Moving in France - The Move In

Moving in France - The Move In

Our New Place

Our "move in" date is set! Our rental contract includes the date when we will get the keys and conduct the "état des lieux" - our move-in inspection.

October 1 - our dossier was officially accepted for our new apartment!

October 10 - we arranged for our internet and house phone to move. For the overlap, they are lending us a 4G hotspot - we picked it up a couple of days later. They prefer at least 20 days of notice! Luckily, we just hit that window.

October 15 - arranged for renter's insurance on the new apartment, as well as the overlap on the old. Got an attestation via email (required for our move-in)

October 17 - I took our renter's insurance attestation and our bank information to our new agency. I tried to follow up on our handyman contact, but... It seems clear (from another person there) that this sort of recommendation is not allowed :-\ Later that day, we got the rest of the information about our new apartment by email.

October 19-22 - every single day, we hunted for furniture! Saturday and Sunday, we went to used furniture places, then Monday and Tuesday, we investigated new furniture. Tuesday was very stormy, and we still drove all the way to IKEA in Montpellier!

Results: we bought a used table and bed frame, but! When we arranged for delivery... (1) our elevator is too small for the table, so that means carrying it up 3 flights of stairs and (2) they can't deliver until November 5th, so we'll be sleeping on the floor for a few nights.

October 23 - it's another horribly stormy day, so we got a *lot* done by internet and phone! 

We arranged to have our chauffagiste send us a maintenance certificate (required for our move-out), and he will move our contract to the new apartment as well!

We made an account online at the Post office, and set up mail forwarding. They will mail a code to our current address - we will need this to complete the action.

We arranged to move our account at the gas and electric company, and requested our move (in and out). They called a little while later to finalize some details. When we move in, we have to take photos of the meters, and email them. Since recording the readings is a part of our move-in inspection, we'll just do that at the same time.

We contacted a few handymen, but we're still having no luck finding help to move our few items. 

October 24 - we went to arrange a moving van and help (!) at Happy Location... Well, we started this. The fellow had a friend, and we hoped to hear good things by the end of the day. We have plans B and C lurking.

We went online (one website, for each of us) to update our car registration, CPAM (health system), taxes, basically every government entity there is!

October 25 - sooo, another plan bites the dust! Our moving job is too small to be worth our fellow's friend finding a babysitter :-( Our fellow offered, but the only time he could do it was the exact same time that we are doing our move-out inspection. Plan B - made more rounds of petits annonces. Plan C, asked and got a *huge* favor from a friend. Set for Thursday...

October 26 - had a little reprieve today; the only move-related chore was to go to Happy Location and reserve our moving van!

Well, we also got our very nice neighbor to show us where all our meters were :-) 

October 28 - Move-in Day! We did the move-in inspection (état des lieux) in the morning - quite a thorough job, if you ask me! The agent had her list, and I had mine, so we both did our thing, then compared notes. Unfortunately, the gas was off (apparently, this is a safety requirement), so we couldn't check everything. But we did have electricity this time! And we still checked the shower (poor Rick got soaked...). We ended with two items on the "discuss with the owner" - he contacted us before the end of the day!
After we got our keys (!!), I dropped Rick off at the "old" place, where he took care of all the many appointment changes. I went shopping for cleaning supplies, and spent the afternoon cleaning the new place. I did leave a much shorter list for later - I got home exhausted!
Fortunately, we're working on getting our freezer emptied out...

October 29 - We were in the middle of breakfast, getting ready to head over to the new place by 10, when the IKEA delivery folks called - they were nearly there! We rushed out to meet them, leaving behind all the things we had intended to take. I suspect they forgot to change their clocks... Well, half the stuff fit in the elevator. The two big chairs had to be unboxed to fit into the living room. Whew! you just don't think about interior doors being smaller than "normal!" They were done by 9:30, so we waited a little while for the landlord - he had arranged to come by and check the partially-non-functional shower, discovered during our inspection ;-)

Good news! our landlord *replaced* our shower! and he removed the kitchen door and put it in storage, and "settled" the toilet (it was a little wobbly)

Bad news! the gas and electric company *cancelled* our appointment to turn on our gas! We had to take another one, which is not until the FIFTH of November! So, showers remain at the old place, being very very careful, because I'm *cleaning* well before then...