... and finally (well, in good time by Isle of Man standards), we have completed on our new house. It all happened quite quickly in the end, as I knew the owner was going to be on the Island at the beginning of December, so I deliberately drove past, saw his car, and went and introduced myself.
We both agreed that we would push our lawyers (sorry, advocates), to get their respective fingers out and try to complete before Christmas - actually Friday 20th, and they would come and clear the place on the 18th.
Pressure was thus applied from both ends - which was obviously something unusual over here - especially for completion so close to Christmas. In a display of sheer bravado, I then went into my car insurance people and set up the house and contents insurance to start at midnight on 19th/20th.
Mark and Vickie, the "old" owners, managed to get here despite the weather and got the place cleared out - but not before selling me the mower, strimmer and patio table and four chairs (not expecting to get much use out of any of them, but what the hell.
Anyway, my advo/solic/lawyer asked us to go into her office on Wednesday 18th and we found out that that was the signing (once we got there). Luckily had passports with us, so not too long (luckily as zero parking nearby).
11 Christian Close
Reayrt Mie
Ballasalla
IM9 2BG
Isle of Man
Thence to the bank to make the payment (as online Barclays cannot cater for anything more than 100k per day.). Boy what a performance. Copies of passports, bank cards, both signing everywhere, triple check the account, etc etc. Annoyingly I had made a test transfer to the account a few weeks ago, but they (Barclays) were unable to take the payee data from my account (or even see it from the main account as it was on the current account, it meant we were at serious risk of the old "digital transposition" error.) Oh, and a £38 charge for the transfer. We were "lucky" that she agreed and then arranged to do the transfer on the same day as apparently there is a 1200 deadline for transactions like that (something the manager failed to mention when I set up the transfer meeting for 1200).
So, much later than expected we left Douglas in a weird limbo of having spent the money and signed, but not having completed.
Completion meant another trip into the no-parking area at 1230 on Friday and with Gill scurrying in in the pouring rain to collect the keys - then me having to leave the car and do the same (sign that is). Must mention that the lawyer / conveyancer was actually a very pleasant South African lady. I asked why there were so many of "them" here and the answer was a bemused stare and "crime" - in Jo´burg especially.
We actually waited until Saturday afternoon to go in to the house (both experiencing "buyers panic", but after the event. G even sent me down on my own at first!
Luckily the place was immaculate, and just as when we sold ours in Spain, we found this on the counter for us. I think we might have bought from the right sort of people!
Needless to say, G is down there purging everything, despite it being as clean as any house can be.
Not sure when "the move will take place - I guess it depends on sourcing the furniture we need and whether we can wriggle out of our lease on the place we are living right now - but that is a problem for the New Year .
so, a Merry Christmas to all!!!
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