They agreed that we could use their money to purchase the plot of land next door, but we would have to pay them back when the apartment was sold. Further, they wanted to come with us on 17th December to see the ‘Dream’ house first hand. Obviously we agreed.
Now, all we had to do was sell the apartment as this was our biggest asset, and the source of the balance required. The sooner we sold it, the sooner we could repay Jeanette and Bill. Although we were to discover that it was ‘just around the corner,’ the UK Recession had not started and nobody really knew that it was about to come, and the cost involved. So, we put our apartment on the market at the top price recommended and kept our fingers crossed.
It was the original show apartment for the builders who renovated the derelict building that started life as a Victorian Work House in the 1900’s, and it was in ‘tip top’ condition.
It was on the Ground floor and at the front of the building. The building itself was in the shape of a symmetrical cross and as we had the front apartment it had windows to three sides; East, South and West facing. The development was set in 4 acres of gardens and was maintained by professional gardeners as part of the shared general maintenance costs of the development. Therefore we also had very good looking and well maintained gardens to three sides; an attractive proposition for sure! Over the previous 10 years that we had lived there, the local Estate Agents were always knocking on our door wanting to know if we wanted to sell as they had buyers waiting. Now when we most needed it, we would see if they really did have them in waiting. And they did! Within two days of signing the Vendor Agreement, and before the advert had been published, we had a widow lady visit and say, “Yes, I’ll buy it.” Unbelievable! - And at our full asking price. Was this ‘Fate’ once more? Who knows, but all we cared about was that the financial spread sheet did not need adjusting, however, we placed the advert in the local paper on a ‘just in case’ basis.
Six weeks later, on the day she was due to exchange contracts, she changed her mind! Now what? Panic! We needed completion for the money to be available in time for 17th December, and that was now clearly in some doubt as the apartment had been taken off the market.
A lot of things are said about Estate Agents in the UK (mostly bad), but ours came up ‘trumps’ for us because the following day we had yet another widow lady visit. She too said “Yes, I’ll buy it.”
Once again, we got our full asking price.
Photo: The Apartment advert in The UK.
We exchanged contracts within 48 hours and looked for completion week commencing 10th December which would give us enough time to transfer the money. This was all too good to be true, and sure enough it was!
A week later, the widow lady arrived at the door with one of her sons. They wanted us to reduce the price because they still had her house to sell and the prices were beginning to drop.
Because she wanted our apartment so much, her sons were putting up the money to buy our apartment in order to secure it for her. They would then get their money back when her house was sold, but, with the fall in house prices just starting to take effect, they were concerned about the cost involved if she could not sell quickly, or if she didn’t get enough money in order to pay them back.
I was quite shocked, but I had an idea! I remembered that after the initial agreement to buy our apartment, the widow lady had made three visits from her house in Wales to measure up and generally look around the apartment to see where her furniture would fit etc.
During those visits, she emphasised how important it was for her to buy our apartment as it was perfect for her needs and so close to her two sons.
Despite having exchanged contracts, she was seeking reassurance from us that we would not change our minds about selling to her and that we would go ahead with the sale and completion with her and no one else but her.
I never thought of myself as a gambler before or since, but that night, as they sat across from Valerie and me in our Drawing Room, based on my recollection, I became one. I never got around to asking them how much of a reduction they wanted, because I just looked him straight in the eye and said,
“No. We will not reduce the price. The apartment has been independently valued and we believe it is worth every single penny.”
Thereafter, a few minutes of eyeballing and complete silence ensued. They were just staring at me. Then they looked at one another and back at me again, but I was just trying to look relaxed. The tension was unbearable!
“Okay,” He said. “We still have the deal at the full asking price, but we want you to include some items of furniture and some fittings free of charge.”
“What items?” I responded.
Together, we walked around the apartment and she pointed them out.
“Agreed!” I said. “They are yours, and I will send the list to the Solicitor to have them included in the agreement.” Was I gambling? Yes. Was I bluffing? Well, I like to think not as we will never know. It was all going to be OK, or was it?
As they were leaving, the son turned around and said, “Oh, there is just one other thing.”
“We will not be able to give you the money until mid-January, so we will have to fix a completion date for then, but we will complete as promised at the full price as long as you agree to take the apartment off the market tomorrow. Mother is keen to be sure she buys it and that you do not entertain any other offers. At her age (77) she is feeling very stressed by the uncertainty, and she wants to sleep peacefully at night.”
Bombshell! The money timeline was totally dependent on completion by 17th December. We were even prepared to move out and into temporary accommodation in order to secure the agreed sale by that date as we were not going to let anything get in the way. Top price? Yes! Market on the ‘slide?’ Yes! What to do? What were the implications? Accept the offer and work around it? Yes! There was really no other option.
I realised that because there would be a delay in receiving the money, we would not have to move out during December, as we were prepared to do, but now it would be later in January. As we were planning to leave the UK at the end of March, maybe I could negotiate us staying in the apartment until then. This would mean agreeing completion in January but with Vacant Possession at the end of March. Not the usual process but definitely possible if both parties agree and the Solicitors get the ‘small print’ right.
