So finally our UK house is going on the market today, just a little over two years after we made the decision to move to France, and you could say a lot has happened since then!
Our plan, assuming we can find a buyer reasonably quickly, is to find somewhere to rent in our ‘target area’, the triangle between Limoges, Angoulême and Périgueux, and establish residence before 31st December 2020. I’ve found a few websites offering long-term rentals but any recommendations for pet friendly property gratefully received.
Working on the (optimistic) assumption we find a buyer and can complete by, say, October, I’m also making sure all our paperwork is in order. For example, my passport runs out in July next year and so I’m going to renew that now, knowing that I’ll need at least six months left on it come January if I want to travel to the EU.
We’ll obviously need to sort out health insurance and gather as much evidence as possible to demonstrate we are resident for a future online CdS application. Ideally the rental property will let us to have our names on the utility bills, which might help, and we’ll make sure we keep our ferry tickets, insurance documents etc safe.
I’m also starting to gather quotes for storing our belongings here in the UK as it probably makes sense for us to rent somewhere furnished on a 12 month tenancy then bring them over when we’ve found our new permanent home. We’ve cleared out a lot of stuff whilst getting the house ready for sale so at least we don’t have loads of clutter to skip.
Browsing social media it seems we’re not alone in trying to beat the end of December deadline and I’m just glad I’ve spent the last two years doing my research, listening to all of you on SF and mentally preparing for what I always assumed was going to be a race against time. Any and all advice welcome and gratefully received, thanks. 
