You may have read about the lovely people we had met during our stay in April. What happened, well we did keep in contact and they had indeed decided to progress with their purchase. It was great to think that we would have some neighbours we now knew and liked. When I say neighbours, it’s not like in the UK next door; they are about 15 minutes by car.
I was glad to be able to share our experiences to date as well with the buying process, using Maria & Paulo, the Lawyer, transferring of funds from the UK to Portugal and what happens at the Notary. Basically all the things that I had to find out as I went and hopefully if you are reading this and doing something similar then what I have written will help you. That is one of the main drivers for me to do this blog; hopefully it will act a valuable source of information.
During June they completed on their property and apart from the vendors removing the kitchen sink during the sale, I am pleased to say everything seemed to go relatively smoothly for them as well. I wasn’t surprised about the kitchen; it is common practice in Europe outside of the UK that when you sell your house, you take the kitchen with you. I think however this came as a bit of a shock for Andy and he found himself searching for a replacement.
One really great thing was that they also were travelling back down in August at the same time as us, so we would be able to meet up and discuss our adventures over a beer or two or three or more.