gibsonslanding

okay, if you've read my previous thread on the terrible time we've had with a buyer, you'll probably understand what i'm about to ask.......

with the help of a lovely BE guy, who's sowed some seeds in my brain today.....has anyone just walked away from thier home, shut it up and left? i'm not talking about renting but actually making sure that it's insured, emptied it and left it.......only to sort it out later?

i've spoken to rental people today, i've spoken to different estate agents, i've spoken to auction people today, i've spoken to the 'national homebuyers' who garantee to buy your home!!!!!!! and i've spoken to my home insurance company........who will charge just under a £1000K, per year, to insure our 'empty' home.....i could arrange for a family member to just come now and then to check it over and just leave!!!!!!!!!! we're renting in vancouver and have a place for 18months (after the olympics), so we don't 'need' the money to buy a property.....we can 'survive' on the money from work in canada!!!!! and the exchange rate is crap at the mo, so our 'house' money isn't gonna go far anyways!!!!!!

does this all sound stupid! am i having a mental breakdown? does this sound totally impractical....achievable but impractical??????

any thoughts? desperate times are calling for desperate measures......

AmyDavid

It doesn't sound impractical. Will your mortgage be covered? Can you not just instruct an estate agent to rent it out for you and bog off and hope they can get someone in it asap? Rather than trying to find someone to rent it BEFORE you go?

We were lucky that we found someone about a week before we came, but the above was our plan should a tenant not be found before we left.

jonnieandmartina

Yep thinking exactly the same way my friend - I haven't had the luxury of viewers to see our place therefore just waiting around is really dragging us down; I also got "led" off end of Sept that also doesn't help..

tell me what did you think of the "National Homebuyers" ??

AmyDavid

I called National Homebuyers for my house as well before we left. It was valued at 240,000 by an estate agent, so they said they could offer me 180,000 I said thanks but NO THANKS!

G586

Lots of people own empty homes.

Some can't face letting it, others don't want anyone in their ex-home...

You can often get agents to check in on it or a family member and so long as it is insured and you have put in place things to stop it freezing, why not.

If you have too much to think about, simplify things for a while.

SambaDeAmigo

Squatters might be problem, unless you get it checked regularly.

tinytears

Seems like we are looking at all the same options! We still need to pay a mortgage and just trying to sort that out now to take it down to a repayment only. Then we need to see if we can afford to not rent it out but just walk away. I'm watching this thread with interest.

Coffeepot

If it was me i would let it out, you can do a year initialy and then 6 months that way when the market does pick up you could sell after the tenants have left, i think its risky leaving the house empty, they soon get musty and damp you would have to heat it ( more money )

With the current climate squatters are becoming a real problem, if the house is empty even with people checking on it it would be a nightmaqre to get them out

Make the house earn you some money, where are you ? would it be easy to rent out ?

Wish you luck

Cassie 10000

You hear about people having "Second homes" all the time, where we used to live in Lancashire it was quite close to the English Lakes.

My old boss had a house in the Lakes and lived in Lancashire and it was left empty.

Remember past newspaper reports on people having "second homes" and they were left empty in the winter and local people can't buy houses. In my opinion its the same thing so if you can get a friend or relative to check on it then why not?

Aviator

Yes. Left the house empty and sold it about 6 months after we moved all our belongings over to Vancouver. A neighbour kept an eye on it, as well as the estate agent. The buyer tried to take advantage of us being overseas. We stood our ground and told them to take it or leave it. They took it.

albertabound

Hiya Gibson,
If our sale falls thru for whatever reason, this is what we will be doing.
We will leave it up for sale with the estate agent and hope something happens. I just think it would be added hassle for me to think about having tenants in it.
Will they pay? Will they wreck it? I also think it would be unfair to ask my elderly parents to look after it for us.
I dont have any faith in letting agents to look after it properly either.
We thought "how long do you put your life on hold"?
If you can afford it, then go be with your husband.
Tina

Jay Bird

Have you thought about using a house sitting service?

www.housesitters.co.uk is just one of several companies.....if you google "house sitting" or similar you'll find loads of links.

Good luck.

TrishP

I wouldn't leave a house empty with a board up outside as it's an ad to the world that the place is vacant.

albertabound

Yeah we would have the board taken down.

johnbull

If a house doesn't have a minimum amount of furniture to make it habitable, ie. a bed, a table, perhaps a sofa, then the household insurance will be void - no claim however it arises will be entertained.

There will also be a clause stating the maximum time a house can be left vacant. Normally four weeks is the max.

If you have a mortgage a requirement is that you maintain insurance coverage.