Questions About Booking AOA (Dilemma)

[Boxertony]

I have a question about the procedure of booking On Arrival Public Accommodationl via the State of South Australia Government.

 

My house sale will start going through the motions via our Solicitors on Monday (tomorrow), but we have no idea when it's going to be finalised. We are aiming for about the 23rd November, therefore we would like to make our move to Adelaide, about 7th December. The problem is we have to give at least six weeks notice to hopefully gain our on arrival accommodation, so the date of us to apply at the very latest is 26th October. However on the 26th October we will not be sure if our house sale will be finalised before the 23rd November:

 

Question:

 

1. If we have given the On Arrival Public Accommodation a date for us to take up our accommodation and then our house sale gets delayed and we cannot make that date. What will happen? Can we change the date, for a later date? If so, what notice period do we have to give? Plus will this hinder our opportunity to gain the On Arrival Public Accommodation again.

 

2. We cannot afford to pay for our flights until we sell our home, therefore we cannot confirm a date for arrival until we book the flights. But we do not want to apply for the On Arrival Public Accommodation after our flights are booked because we then have to wait 6 weeks before we can set off, taking us till end of January 2010, both my wife and I want to take up our job offers in Adelaide as early as 4th January 2010.

 

3. Can we apply for the On Arrival Public Accommodation for a given date but mention that this may change due to unforeseen delays with our house sale and not being able to book the flights until we sell our home and the original flights we wanted/planed to book may have been sold and we will need to arrange another flight as close to the original date we gave On Arrival Public Accommodation .

 

I hope I have explained this right!!!!

[Guest WoodMartin]

Hi there

Don't know the exact answer, sorry, however we have just used the OAA / Meet & Greet service (run through the same office) and they were very efficient and helpful. We always got quick and helpful replies to our emails so I expect you could email and ask your questions direct.

Ali

[Guest Guest75]

I'd say - no can do.

 

OAA places are short and they won't muck around - just pass the available place on.

[Guest Nick11]

From memory you cannot book oaa til you have a confirmed flight number. I think....

[jim and adel]

Unless things have changed, the thing that shows them you're serious is the flight number - without it I wouldn't bother trying to secure OAA. Once you've booked flights, apply and point out that you're arriving in less than six weeks' time. They are really accommodating (yes, I'm aware of the pun) and I reckon you'll be okay, but a plan b wouldn't do any harm ...

 

Jim

[Boxertony]

Yes I assumed that they will require the flight number so we can use the Meet and Greet Service and to show real intention in emigrating to Adelaide. I think it would be best for us to provide the full six weeks notice. The job offers will just have to wait a little bit longer for us. If I could gain a definite date for completion of our house sale then I may borrow the flight money and book our flights before the house is actually sold. However if the house sale falls through, then this will cause us big problems.

 

I am worried about our house sale, because our home is been up for sale for four months and not had one viewing. We knocked off £25k off house sale price. A guy then came to view our house. He offered us the full original true asking price and also an extra £3k for the furniture. In addition he will pay cash in our hands obviously through our Solicitors. This guy mentioned he loves our home and really wants it. This seems to good to be true, the guy is from Wilmslow in Cheshire and we live in Newcastle upon Tyne, therefore we are just waiting for confirmation through our Solicitors. This potential house buyer says he likes me and he wants to help my family out. Maybe he is very genuine and we have gained some good luck for a change.

[Diane]

This potential house buyer says he likes me and he wants to help my family out. Maybe he is very genuine and we have gained some good luck for a change.

 

Call me a suspicious old cow (many have!) but this comment set alarm bells ringing in my head. If he's genuine, then great, but I'd play my cards close to my chest and for instance, not take the house off the market until you've got signatures on paper!

 

I've heard of unscrupulous people offering to buy someone's house, then waiting till the last possible minute when flights are booked, kids are out of school, etc when you really can't afford for the sale to fall through... then the people come back with some cock and bull story about inheritances not coming through or something and offer you a hugely lower price, knowing you have to accept or start all over again!

 

Hopefully I'm wrong, and it will all work out, but be careful and don't put all your eggs in one basket until you absolutely have to!

 

Best of luck.

[jim and adel]

Call me a suspicious old cow (many have!) but this comment set alarm bells ringing in my head. If he's genuine, then great, but I'd play my cards close to my chest and for instance, not take the house off the market until you've got signatures on paper!

 

I've heard of unscrupulous people offering to buy someone's house, then waiting till the last possible minute when flights are booked, kids are out of school, etc when you really can't afford for the sale to fall through... then the people come back with some cock and bull story about inheritances not coming through or something and offer you a hugely lower price, knowing you have to accept or start all over again!

