Got back from Lestival at midnight last night to find the last set of documents from the solicitor regarding the house purchase. Answers to queries, copies of guarantees, etc. It includes the form where you say whether you’re in a chain and whether you have any requirements to a completion date.

Before I made my offer I checked out the condition of the chain. The people I am buying from had already had their offer accepted and the person they were buying from would break the chain in order to get a swift resolution. Great. Hopefully I’d only have to spend a couple of weeks crashing with a friend.

I’ve since had correspondence indicating that if I didn’t get a move on they would lose the house they had offered on.

All looking good for a fast turnaround between exchange and completion, so I decide it’s not worth putting the proceeds of my sale into a high interest account as it won’t earn anything if it’s not in there for at least a month.

Cut back to last night. I start reading through all of the documents and find the part regarding moving dates. “Preferably the school summer holidays – after July 25th”. WTF? This was signed at the beginning of April.

Who the hell thinks 4 months is an acceptable timeframe? And why the hell did no-one tell me this sooner? I would not have made the offer if I was going to have to wait until the end of July (I have been telling prospective employers that I will be available from 1st July).

Hopefully the estate agent will get back to me with a more reasonable completion date (I told them asap and will be annoyed at anything after June) otherwise I am going to be very grumpy as not only have house prices fallen, but I am out of pocket in terms of storage costs, interest on my proceeds, and potential earnings. I will also have to find somewhere else to live in the meantime (whilst having to pay insurance from date of exchange) all of which is further stress and expense.