Sunday 6 September 2015

BACK IN THE UK

I have been back in the UK now for exactly 11 weeks and 2 days and boy has it been stressful!

Just the getting back was bad enough with ferry (and a nervous dog), driving through France (with a dog) and sleeping in the car overnight, but then there has been all the problems associated with finding somewhere to live.

The couple of weeks or so that we were going to stay with my Mum ended up being 8 weeks but we eventually managed to find somewhere to rent as the house sale in Alcudia continued to drag on (in fact it is still dragging on!).

The house we are now in is a lovely house although owned by a DIY bodger!  Getting our furniture here was another stressful and expensive time as we had to pay another company to pick up our furniture from the removal firm that had it in storage as they were too busy to deliver it for a few weeks!  Weeks - we needed it asap.

We have managed to rent for 12 months with a 6 month break clause (giving 2 months notice after 6 months).  So we have been looking around hoping that the completion on our Spanish home will soon happen.

But what has happened to the house prices???  Within the time period we have been here the prices have risen by about another £20,000 at least.  The money we get for our house in Mallorca plus savings will not be enough to buy a property here so I have been looking at getting a mortgage.

God knows when I will ever retire!

Anyway that brings another problem.  I can afford the mortgage but the banks don't want to know because I can't show the past 2 years on my credit reference account.  So what do I do?

I am left to try and find a broker that can manage to get a mortgage for me I guess - but how do I know who to trust.  It has been many years since I have needed to apply for a mortgage so everything has changed.

Anyway long and short of it all is:

Stuck in rental for 8 months - need to buy before prices go completely out of our range - but can't get a mortgage even with a very large deposit.

In amongst all this I have got us on the Council register/doctors/vets/broadband/gas & electricity/water/tax/driving licence sent off/TV licence and all the other things that I have had to do as well as working full-time, cooking & cleaning.

Crikey I thought I would have an easier time working from home!