Karen’s Blog

Now, friends, I wonder (really) what you would do in this situation.  Back in April, a few months after Stephen and I found out that we were going to have a baby, we decided to move house.  The Amaizinette, our lovely two-bedroom split-level flat in Wapping, no longer had enough space for us, an extra person, Stephen’s fencing gear, my home office, and my sewing projects.  So, we set out to look for another place and, just in the same way as when we had found said Amaizinette, we pretty much set our hearts immediately on the first place we visited.  It is a great place.  Large (many more rooms), bright, in a safe a pretty neighbourhood and, importantly, close to central London (albeit not in central London anymore).  And all this for the same rent as before.

On the day of the first visit we fell in love with the place.  But there was also another couple lined up for it, so we found ourselves under a lot of pressure to make our minds up quickly.  A few days later we went on to sign the contract, and we were so excited about it that we didn’t flinch half as much as we should have when we signed the contract.  Pretty standard piece of lease agreement, really (as in most places in London, it binds us to stay for a minimum of six months, after which we are free to go at a month’s notice).  The bit that was unusual was an addendum to the contract which reads like we are actually required to leave after six months, full stop – making it look very much like a fixed-term lease.  Of course the date (count 6 months after April: slap-bang when I am due to pop this baby out) isn’t at all convenient for us to move, so we raised the issue with the landlord (actually a property management company — second big alarm bell) who assured us that the document was no notice of that sort, that they wanted long-term tenants, and that all their tenants had to sign it as standard procedures.  So, we signed.  And we learned.

Pretty soon we found that the trust we had placed in said landlord was an error of judgement (or perhaps a refusal on our part to listen to the signals).  The furnishing and repair works that were due to be done by our move-in date were not done (none of them), and it took Stephen several days off from work to be on the builder’s back to correct the situation.  I’ll pass on the detail of this experience, but obviously it got to a point where we started to feel very nervous indeed about the landlord’s word regarding the notice.  So, we called in a lawyer for help.  The lawyer read the contract addendum as a notice to leave the property in October, no doubt about it.  So we arranged for them to write to the landlord, with the purpose of clarifying the matter:  was the notice indeed “a standard company procedure to be ignored”, or do we have to move out in October?  We are now waiting for the response to this question from the landlord — for this alignment between their spoken word and the paperwork.

Either way, it’s not the end of the world.  We do love the house (even with some of its glitches, which I’ll be quick to remember if we do decide to leave it!), and it would pain us to leave it right after we managed to settle in, especially given the inconvenience of a house move towards the heaviest part of my pregnancy.  On the other hand, we can get the movers in (the ones we use are just great), look for something else in the summer, appreciate that we’ve had a good 6 months here, and move on with our lives.  The question is not that.

The question is:  do we wait for our landlord’s answer?  do we assume that what they said is correct and that the notice will not be enforced, and take a chance on staying here?  or do we take control of this situation and set out to move whatever happens, saying proactively goobye to any chance of staying in this place?  Options 1 and 2 may leave us waiting for the whole summer, with an equal chance (now knowing this landlord) of either staying in this house undisturbed for years or being kicked out pretty much the day after our kid is born.  Not great.  Option 3 requires that we resign oursleves to not staying in this place we love, spend some time (again) in the summer looking for a place, move (again), and settle into a new place at the same time as we settle into our new life as parents.

Right now, I would tend to think that we will be better off taking full control of this situation, say goodbye to the house we love, and make an enlightened choice for a new place (oh yes, it will be enlightened by a tough lesson for sure) some time before the baby comes.  But what would you do, friends?  I’ve come across two couples recently who moved house in the last month of the woman’s pregnancy, and they seem to have survived just fine.  I’m really wondering if this isn’t a solution for us, too.  Coup de foudre versus reason.  Loving somewhere uncertain, versus control.  Dull, but better?