Tying up all loose ends before you sell up and move away to fairer climes can seem a little daunting. This post is here to give an overview of what’s involved including some key considerations you’ll have to make when selling your home before the big move.
Needing a Quick Sale
Getting your home on and off the market in a timeframe that works with your plans can be a difficult part of moving overseas. Many people struggle to get their house sold in a reasonable amount of time even if they don’t have the added considerations involved with moving to a different country. The good news is there are options out there such as Quick Move Now that can help you process your move with the minimum of hassle and stress, offering you a cash sum and speedy sale.
Renting out Your Home
This is another option for homeowners, but will naturally include a lot of administration and choices for how to manage your property. Finding tenants, collecting rent, and making improvements and repairs can be difficult to orchestrate when you live abroad. Many homeowners choose to employ a property management company to help with making these repairs and a home warranty plan to help cover the costs. To help you manage renting out your property, you can use a lettings agent. The catch with using an agent is that they take a percentage of the rental income, as well as the fact that you’ll have to make tax considerations.
The Admin
Once you’ve procured your visa – which can take a long time depending where you’re going, you’ll need to contact and inform the relevant authorities of the fact you’re leaving the country. These include at the very least your Local Council and HMRC. You’ll need to get your hands on a P85 form and return it to make sure your tax contributions are correct. You’ll need to move your financial accounts over to your destination country
Pensions
You’ll need to sort out your pension too if you’re a member of a UK based pension scheme. You have options as to how to proceed with your pension such as transferring your contributions over and approved arrangement to your new country of residence, or leaving it in the UK scheme where you can access it from age 55.
Finally: Medical Insurance and Healthcare
We’re lucky to have the NHS here in the UK, but other countries’ health care systems work in different ways to ours. Do research about your eligibility for medical care and social security. Many countries work with the fact that your health insurance is covered by your employer, so it’s best to heavily research such an important aspect of your move.