Finding a life changing house – Special Relocation Requirements

The initial enquiry

Was a telephone call from a brother wishing to help his sister and husband find a suitable property. He had got involved due to the extenuating circumstances and felt that the couple needed specialist help. His sister has a degenerative disorder which creates mobility issues and we would need to find a home with a huge list of requirements – i.e. it needed to be a level plot, open plan, big enough bathroom for a wet room, ceiling joists strong enough for lifting equipment, access for a mobility scooter, proximity to social amenities etc.

How we helped

There is very little ‘out there’ in terms of advice or service for clients like this. As you can imagine our client could not view many homes. Chiltern Relocation pre-viewed 15 options, took photographs, wrote reports and followed up with Skype chats. We received many lengthy emails and texts from the client who had many questions and concerns and we took the time to address each one as this move had to be right for them for so many reasons. This would be their forever home and it had to be right on so many levels.

Problems we faced

Ideally the couple wished to be within reach of local amenities but research required us to look at precise distances as we learnt that the electric mobility scooter and wheelchair have a maximum 8-mile range. The average speed our client was confident at was about 3mph. So this meant that 1 mile would take her about 20 minutes to reach. We also needed to look at the width of internal doors and the widths of her current wheelchair and the next wheelchair that she would require. Therefore the property would need to have wider doorframes or the ability to widen without it turning it to a major project.

Another issue was the desire for a bungalow but on a very sizeable plot. Her husband needed a large garden and this seldom comes hand in hand with a bungalow.

Conclusion

When we found the ideal bungalow with space for the mobility scooter and wheelchair, wide corridors and huge garden with views over the river, we arranged an appointment requesting extra time on the viewing to accommodate our client’s reduced ability. They fell in love with the property and we negotiated and arranged all the details for a successful completion on their behalf.

This successful project has been the most enjoyable and rewarding of all the home searches we have carried out over the last 11 years. This was further emphasised by a glowing testimonial from the client.

“We are sorry to be so difficult with our long list of requirements as we realise this was all very challenging to achieve. You really were an enormous help to us with your tremendous hard work, efforts, negotiating skills…the list is long. It’s been a long road and had its up & downs, but we have got there in the end and could not ask for a more beautiful place. It has everything we could both ever wish for and has that added “wow factor” which is a tremendous bonus. The words ‘thank you’ do not seem an adequate enough expression, because this is much more than a house – it will change the quality of our lives forever.”

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