It was a very rough week.
After having the highest offer received, signing a lock-in contract and paying a 1% deposit on the flat in West Hampstead, things went tits up.
After our flat hunting experiences, we weren’t entirely surprised but we were so disappointed.
We had a phone call from the estate agents to tell us that the seller was having problems as he was facing an enormous tax bill in Germany where he’s based. They said there was a chance the whole thing would fall apart as he hadn’t done his research and we would know by the end of the week.
I was at the bottom of the snake.
After everything we’d been through, I couldn’t go on. I was devastated. Tears were shed.
The rest of the week passed in a haze. I tried to distract myself with work, the arrival of the lovely Ms Cooper and my sister came to stay.
By Friday afternoon I’d had enough and I was too upset to concentrate. I left work early and came home to ride my new bike. Before I left, the phone rang, Lionel the estate agent had a Plan B.
Would we be willing to put down a 3% deposit to secure the property and move in as tenants for six months to enable the seller to make the sale in the next financial year?
It would mean we wouldn’t be able to buy it for another six months (next April is forever away) but it meant that if the seller pulled out we would get the seller’s 3% as compensation which would be a nice lump sum.
We discussed the pros and cons. We would live in the flat we wanted, hopefully at the end of six months, we would buy the flat we wanted and if not, we would get compensated and would start looking all over again. It was a risk but sometimes a risk is necessary. We agreed it was something we would do and phoned the estate agent to discuss the options.
It’s certainly not the most conventional way of buying a flat and we haven’t discussed it with our solicitor yet (he will be most disapproving) but we think we’re prepared to take a punt on it and hope it all goes through.
At this stage I have absolutely no idea where we’ll be at Christmas!
The fun continues…
all about gem 