Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

Hi
Looks like we’ll be moving to the UK next year.
My original plan was to give notice to our tenants in our little rental in NI. Then sell our French place and move - temporarily- into the rental. To be used as a base while we look for something in the Norwich area.
Husband has dug his heels in and says we have to skip the NI bit. He’s afraid if I go there we’ll never leave.

So what should we do? Once we’ve found a buyer for the French place, go to Norfolk and get a rental? What if we can’t secure one? In France we’ll basically have 3 months between signing the initial compromis de vente and completion.
So the only option - if we haven’t secured a long-term place - would be - just before completion- to get the removal company to put everything in storage (preferably in the UK) and we move into an Airbnb in Norfolk while we look for a long-term rental.
Obviously we’d have to hang on to our French vehicle for a bit (we wouldn’t have a permanent UK address so couldn’t buy & register a UK vehicle). And we probably couldn’t register with GPs.
My fear is that we could be stuck in an Airbnb for months.
Would you do this? Am I overestimating the difficulty of getting a rental?
Or should I insist we start off in NI?

Sorry, should have added. I’m aware if we move into our rental in NI and then buy in Norfolk, the Norfolk house would be a second home so we’d have to pay the higher stamp duty. But under that scenario we would later sell the NI rental and claim back the extra stamp duty.

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

We actually did the Air BnB route, were in it for about 6 weeks.

I would contact letting agents now and see if they think you can line up somewhere ahead of time, probably with a deposit, in that timeframe to complete the sale of your French house. The rental market was extremely tough - not sure if it has eased or not - but an arranged up front payment via an agent might help, and an agent might know of availability well ahead of time.

I assume you've looked on Rightmove to get a sense of what's available?

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property...t/Norwich.html

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

Thanks very much, Lion.

We haven’t put the French flat up for sale yet and are planning to spend a month in the Norwich area in March, before we do anything about the flat.

Husband, bless him, seems to think we’ll stumble upon a house to buy during that month. Assuming that doesn’t happen (and am pretty sure it won’t), I’ll use the time to speak to letting agents and see what they reckon our chances are of getting a rental when the time comes.
If they say it’s going to be really tough, I’ll drag him by the scruff of the neck to NI. Which is admittedly a long way from where we eventually want to buy in Norfolk. But at least we’d be in the UK with plenty of family support around us. While we search for a house to buy in Norfolk. That would also obviate the need to deal with the whole private rental business.

During the time you were in the self-catering accommodation, I assume you weren’t able to do much in terms of changing your vehicle, registering with GPs, etc. Not having any utility bills.

It’s also occurred to me that our French car insurance might cease to be valid once we no longer have an address in France!

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

This situation is something I cannot ignore where I can post something not to be taken seriously and might be typical of what some people living in the UK have already said on various social media sites:sneaky:

So you are currently residing in France and want to move back to the UK for an unknown period of time and unsure if to rent an Airbnb in England.

Get yourself on Tik Tok and look for adverts for Channel Crossings. Pay an agreed amount to get yourself on a small boat and upon arrival around Dover you will be processed and then bussed to either a Hotel or House of Multiple Occupancy and this will not cost you for the accommodation and they will even give you 3 meals a day. Dependent on which Council you fall under you might also get discounts on a variety of local services or even free.

I suppose I should end with this :sarcasm:

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

I’ll pass that suggestion on to my husband!

Am just trying to get my head round the logistics.
I’ll do what Lion said and talk to a few letting agents when we visit in March.
If they confirm we’re going to have real problems finding a long-term rental, I’ll drag husband to Northern Ireland where we have a little house, currently rented out.

I just don’t see how an Airbnb could work for us. I checked the French car insurance situation this morning and once the French flat is sold, we’d have no French address so our insurance would be invalid. As would our resident’s parking permit.
So we’d have to sell the car BEFORE we complete the sale of the flat.
Just before completion, the removal van would have to take everything to a storage facility in Norwich.
We’d follow on a plane to Stansted with just our suitcases.
Could we even legitimately rent a car at the airport if we had no address anywhere in the world at that point?
Yet without a car, I really can’t see us in an Airbnb searching for rentals in Norfolk.

The more I think about it, the more it looks like it would be less stressful to start off in our own place in NI.

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

From my experience car rental agencies only require a valid driving licence and credit card for you to be able to rent a car.

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

I agree, that’s been my experience too. But I’ve never read the small print.

What if we had an accident and it transpired we had no address?
I bet the rental contract is based on the assumption you’re resident at the address on the licence (which we wouldn’t be, as we’d have just sold the French place).

