Part 2
Now I'm sure most people would agree that moving house is quite stressful. Moving to our off-grid house was on another level.
Hurdle 1
Actually getting a mortgage - you don’t know, what you don’t know.
We already lived on a farm with around 5 acres of land and had a normal householder mortgage. We didn’t realise that typical high street lenders won’t give you a “normal mortgage” when you have more than 5 - 8 acres of land. Our farm has 40 acres. The current owners operated an AirBnb in the form of a converted container cabin and so this added a “commercial element” which again many mortgage lenders don’t appear to like.
Our lovely mortgage advisor who was quite used to working in a more traditional setting, had his work cut out. What a nerve racking few weeks it was, just trying to find a lender who would lend on that basis. In hindsight I would have looked more into mortgage advisors who specialise in farms, but as I began with - you don’t know what you don’t know.
Hurdle 2 -
Up to date financial accounts
A little easier for me 🤣 as John and I are both self employed we needed our Ltd Company accounts and Tax returns for the very year just ended. A good job I know a good accountant 🤣 The end of our financial year is March and we began this process in mid April - never have I ever got my year end accounts and tax returns completed so quickly!
Hurdle 3
Getting the accounts signed off
Well it’s good enough for HMRC for me to do my own tax returns both personal and Ltd company but not for mortgage lenders! I had to find a different accountant to review and verify my accounts independently. Luckily I have some great connections and so in the end whilst a little annoying, (if its good enough for tax law why is not good enough for mortgage lenders?) it got sorted quickly.
Hurdle 4
The Hydrogeologist
Who even knows what this is? I certainly had never heard of one! This was to satisfy the mortgage company that our water supply wouldn’t dry up (er hello have you ever heard of Buxton Spring water? - our house is on same hill as where this is sourced from) Anyway many phone calls and discussions later a lovely chap called Phil helped us and gave a report to the mortgage lenders.
Hurdle 5
The septic tank
This was the last piece of the puzzle we were waiting for, but the company we used were very busy and it was school holidays. It took what felt like ages for them to do the report. The irony is, not long after we moved in, the pipe collapsed, something they failed to notice on the report!
Hurdle 6
The survey
It cost a fortune and didn’t identity the leaky windows, non capped cavity walls or the fact it rained inside when it rained outside! Apparently none of these are safety issues.
Hurdle 7
The handover
It never really happened. So, we were moving into this totally off grid house, with holiday lets, farm animals, a coal fire (only real source of heating and hot water), hot tubs and ended up with a 15 minute “chat” on the actual moving in day - talk about stepping into the unknown!
Hurdle 8
The disaster move in day
We were about half a van short of space and so we had to “dump” a van load at the new house and then go back to get the last lot. The lovely owners leaving our house (who were just moving down the lane to a house they already owned) took quite a while to vacate, circa 4pm on the move day and so we, helpers and all were just hanging around (for about 2 hours) at the new property as we’d left our old property and felt we couldn't get moving in as the old owners were still in my words “faffing”.
It was then just a rush to get everything unloaded and because of the “dump” we had to do, everything was upstairs that should be downstairs and it was just a muddle.
It felt like it took us a long time to get sorted and for the first 18 months, I bet we more or less moved the whole house around twice over. I remember John saying to me at one point “I’m just so sick of moving furniture” as it felt like that was all we did. Talk about being exhausted but little did I know this was a sign of things to come…
