North
Shropshire
SY7 8DY
Phone - 01588 680 240
Fax - 01588 680 414
They don't have a website unfortunately (or certainly didn't a few months ago) The thing we liked about them is that they were really friendly and helpful and we got the impression that they would really look after our cats. Between them and Airpets the price was about the same.
Be warned - when you phone Golden Arrow you'll be on the phone for a while as they are very chatty!! Learnt loads about cats, quarantine stations, etc (the place in Melbourne seems to a cat palace!!! three stories, access to the roof, so they can sunbathe, but if they go up there for too long then they get brought down again!!!) They were just so friendly that we knew our cats would be looked after. Our cats are healthy and have never been happier (or exhibited more lunatic behaviour - one has turned into a kitten again!!) Also I've never seen other cat boxes that are used for export but the ones our cats arrived in were VERY impressive! Also spoke to the quarantine station in Melbourne a couple of times and they were great as they always made sure you spoke to the person who was looking after our cats. We were really worried about the 'cat part' of the process as our cats have never ever been in a cattery!
Good Luck
Susan
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Old Nov 8th 2004, 3:53 am
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Default Re: Its a logistical nightmare- help needed !!!

If the house sells soon- I guess we will move out at the end of January sometime- if we dont have the visa at that point I'm not sure what we do next. Renting is an option but nowhere seems to do short term rental and I don't want to spend another 6 months in blighty if I dont have to !!

We sold our house just as the meds where requested, we took the best offer as the housing market seemed to be slowing down and we needed to be sold and the cash in the bank to pay the bond for 5 extra points. We too did not want to be in with family so bought the biggest caravan we could and lived on a site for 3 months, sold the caravan the week before we where due to fly out and arranged for the guy to pick it up a few days before we left and spent the last few days in hotels. It worked out the best option, don't know if you could do it with a cat, some sites allow cats, and with all elec/water in with pitch costs worked out cheap, saved us hundreds on renting as we didn't need much other than a suitcase, so our furniture was stored for a couple of months and it was shipped out just before we left.
It worked for us, but give it thought, there must be other options you have not yet found.
Jenny
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