On This Day Ten Years Ago, It All Began
I can still feel the jangle of nerves blended with excitement, and a slightly sick feeling of ‘what have we done?’, as we sat outside our house and fired up Dave the motorhome’s ancient engine.
We’d both quit work and as we locked the front door for the last time, that was it, we were homeless. The house keys went straight to the letting agent, who already had someone lined up to move in, while we headed south for a year-long trip of a lifetime.
What I can’t believe is that day was ten years ago today. A whole decade has passed, yet it in some ways it still feels like yesterday. That year-long adventure (which ended up being two years) completely changed our lives, our view of the world and of ourselves.
Earlier this year, on the anniversary of the start of this blog, Jay wrote a round up of ten years of OurTour Blog. If you’re new to this blog and want to read it from the start, this is the first post of our motorhome adventures (don’t worry the quality of the photos and writing does improve!), or you can read the first year of blog posts all in one ebook called OurTour Downloaded.
Dave the motorhome’s successor, Zagan hasn’t been very busy this year. After three months in Spain at the start of the year, he’s had a couple of trips to Wales so Jay could train for the Snowdon Ultra Marathon, and a mini tour of the Lake District, as well as the occasional weekend away. Our plans for the end of this year were to stay home and prepare the house we left a decade ago to sell it, before heading abroad for some winter sun at the start of 2022.
However we’ve just found out that even though they’ve had six months notice, our tenants haven’t found anywhere to move to. Unfortunately they didn’t say anything until the week before the were due to move out, so we’re now having a bit of a rethink of what we’re going to do – it’s just a good job we hadn’t booked anything.
If we’d the value of the house invested in shares we could have sold it in a day, but by having it invested in property (which most of our money is) ties it up for much longer. It may be a year or more between our decision to sell and the actual sale. I guess that’s one thing that has changed over the decade, the previous us were accidental investors. Only in the last six years have we invested our money with purpose, and only in the last couple of years have I felt comfortable enough investing in shares to sell our house and move the money to shares.
Right now we have no idea what we’ll be doing over the next few months, let alone the next year or decade. Foreign travel to most countries is now reopening and it feels like the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is behind us. It’s time to dust off those plans and see where our wheels (or wings) will take us.
Cheers Ju x
Wow… 10 years. Quite incredible to think of the stupendous variety of places, people, sights, tastes, experiences and emotions you have crammed into that decade. And we’re so grateful that you’ve shared the story. A decade can fly past when you’re stuck in the rat race as well… what a brilliant, brave decision you made
Difficult one. If your tenants aren’t actively looking for a new place, you could end up missing a great winter trip for no purpose…..
I guess it depends how well you know your tenants and how confident you are that they’ll sort out a new place to rent sooner rather than later…..
I hope you resolve your tenant issues. There’s a general shortage of rental properties at present and rents have increased significantly. I expect that might be a reason your tenants have decided to stay put.
Thanks David. There are quite a lot of rental properties around here, but like you say rents have increased significantly. A comparable property is over £100 a month more. So, it’s party our own fault for not increasing the rent over the last couple of years because we thought the tenants might struggle due to covid. It’s all a learning curve!
You could always issue a section 13 notice to increase the rent to market levels. If the notice is served correctly the tenant is obliged to pay the higher rate. If the tenant believes the new rent level is not in line with comparable properties they can appeal it.
Of course, the tenants could decide to move out, which is what you actually want.
I took back possession of my rental property because the previous discounted rent level was no longer economic. The tenant advised they didn’t want to pay a higher rent but also failed to appeal the section 13. They moved out shortly after and bought their own property.
BTL is rather a hassle.
It’s a learning experience. My (ex)tenant didn’t appreciate the discounted rate they were on for 2 years either. I’d suggest issuing a section 21 rent increase notice.
Give them Notice to end the tenancy.
Hi Kevin. We gave told them we were wanting to sell back in April, and served them oficial notice then. Unfortunately they haven’t found anything in the six months notice period. Cheers Julie
Hi Julie and Jason,
Congrats on the 10th anniversary of the beginning of your vanlife adventures! What a journey you’ve had.
We’ve just started reading your book, ‘The Motorhome Touring Handbook’ and we’d like to take this opportunity to say how excellent it is! What we really like is the mix of motorhome know-how coupled with your personal stories. You’ve got the balance just right, which is not an easy thing to do. It’s informative, warm, humorous and highly inspirational. We think every motorhome owner should have a copy!
Anyway, here’s to the next 10 years and all the amazing adventures coming your way!
That’s really kind of you, thanks very much guys. Happy travels, hope to bump into you on the road one day. Jay