It is well known that moving house is one of the most stressful events to undergo. This stress is amplified if the moving day happens to be a Friday. Here's our experience of just that.
Our exchange date was pulled forward by a week at short notice, just two weeks out from the date we had been expecting to move. Suddenly we had just a week to to complete our packing, which was already a push due to work commitments and the fact we were drastically downsizing.
Despite nine panic trips to the dump, fully utilising the substantial space afforded by a hatchback Renault Laguna and ditching items which we would later bitterly regret parting with, we were still boxing things up when the removal men arrived on the day.
Luckily they were understanding of our situation and with our sons pitching in to dismantle the last couple of items of furniture everything was loaded by the time we received notification that the buyers funds had cleared into our account.
I drove in to town to make the transfer at our building society where I was told that their computer system was down. This is when the real anxiety set in. The next nearest branch was at least 45 minutes away, and the transfer had to be effected by 3.30, which was only 25 minutes away.
Sensing my stress, one of the clerks asked me if I had their app on my phone. I did. He suggested using that. It was unorthodox, but apparently it had been done before. The only drawback was that there was a limit of £5k to in-app transactions, so I would have to make multiple payments to make the full amount. Luckily this wasn't subject to the 3.30 deadline, so I sat in the corner and started methodically making the payments one by one until the full asking price was reached.
To my astonishment it seemed to work. All the payments 'went'.
I thanked the staff and headed back to Rochester where the removal men were waiting outside for the all go to set off for Essex. In the meantime our sons had already left to drive to our new place.
My Mrs called the seller to confirm the funds had been received. Some had been credited to their account, but some hadn't. We gave it another half an hour. Still only some but not all of the payments had cleared. It was now 5 o'clock. On a Friday. And once 6.30 was reached, no further transactions would take affect until Monday morning.
The removal men had a job the next day, which meant if we couldn't move until the Monday they would keep our stuff in the truck but need to charge us for having to cancel that job too.
We started frantically calling our building society's helpline. "You are currently 10th in queue. Please hold the line" This went on for what felt like an eternity. When we finally got through and the operator checked the transactions she said that some had been placed on hold by the anti-fraud department. We would need to call them.
"You are currently 12th in queue. Please hold the line".
The removal men were sitting in their van out front. The estate agent called to see what was happening. We were told that we weren't legally allowed to still be in the house. Luckily the buyers weren't moving in that day. But still. Technically we were squatting. Trespassing at best.
Our elder son called and said he had to head to work and, as things were looking so uncertain, he would take our younger son with him rather than just leave him waiting outside our new home which we didn't own yet, or even have a key for.
6.30 came. "You are currently 7th in queue. Please hold the line".
When we finally got through it was 7.15. The anti-fraud people asked us question after question, often repeating the same one. Did we trust the person we were buying from? Were we sure they actually owned the place? Could it be we were being scammed?
"Once the money goes there will be no getting it back."
As it happened the seller was ill and someone else was acting on their behalf. And once we thought about it he was actually quite a dodgy geezer. Was everything we had about to disappear into a money laundering black hole? Were we about to lose it all and become homeless?
It was only having the paperwork from the grounds owners for our new place that gave us the confidence to go ahead. They released the funds, the seller finally confirmed receipt and we all headed over to Essex, getting caught in the chaos that is the tail end of Friday evening rush hour at Dartford Crossing of course.
By the time everything was unloaded it was nearly 10pm. We were exhausted but we were in our new home. And more than ready for bed.
Well, once I'd driven to our elder son's workplace in Greenwich to collect our younger son and drop him home to Chatham that is.
So, move house on a Monday if you can. Or Tuesday. Even Wednesday. Thursday if you must. But avoid Friday at all costs. Just don't do it to yourself!
