We plan to move back to the UK some time next year, not sure when but finances won't allow us to stay too long after hubby retires in March. We have a house here with a mortgage and we'll be selling that. My question is - what happens/can you do if the property doesn't sell before you leave the country?

We should be able to keep up things like house insurance on it I think, but what about the day to day stuff like making sure the lawn is neat and tidy, flower bed not full of weeds, central heating oil topped up, system checked over by the chimney sweep when it's due, etc. Obviously the best would be to sell before we go, but there's so much stuff to get rid of I'm not sure the house would be in a fit state to be viewed beforehand. Are these the sort of thing you can hand over to an estate agent who's going to handle the sale for you? We have no one here who can do that sort of stuff for us.

Our bank knows we plan to move so that doesn't seem to be a problem as far as they're concerned, but I'm at a bit of a loss on what would happen if the house doesn't sell before the move. So if any of you have done this and have any insights/advice please let me know. I know some houses have stayed on the market for years before they get sold. I'm just hoping ours won't be one of them.

I just would not move back until house is sold, period.

You need two people for this transaction, one to sell and one to buy. Overprice it and you'll never sell it which is why some stuff is on the market for years. Some are deliberately overpriced to avoid selling them whilst going through the motions for all and sundry to see.


Sure the estate agent will do all you want, and more, but they will charge you and charge you well. When you do sell, you'll have to come over maybe more than once, it maybe problematic for a buyer to have a seller outside the country, maybe not.


Sell it before you go, price accordingly get ready to accept an offer, bird in the hand is always worth 2 in the bush


What ever you may think you save by waiting for a higher price, you will lose by higher fees and more expenses, plus the bank after a while may increase interest rates plus more expenses to keep an account for non-residents.


Sell it on a "Vente a terme" basis, meaning sell it now, go to the notary etc and the handover date when it suits you in the future.

Don't be greedy and very often, "The first loss is the best loss"

Uhhh! You still gonna be sticking round EF though?

Not going to be an option JackieH. I don't have exact figures yet, but I think our regular outgoings are going to be more than pensions and that's before stuff like food, diesel for the car, etc. We have some savings, but they'll go down as we eat into them and of course will need some for the move anyway.

We're not looking to get the highest price for it though if we can make a bit of a profit on it we won't complain Biro. Nice idea to sell now with a caveat that we'll move later, but no one's going to buy it atm because they can't view it properly - think hoarder and you'll have an idea of what I'm trying to deal with. Of course if anyone here is interested in a fixer upper 3 story 4-bed house about 8 kilometres from Fribourg contact me for more info.

No, won't be leaving EF Slammer so you're safe.

^^^^What JackieH said, period

Unless money is no object or you have special reasons to leave asap you could end up paying through the nose for services you would fulfill yourself while still living in the property.

Of course, you may sell right away.

PS what's that about a chimney sweep??

As said before, it's the matter of price really - if priced well it will sell very fast.


btw. where is the house exactly and how big and old is it ?

maybe rent it out

No, don't want that hassle long distance.

does it have a listing? I may be interested, thanks

Oil central heating system so required by law that a chimney sweep checks it over each year far as I know. Their word is law; when we had the new boiler put in the company had to re-arrange some of the pipes because he couldn't get proper access to the inside.

About 8kms from Fribourg in a small village, 3 story, 4 bed, built about 1950.

No listing atm, but I can pm you some info if you'd like it. Some photos and room dimensions.

Ah not my region then
I'd suggest to put an ad out there asap.

I've been looking around for some apt / house for quite some time and I assure you many places are shown with plenty of belongings of previous owner.

Put it out there with desired handover date and see what happens - there is nothing to loose in doing this like yesterday - you can start with free ads like flatfox.ch and tutti.ch as well as urbanhome.ch or icasa.ch (last two seem to be crawled by comparis.ch so your free ad would be also there) and see what level of interest is there.

Yes, they are, but .... living room so cluttered you can barely see the sofas, spare bedrooms can't be entered because of stuff. You get the picture. Can't properly view because of the mess we live in.

What are you planning to do with all the stuff you have? Do you want to take with you or sell / give away / get rid of?





I'd still, make pictures of what you can. Get / make plans with dimensions of all rooms / whole house and post what you have. Just my 2 cents

Most of it get rid of. Doesn't do anything except gather dust and I'm not paying to put it into storage, no room for it in the UK house which is smaller.

Yeah, I've got some of the original pictures from the estate agency blurb when we bought it and also the dimensions of the rooms.

I obviously don't know you situation, how much time you have to go through that stuff now (and how much you're already doing) - overall I'd clear things up asap, if you think stuff can be used by someone else, try posting individual items on tutti.ch for free - people will come to get that and spare you an effort of having to get rid of them (and things might get second life), or maybe organize an open house with rough description of what you have.
If however you think those things are of no use for others (for various reasons), probably a trip (or a few) to local recycling center sooner than later is a good idea.

Yeah, some will end up being recycled I expect, other stuff we can do tutti or similar or take to our local HIOB/brockie places.

If you are to get rid of it- why not do it now. It will go now- and make the house sale-able- or it will have to go later !?!
As far as I can see, this is the only way forwards- clear the mess- sell and go. Any othe scenario is a disaster in the making.

To what extent is it mortgaged? If you have any mortgage, you have to check the exact procedure with your bank/lender. It can be quite complicated.

Yeah, we've got to get started with clearing it all out.

Bank didn't seem to think it was a problem; obviously the best is if the buyer takes over the mortgage.