I put it to them and they agreed. The widow lady was relieved and left happier than she had been when she arrived and we were ecstatic!
Two days later, we received a telephone call from our Solicitor to confirm that the sale of our apartment would definitely be completed, also confirmation that the money would not be available until 18th January.
As our Solicitor was fully aware of our predicament, he enquired if we wanted to change our minds. I said no and we agreed to wait in order to be sure of the full sum that we had planned for.
At the end of the conversation, our Solicitor reiterated that he was absolutely convinced that everything would be concluded satisfactorily, but to try and move the completion dates if we could. That was easier said than done, but comforted by that reassurance, I focused my attention on Vassilis and Giannis and the agreed date of 17th December to complete the sale, which was now only one week away. This was going to be a big problem. Where to get the money by then? The problem was made even bigger by the implications of not completing the purchase. Under Greek Law, when you sign an Agreement to Purchase and place a deposit on the property, you lose it by default if you do not complete on the agreed date.
What were we to do? Only one week away and we risked losing the deposit altogether if we didn’t transfer the balance required and complete the purchase. At the same time as the situation had developed, and been successfully resolved in the UK, we were worried that we still had not received the English version of the contract. Clearly, we were not going to sign a contract until we had read it in English, regardless of whether we had the money or not. Amongst other considerations, we wanted to see
with our own eyes the confirmation of the key questions we had asked when agreeing to buy the house:
a) Do we have unconditional right of way over the track leading to our house from the main agricultural track in the olive grove?
b) Do we have mains electricity with our own meter? We had noticed that sometimes electricity was supplied via cable ‘hot-wired’ to other properties!
c) Do we have mains water installed from the village mains supply? Sometimes the plumbers tap into another person’s house as the connection to the system!
Time for another idea!
My son Peter is a very successful Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) and is a Director of a London-based financial planning specialist practice. As well as the long-term savings we had, he had advised us to cash in some Insurance Policies and he had negotiated early payment on our behalf to assist with the purchase, and these monies were now in our bank.
My thinking was that we should still go on 17th December and tell Vassilis that we could not sign unless we read the contract in English, which was what we had previously agreed. However, in good faith, we would transfer another 20% payment until such time as we had read and agreed the contract in English, although the legally binding document would be the Greek version we would sign.
Was I counting (or gambling) on the translation not being done in time? I was reasonably confident that this idea would work because Vassilis is a businessman. He understood what was going on in the UK. He already knew we had sold the apartment and exchanged contracts.
I was hoping that he would figure it better to wait another four weeks to complete the sale, for Giannis to be paid and for him to get his commission, rather than start to find a buyer all over again. I also thought that this proposal was honest and fair under the circumstances, but only time would tell.
That time was coming in a week’s time!
To facilitate the transfer of monies, we immediately opened a new bank account with the London branch of the banking organisation that we had in Kalamata.
This would make transferring the money easier, now and at any time in the future. At the same time, we also researched just how to buy foreign currency ahead of time for fixed and guaranteed prices; whether up or down, the exchange rate remained fixed for three months when you signed a ‘forward’ contract.
It was at this time, we started to realise that the ‘dip’ in the exchange rate was not a ‘dip’ at all but a ‘slide’ which was so great that it may never recover (and of course history has shown that it didn’t!). We secured the rate at 1.33 € Euros to £1 GBP. This was well below our planned target rate of 1.40 € Euros to £1 GBP; in fact 5% less than the plan. This meant that some of our ‘just in case’ money fund had reduced overnight and that was a serious situation, but manageable. Would it get worse we asked ourselves?
Looking back, holding out for the full asking price for our apartment was the very best thing we could ever have done because during December the house prices in the UK started to fall very quickly. It seemed that the Recession had begun!
If we had set our timetable for the ‘Exit the UK’ plan just one month later, we may never have made it as the house prices dropped in our area by on average 20% and that would have meant that we would not have had enough equity to purchase our ‘Dream’ house, nor have enough money to live on in our planned new life in Agios Nikolaos.
Maybe ‘Fate’ did just play a part in the whole process after all?
Since then (December 2007), everybody has lived through, and may still be living through the effects of what was to become a Global Recession, and in times of Recession exchange rates always suffer. Did they suffer more than hitherto? Yes! Suffer they did, and so too were we going to suffer, but we didn’t know it yet. ‘Ignorance is Bliss,’ so the saying goes, and accordingly, we blissfully set off to Agios Nikolaos to inspect the completion of the house and try to negotiate a delayed payment until our sale money arrived.
Previously, again as part of the research in the plan’s checklist, we had decided to move our possessions as ‘Excess Baggage.’ The cheapest estimate for removal by Container was £5,000. This was expensive and we doubted that a large lorry with a container on board could drive up our track – and we were right about that!