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

I'm not very helpful here. We didn't attempt the gp until we got the rental (husband takes regular meds, but we brought a 3-month supply with us from the US). Didn't buy a car right away either. My US license was valid for the first year and I was able to get insurance with Marshmallow based on that. Afraid I don't know what happens if you import your car with you.

I suppose it's possible you could find a house in a month, but I don't think it would be possible to complete the sale and all the requirements and move in in that time.

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

Trust me, you are being helpful.

And just writing all this down is helping me to work out what order to do everything in.

We wouldn’t be expecting to complete a sale in March. We’re really just going to check out the Norwich area and - if we happen to see a nice house for sale within our budget - we’d make an offer and return to France. From there we could organise a survey etc.

I still think the above scenario is unlikely though.

We wouldn’t bother trying to import our left hand drive French registered van into the UK. Simpler to sell it just before we complete the sale of the French address.
And buy a new right hand drive UK registered vehicle once we have a permanent address in the UK.

So:
Best-case scenario
Visit UK in March and have offer accepted on house. Happy days.

Plan B
Don’t manage to find house to buy.
Letting agents say the rental market has eased. Return to France. Find buyer for French flat. Rent house in UK. Sell car. Complete sale in France. Move to UK rental.

Plan C
Rental market still very tight.
Give tenants in Northern Ireland plenty of notice.
Market French flat. Sell.
Move to ex-rental.
Commence leisurely hunt for house to buy in Norfolk. Or elsewhere if we don’t like Norfolk.

Where did you move to, Lion? Happy with your choice?

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

No real help here but my sister in law is buying a house in Norfolk, moving from Essex/ Suffolk border. When she was visiting us earlier this year she was showing us some youtube videos of a real estate company called Longsons in a few areas in Norfolk. It might give you more of an idea where to look and what you get for your budget.

She did actually sell her Suffolk house quickly and the bungalow they are buying in Norfolk should be completed in about 6 weeks ( fingers crossed). Her observations were house prices were a fair bit higher in Norfolk than Suffolk! Also bungalows didn't stay on the market for long before selling.

Good luck with your new adventure.

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

I WILL check them out! Thank you!

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

I can't help with everything but the GP is doable from an Airbnb. A quick precis of our situation back in June 2023. We landed at LHR on the evening of 8th June and spent 2 nights at an airport Hotel at Heathrow. Headed to my dad's house in the north-west on the 10th June. I had pre-booked an Airbnb in Derbyshire for 4 weeks from the 24th June. I later extended this for another 5 weeks privately with the owner of the Airbnb.
I did a temporary patient registration at my dad's GP surgery, only because I was having a breakdown at the time. We had 3 months supply of prescription medication from New Zealand with us.
When we moved into the Airbnb we registered with a local GP. We didn’t need any proof of residence. They gave us a form to fill in and that was us sorted. We soon got sent bowel screening tests, I was invited for cervical and breast screening checks and OH being 60 was invited for a well-man assessment. We were very impressed.
We have moved GP practices twice more since then. Our plan was to live in Derbyshire but we couldn't find the "right place" for us and we are now in Cheshire.
I can't help with your car. We hired a car for a week which was horrendously expensive. OH looked at second hand cars in my home town and bought one fairly quickly. There wasn't much choice at the time but he got one that suits for now. Following advice from here, we got car insurance with NFU. They honoured our no claims history from NZ and were much cheaper than other insurers by a large margin.

I have no idea what the rental market is like in the area you are looking. There wasn't much choice when we were looking and some properties were shocking. The OH was thinking that we could buy quickly but he wasn't being realistic. Trying to find the right house, in the right area, at the right price is challenging at the best of times. Adding a time pressure to this will put you under a lot of strain. Conveyancing in England is a slow procedure. Many solicitors don't seem to have a sense of urgency. Thankfully, we had an excellent one with our house purchase earlier this year.
I'm not sure if any of this will help you but good luck with it all.

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

Thank you Chocolate Eclair - that confirms a lot of what I’d suspected.
What is it with over optimistic husbands? Sometimes I think mine is bonkers.

It would indeed be far less stressful to just take back the little rental and base ourselves there at least for administrative purposes. We can always go to Norwich for extended stays until we find something to buy.

Am so glad NFU worked out. I adore them. In fact it may well have been me who recommended them.

I hope you recovered from your breakdown and are enjoying life in the UK now.

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

Well, I just showed my OH Eclair’s post and he believes HER but not me!
Snort.
I will take this as a win.

Re: Would you just rock up & stay in an Airbnb?
 

:lol:

She does have a certain air of authority.