 

Hopefully I'm wrong, and it will all work out, but be careful and don't put all your eggs in one basket until you absolutely have to!

 

Best of luck.

 

First things first, I'm tempted to call you a suspicious old cow, not because I have reason to think you are, but because a free offer to insult someone is hard to resist

 

Seriously, have to agree about the alarm bells and the need to play cards close to chest. Difficult, I know, but one of the things we agreed when we were selling our house was to keep the reason to ourselves - even our estate agent thought we were just looking for a bigger place and weren't in any great hurry to move!

 

We know someone who was badly messed around with a buyer offering the full asking price right up to the last minute then suddenly dropping the figure by 40k and threatening to pull out. Not nice! It doesn't mean veryone's like this, of course, but the risk is there.

 

Jim

[jim and adel]

Hi Tony, just curious - was the buyer as good as his word? A couple of us suggested caution, so it would be good to know that things went as planned and that there are still some genuine people left in the world!

 

Jim

[John Browning]

I have a question about the procedure of booking On Arrival Public Accommodationl via the State of South Australia Government.

 

My house sale will start going through the motions via our Solicitors on Monday (tomorrow), but we have no idea when it's going to be finalised. We are aiming for about the 23rd November, therefore we would like to make our move to Adelaide, about 7th December. The problem is we have to give at least six weeks notice to hopefully gain our on arrival accommodation, so the date of us to apply at the very latest is 26th October. However on the 26th October we will not be sure if our house sale will be finalised before the 23rd November:

 

Question:

 

1. If we have given the On Arrival Public Accommodation a date for us to take up our accommodation and then our house sale gets delayed and we cannot make that date. What will happen? Can we change the date, for a later date? If so, what notice period do we have to give? Plus will this hinder our opportunity to gain the On Arrival Public Accommodation again.

 

2. We cannot afford to pay for our flights until we sell our home, therefore we cannot confirm a date for arrival until we book the flights. But we do not want to apply for the On Arrival Public Accommodation after our flights are booked because we then have to wait 6 weeks before we can set off, taking us till end of January 2010, both my wife and I want to take up our job offers in Adelaide as early as 4th January 2010.

 

3. Can we apply for the On Arrival Public Accommodation for a given date but mention that this may change due to unforeseen delays with our house sale and not being able to book the flights until we sell our home and the original flights we wanted/planed to book may have been sold and we will need to arrange another flight as close to the original date we gave On Arrival Public Accommodation .

 

I hope I have explained this right!!!!

yep, i see your problem there, and appreciate yuo are also in a quandary abot the Tax situation.

 

Can see why you wouldn't think of doing this in the UK, but bear in mind that Oz has a much more efficient and user- friendly Public Service at State & Federal ("Commonwealth") levels.

 

Silly question: have you posted your queries directly to the A.T.O. and the State Accommodation Service? -you might be surprised just how helpful they can be.

 

John

[Pesty650]

We have just gone through our house sale and had all the same questions as yourself. It took 11 weeks from acceptance of the offer until completion and like you we were trying to guestimate when it would all be finalised. We did ask the solicitors for an indication of timescales but of course these can never be guaranteed. We told nobody of our emigration plans.

We wanted to apply for OAA so ending up taking a gamble & booking flights. The ones we booked could be changed for a small fee (£75)- Singapore Airlines Flexi fare- but of course we had to provide these flight numbers and date of arrival in Adelaide to the OAA people. We put a buffer of a week in Singapore which would allow us to change our flights & leave the UK a week later without arriving in Adelaide any later. We applied for OAA with just over 6 weeks to go & the email back from OAA people states if you change your dates then your OAA application will be cancelled.

We asked for 2 weeks between exchange & completion on our house sale, agreed by both sides. In the end we got 4 days!!!! We had booked the movers & the exchange kept getting put back day after day, but the movers - John Masons were great & hung on until the last minute for us. We had zero days to spare handing in our notice to use the original flight dates we booked. Looking forward to a week in Singapore now. Its been 2 years since our last holiday (unless you count a week in Scotland)

 

All in all it was a very difficult & stressful time, never knowing until the last minute if the house sale would go through. Would have been much easier moving from somewhere rented in the UK.

 

Whilst we would really like OAA, we have always looked at it as a bonus if we got it & budgeted for not getting it.

 

Good luck with everything. You do mention you have job offers to take up so at least you'll be earning when you get there which I am sure will cushion the blow if OAA doesn't work out.