We then researched for Bill to hire a Transit type van and drive our requirements over, unload, stay for two days for a rest, and then drive back. Apart from the cost of the 12 day ‘Round Trip at £2,900 (including Hotel, Motorway tolls and diesel etc.), we thought that at 63 years old Bill was too old and he might get too tired on the return leg of the journey as five days non-stop, 10 hours per day driving, would be too much for him both ways.
Hence our decision for me to make numerous return journeys with our things loaded as Excess Baggage, using EasyJet as the transport of choice. The estimated cost for this removal process was £2,100 inclusive. Decision made!
Within the ‘Exit the UK’ plan were the details of ‘What to take?’ and ‘What to buy?’ The plan detailed that the ‘What to take with us’ items would include our antique and modern glass collection, some special ornaments and pictures, our photo albums, the laptop computer, the IPod and docking station, the Bose CD/Radio music system and our music collection (we had loaded our 500 odd CD’s and 50 or so DVD’s onto and external hard drive to reduce bulk).
Also, a few selected books, bed linen and towels as well as some of our clothes(only Summer items!). I thought that the bed linen and towels would make great packing for the more fragile items.
Everything else that we would need we planned to buy in Kalamata, including all our furniture. We had established a fine balance between ‘What to take?’ and ‘What not to take,’ and ‘What to buy?’ to equal out against the estimates for more traditional removal methods and the ‘Excess Baggage’ route.
So, we decided that as the four of us were travelling together we should start the Excess Baggage removal process with this flight. Between us, we had 88 Kilos of luggage allowance, of which only around 30 Kilos would be clothes required for the immediate journey and three day stay in Agios Nikolaos.
Out came the luggage trunks and packed in were 60 Kilos of the summer clothing that we would need and these were the first items to be transported. Effectively, with Jeanette and Bill’s help, we managed to get the first 60 Kilos transported for free!
Over the previous year, we had come to know the Manager of the Hertz Rental desk in Athens International Airport quite well. This proved to be a good thing because we had only booked a small ‘economy’ car, and yet here we were with four adults and four luggage trunks; we would need a bigger car!
In return for accepting a larger car that was dented and quite scruffy, we got the upgrade for free in order to be able to get the luggage trunks loaded, and then we were off; Agios Nikolaos next stop! Well actually, no.
Not so fast. We were to planning to stay overnight in a hotel in Piraeus, and the plan was to arrive around 10pm in time for dinner, sleep over, and make an early start the next morning.
However, it didn’t work out that way as we couldn’t find the hotel. We stopped driving around and asked for directions at a news stand, which we then proceeded to follow. We still couldn’t find the hotel!
By now, it was getting late, so, in desperation, I flagged down a taxi and paid him the fare to go to the hotel and we duly followed him in the car. It was in almost the opposite direction from that advised to us at the news stand and after talking to the hotel owner, we identified the problem. It appears that some Greeks do not know their right from their left in the English language; “take the second left and then the third left and first right.” This had been the case for us when we stopped at the news stand.
Actually what was meant was, “take the second right and then the third right and first left,” but we had followed the original instructions; turning left instead of right and moving further and further away from where the hotel was located! Had we had this accurate advice, we would have been at the hotel
by around 10.30pm and not as it turned out Midnight! Early the following morning, we were back on the road.
All of us were having that feeling of nervous anticipation; Jeanette and Bill of seeing The Mani for the first time and of seeing the ‘Dream’ house; Valerie and me of wondering how my proposal would be received, and also of seeing our ‘Dream’ house again and in a finished state.
SIGNING THE CONTRACT – TO BE OR NOT TO BE?
On we drove and we duly arrived in Agios Nikolaos at just on 11 o’ clock and went straight to Vassilis’ office. He stood up from his desk.
“Kalimera! Good morning Stuart and Valerie, welcome back to Agios Nikolaos.”
“Eferesto,” (Thank you) I said. “Vassilis, this is my Sister-in-Law Jeanette and my Brother Bill”
Turning to face them, Vassilis said,
“Kalimera and welcome to Agios Nikolaos. Please sit down. Coffee? Water”
This time we accepted both and then with the introductions completed, I decided to face the problem head on and without delay.
I said to Vassilis, “We have a problem! We have not been able to transfer the complete balance due today because, as we left yesterday, we still have not received the English version of the Contract as promised. Do you have it today?”
“No, Stuart, I do not. I will ‘phone the Lawyer and see what has happened,” which he duly did and discovered that it was not completed yet. We were all disappointed.
At this point, Jeanette and Bill set off to walk around the harbour leaving us in Vassilis’ office to sort out the situation. I took a sip of my coffee and I went on to explain the events that had unfolded since the last time we had seen each other. I also confirmed that we didn’t have the money to transfer today, and also that as the translation was not available we would not sign anyway, whether we had the money or not.
For a few moments, we were all silent. As I continued to sip my coffee, I looked over at Vassilis and said, “I do have a proposal to make. In good faith, I will transfer another 20% of the purchase price today which makes a total 35% paid so far. Valerie and I will then return on January 22nd with the 65% outstanding and sign the contract then. What do you think?”
It Started With an Ouzo Page 5