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Graham Mumby-Croft


Paul Laxton
Issue 93 Autumn 2025
THE PERILS OF DOWNSIZING

Around about this time last year, I decided to downsize. The former marital home and garden had become too big to manage alone, and I had finally reached the point where I could leave the home that held so many memories. Before putting the house on the market, I engaged a handyman to do various minor repairs and improvements such as cleaning the gutters, staining the decking, and demolishing an old shed. I also made a tentative start on getting rid of stuff from inside the house. My late wife would have been much more ruthless. By early October I had found a suitable flat and a buyer for my home, sold for the full asking price to the first person to view, and it would become a family home again. At this point I am delighted with the turn of events and also feeling virtuous about selling my home to people who need the kind of space that I don’t.

As a former Prison Governor, I was used to moving home. Our terms and conditions contained a mobility clause, and if the service wanted to relocate you, it paid for the privilege. Whether it still does, I don’t know. There was even a generous relocation scheme which effectively made you a cash buyer. Along with the brilliant organisation skills of my late wife, much of the stress was taken out of the process. For the first time, I would be doing this without either. I am sorry to say that it was immensely stressful, and at times had me wondering whether or not just to simply abort and stay put.

The first of many pitfalls was stamp duty. I had worked out in advance that Rachel Reeves would end the Stamp Duty ‘holiday’ on 31 March 2025. Surely with no chain on both sale and purchase, six months would be more than enough to complete with time to spare. Well, I got that one wrong. The pace was glacial. I did not complete my purchase until 30 April, leaving me with a £900 Stamp Duty bill, modest by comparison to those who missed the deadline in more expensive parts of the country. I had to complete my sale by 31 March in order to avoid being gazundered at the last minute as my buyer was not enamoured at the prospect of a £1700 Stamp Duty bill. On the basis of a mistaken belief that my purchase would complete a few days later, I decided to move out and complete the sale. A few days’ hotel bills would not hurt, I reasoned. Well, I got that wrong. A month’s hotel bills cost me just under £2k, and storage costs came in at £12 per night. In the end the total cost of my move was £13,400. 

Once you begin the process of buying and selling you realise that everything is now digital. If you do not own a computer, you have got big problems unless you can resort to the grandchildren or the public library. A printer with a scan function is also needed as there are some documents which have to be signed and returned to your solicitors as a hard copy. If you haven’t sent a registered letter for next day delivery recently, I can tell you it now costs £8.75. If exchange of contracts and completion are close together, or even simultaneous in the case of my purchase, this will give you problems with removal companies. They need notice so that they can organize their work. My removal company originally proposed a delivery date from storage six days after completion. In the end we got it down to two, but that was still two more nights’ hotel bills. Hotel dwelling also plays havoc with your diet. Room only saves money if there is a Wetherspoons nearby, but it soon ceases to be a novelty.
After that, you have the cost of putting your own stamp on your new home. Improvements that include total recarpeting and redecorating have so far cost me around £9k. You have been warned, but despite the hassle, I have no regrets. The flat is perfect for me, and I wish I could have done this three years ago.

PAUL LAXTON