I know this might not sound like a great achievement, but this has taken me literally years and has been very difficult.
I'm very lucky to even own a flat to sell, I realise that. At the same time, it has caused me so much stress and difficulty. There have been some serious structural problems with the building which I've had to address, and very bad problems with neighbours including the ones I've shared the building with. One of the neighbours vandalised the property due to a grudge, and we've also had to cope with random problems of living in a not-fantastic neighbourhood, like bricks thrown at the windows and deliberate fires started/used syringes etc thrown into the garden.
With all the problems, I've had to liaise with a number of authorities, take on a lot of extra debt, and have struggled with so many legal issues - including the owner of the other flat in my building - who I share a legal position with - dying intestate (without a will, meaning almost a year of additional problems). To add to that a solicitor I was using became highly aggressive - very hard for me to deal with him, but I had to - the other party's inheritor was beyond awful to deal with, the two of them had a physical fight, the solicitor got struck off and my money was frozen in the solicitor's account.... don't even ask, it has seemed endless. These are just examples.
But the London (UK) property market being as insane as it now is, apparently the craziness has reached the outskirts where I bought my flat and I'm now in a hotspot which is changing from cheap and not very cheerful to up and coming.
For five or six years, I have wanted to sell the flat and get away from all the awful problems and the people associated with them. I've considered desperate measures like selling for a fraction of the value to the type of company that takes advantage of people in my position, but - fortunately in this case - my PTSD struggles meant I couldn't manage even that. I've felt desperate to get away from all these problems, but I couldn't function well enough to do it.
After all this time, I've finally inched my way to getting the flat presentable enough to get estate agents round, then to put it on the market and go through the selling process. I've worried that if I sold it with a bad heart - trying to hide problems and trick someone into buying it - I would be out of conscience with the buyer and bringing bad karma on myself. So it's meant getting a lot of repairs and improvements done first. Very hard.
This is a long post, sorry. It has been a long and difficult journey from me to get to this point. But the neigthbour issues are resolved, so are the legal issues, the flat is now structurally sound, and I've found a buyer who genuinely loves it (it's actually a lovely place, which is why I bought it in the first place - the problems I've had are all external).
Today we exchanged contracts, which means the sale is legally binding or otherwise I would be compensated financially - but it won't come to that, the buyer is very serious.
I'm really glad we managed to exchange today (20th June). The date is the anniversary of me moving in, all that time and all those problems ago. It's also the summer solstice on 20th/21st June and that's significant to me. Time for things to turn and go in a different direction now....
I'm daunted by having to take all the next steps to do with finding somewhere else to live. Mostly, though, I can't believe I've got to this point.... I did it. I sold my flat. After so many horrible problems, I can be glad of the fact that - very unexpectedly - it was a good investment in the end. And now it can go to someone else who really wants to be here. And I won't be! Yay.
I'm very lucky to even own a flat to sell, I realise that. At the same time, it has caused me so much stress and difficulty. There have been some serious structural problems with the building which I've had to address, and very bad problems with neighbours including the ones I've shared the building with. One of the neighbours vandalised the property due to a grudge, and we've also had to cope with random problems of living in a not-fantastic neighbourhood, like bricks thrown at the windows and deliberate fires started/used syringes etc thrown into the garden.
With all the problems, I've had to liaise with a number of authorities, take on a lot of extra debt, and have struggled with so many legal issues - including the owner of the other flat in my building - who I share a legal position with - dying intestate (without a will, meaning almost a year of additional problems). To add to that a solicitor I was using became highly aggressive - very hard for me to deal with him, but I had to - the other party's inheritor was beyond awful to deal with, the two of them had a physical fight, the solicitor got struck off and my money was frozen in the solicitor's account.... don't even ask, it has seemed endless. These are just examples.
But the London (UK) property market being as insane as it now is, apparently the craziness has reached the outskirts where I bought my flat and I'm now in a hotspot which is changing from cheap and not very cheerful to up and coming.
For five or six years, I have wanted to sell the flat and get away from all the awful problems and the people associated with them. I've considered desperate measures like selling for a fraction of the value to the type of company that takes advantage of people in my position, but - fortunately in this case - my PTSD struggles meant I couldn't manage even that. I've felt desperate to get away from all these problems, but I couldn't function well enough to do it.
After all this time, I've finally inched my way to getting the flat presentable enough to get estate agents round, then to put it on the market and go through the selling process. I've worried that if I sold it with a bad heart - trying to hide problems and trick someone into buying it - I would be out of conscience with the buyer and bringing bad karma on myself. So it's meant getting a lot of repairs and improvements done first. Very hard.
This is a long post, sorry. It has been a long and difficult journey from me to get to this point. But the neigthbour issues are resolved, so are the legal issues, the flat is now structurally sound, and I've found a buyer who genuinely loves it (it's actually a lovely place, which is why I bought it in the first place - the problems I've had are all external).
Today we exchanged contracts, which means the sale is legally binding or otherwise I would be compensated financially - but it won't come to that, the buyer is very serious.
I'm really glad we managed to exchange today (20th June). The date is the anniversary of me moving in, all that time and all those problems ago. It's also the summer solstice on 20th/21st June and that's significant to me. Time for things to turn and go in a different direction now....
I'm daunted by having to take all the next steps to do with finding somewhere else to live. Mostly, though, I can't believe I've got to this point.... I did it. I sold my flat. After so many horrible problems, I can be glad of the fact that - very unexpectedly - it was a good investment in the end. And now it can go to someone else who really wants to be here. And I won't be! Yay.
