Falling in love with a flat and indecision

29/08/11

I set off early on the flat hunt. By 10 am I had visited 4 letting agents and discovered there was not much on the rental market… oh dear. Well unperturbed I viewed 5 houses 3 of which were clapboard and falling down. One on the hill was lovely with wooden floors, big garden, and two bedrooms. The other was a furnished flat to die for. I woke James with this news and we headed off to see the flat. Yes it was only one bed, yes it was expensive but we loved it. That said we thought we better view the other houses as arranged. We needn’t have bothered as none of them made it into the final list.

Not only do we need a flat but we need a car and as fiat would have it we were walking past a car for sale as we headed to our next viewing. Theresa the owner was mad as a box of frogs but lovely. We got the details and asked if we could take it for a test drive. She said sure and handed us the keys. She appeared to be more than happy for us to take it and return it later. This was just too much for us and we insisted on her coming too. Our test drive was to our next viewing and by the time we were there we agreed that we would buy the car subject to being able to insure it after all it was a 1992 Subaru 2 litre monster!

So after the last viewing we had narrowed our wish list down to two. Our heads said the two bed house on the hill which was bigger but the location not quite as good. Our hearts said the flat that was furnished (right down to cutlery) had a gym and pool and a fab location but was much more expensive. Much talking and list making then followed and eventually we decided to be frivolous subject to 4 conditions being met. 1) The rent came down by $50per week, 2) we could move in the next day, 3) the tenancy was a 3 month periodic tenancy; 4) the landlord would take away the sofa so we could install a sofa bed. We rang the letting agent and the answers were not what we wanted. Condition 1) down by $30, 2 was a yes, 3 and 4 we would have to wait until the next day. Despite this we wanted this property so only time would tell.

Next up was car insurance. Insuring a 2 litre Subaru in the UK would be a costly business even just on a third party basis. Here it was $80. Madness. So of course we agreed to buy the car but we would have to drip feed the cash to the owner as we can only get so much each day.

30/08/11 The flat or the house…

3am and James wakes me up as he can’t stop thinking about the flat. Have we made the right decision? 30miniutes later we decide we have and James goes to sleep. Then ensues my nightmare of not being able to sleep. I hate it but by 5 I had dropped off.
The next morning we rape our bank accounts getting cash from credit cards, any current account we own and by converting any foreign currency into cash. Inevitably this takes longer then we expect and we are late to sign up for the flat. The rudest ever letting agent greets us, begrudgingly shows us the flat one more time and then we sit down ready to hand over a sizable lump of cash. We are informed the sofa could not be moved but fortunately we had decided we wanted it but the final nail in the coffin was the tenancy tenure. The landlord would not budge. This was one too many compromise on our part and we rang the letting agent we had been dealing with to give her an ultimatum. Either the landlord agreed to the tenancy type we wanted or we would walk away. We had cash in our hand, were ready to move in that day and would wait 1 hour before signing up for another property.

An hour came and went and there was no call. Walking back to Napier we stopped off at the car ladies house paid a deposit and bemoaned our situation. Theresa said we could always move into her son’s old room for a few weeks for a very small rent. We were taken aback with her kindness. Yes she’s quite mad and drinks too much but she has a heart of gold and whatever the outcome we will certainly be having a night out with her.

By midday we were at the letting agents to sign up for the house with two bedrooms that we also liked. That would be no problem normally but the landlord was in Canada and she needed his approval before we signed up. Of course he had no phone so we were at the mercy of him replying to email. Stress levels begin to rise as tomorrow is our last night of booked accommodation and James starts work the day after.

There was not much time to dwell on this as James had emails to tend to and I had a job interview with a labouring/ factory agency. I arrived whizzed through the paper work, had a chat with the chap and ended up pumping him for information about the locality. One hour later I was on the books. That said there is not too much work as Napier is still emerging from winter (ha it’s not winter it’s a British summer) but hopefully things will improve shortly.

Next up was an appointment yes an appointment at the bank to sign up for an account. New Zealand does customer service very well. There was no tapping at the computer with a monosyllabic grunt but instead we had Kim who was pleasant, engaging and very helpful. One hour later we had our joint back account numbers (no shock at a gay couple here which is not what we were expecting) had been registered on internet banking and had been shown how to do it. Our bank cards would be with us in a few days. WOW

Following this we literally ran to the post office to submit our tax forms to get a tax number. Squeezing in 5 minutes before close we were again greeted by pleasant people as opposed to some grumpy cow from the didsbury officer who is tutting and muttering about being open all day not just 5 to 5.

With these tasks done and everything registed to 8 Burns road the property we want but have not signed up for we head back to the hostel to sit with our fingers crossed. Please landlord replies to your emails otherwise we will have nowhere to live and won’t be able to go to the furniture action to buy stuff tomorrow.