A few days ago @babyexpat posted the following on twitter "It's not cool when your landlord wants to put your rent up when you offer to pay a year in advance a full year in advance (eds: correct!)"
This brought me memories from our own experience of renting houses in foreign countries.
It started in Venezuela - We were wasting too much time (I thought) searching for the right apartment. Finally after a month of constant searching we thought we found it. A nice apartment in a guarded complex with playground for the kids, close to work and a nearby mercado.
Happily we emptied our container, and settled in. 3 months later I found out that I was pregnant, which was great news, but 3 months later we were asked to leave the apartment.
Why?
Well, the landlords decided they want to sell the apartment. Why did they rent us the apartment if six months later they decided to sell it? I had no clue, and it didn't really matter.
I only knew that we are in a foreign country with 2 little kids, and a baby on the way. No chance I am going to leave the apartment and search for a new one. Luckily hubby is not only a diplomat but also a lawyer. So we managed to find a solution and we stayed at the same apartment until the end of our posting.
This incident made us feel pretty lousy. However we thought this was a good beginners lesson, and that we won't make the same mistakes in our next posting.
We were posted to Canada. This time hubby flew to Canada for 10 days of overlapping. During that time he also searched for a suitable house. It was May, and many houses were available for rent. (Ottawa is a city of diplomats and governments workers, so it is filled with new residents each August-September).
He found a gorgeous house in one of Ottawa's beautiful neighborhood, met the owners (who were sent to the U.K), and sent me photos on the net for approval. I fell in love with the house right away. But we decided to check it thoroughly (remember Venezuela?), and finally decided to sign the contract.
We arrived to Ottawa in August. It was a real pleasure not having to search for a house and just enjoying the city while waiting for our container to arrive.
Almost three years have passed peacefully. I thought that this time we will make it with no house saga. But I was so wrong. The owners of the house decided to come back to Ottawa a year earlier, and they wanted their house back.
Oh boy, Here we go again. We just needed the house for one more year, we tried to offer them some more money, tried to explain our situation. But with no luck. This time we had to search for a new house, and one that is available for 1 year only.
O.K. Crying about it won't help. One day I took my middle son to a friend's house in a different neighborhood, and saw a rent sign near a beautiful house. I called the property manager, and a week later the contract was signed.
Moving out from the old house and settling in the new house was a nightmare. But, luckily my parents came for a visit, and while they were taking care of the kids I managed to arrange the new house in one day... including hanging pictures on the walls.
Can you believe it? I think I was so full of negative energy, and I had to take it out somehow.
We enjoyed very much our new house, even better than the old one. But I will never think that it can't happen again.
I just hope to take it much easier next time.
Do you have any stories of having to move out of the house in the middle of your posting? I would love to hear.
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