Into the fire!

Things are starting to get serious. It's now just 1 month and 29 days until we move. Stress levels are rising, and things are starting to happen at a much faster pace. Memories of 2015, when we had months to plan are now but a distant memory. It just got real folks. 

Apartment hunting. 

Next week we'll find ourselves in Vienna, looking for that perfect apartment. So far we have a few to visit, all found by our tame estate agent (or Makler) Wolfgang Gerzabek. He's been sending a steady stream of apartments though for us to consider. We'll take what we can, so we're not that fussy right now. 

Getting an apartment isn't as easy as it sounds. In theory, we go see an apartment, like it, agree to pay the requested rent, pay our deposit, sign the paperwork and we're done. In reality though, it's a bit more complicated. The first hurdle is convincing the landlord that we're worthy of the apartment. tenants in Vienna are protected by plenty of laws, so the landlord wants to make sure you'll pay the rent and not cause any trouble. If you're self employed, things are a little more difficult. We'll find out how much more difficult next week.

The next issue is that the rent as defined in the advert is a little more 'fluid' than you think. As a plus this allows you to negotiate a discount or a months free rent if you need to do any work. As a minus, other parties interested in the same apartment can offer to pay more than the specified rent, leaving you in a bidding war if you're not careful, and without an apartment if you don't want to play the game. 

Third up is the commission.  Wolfgang is entitled to two months rent plus 20% for his trouble. You can of course find apartments that are 'provisionfrei' with no commission, but you have to be fast to find them. They'll often go within a day of hitting the market. Using a estate agent is costly, but worth it, we hope! Commission isn't the big issue though, it's the deposit. Some apartments ask for two months rent as a deposit whilst others ask for up to six months. There's no hard and fast rule, but the deposit has to be listed in the listing. 

If we're lucky, we'll get a place, sign the paperwork and be back in the UK in time for next weekend. If we're unlucky, well it's going to be a long week ahead. 

The Brexit factor. 

The EU referendum is a very complicating factor right now. It's possible that if the leave side win, we could see an immediate closing of the border on June 24th. It's just one of the possibilities that are doing the rounds here. Most agree that invoking article 50 of the Lisbon treaty would lead to two years negotiation on the UK's withdrawal. In that time, the current rules would remain in place, meaning we could move and hope the politicians sort out what they need to. It's not ideal and it does come with the risk of having to leave Austria after that two years. But there's also the option of leaving immediately. Much like ripping a plaster off, the idea is that the short term disruption will be a small price to pay to begin again. If that happens, we could find ourselves out of pocket, loosing our deposit and needing a plan B as we still have to move come July 30th. Worse, the 2 million Brits who live abroad and let's be honest, haven't really been thought about by the leave campaign at all really, could find themselves forced to return to the UK, horrendously out of pocket. Will the government pay to help with they're relocation? I'm guessing not. 

Now in theory, the aptly named Vienna convention could protect the many Ex pats. It basically says that people can't be affected by changes such as the removal of free movement as the previous treaty agreement will stay in force. That'll protect those living abroad, but not those who have yet to move. 

In 24 days, we'll find out. 

Playing the Man, not the ball.

It's just around 6 weeks until the UK's referendum on leaving the EU. For the love of God, shoot me now and end to end the madness. I hate to voice my own political opinions with anyone, as it's a great way to loose friends and annoy people, but the referendum has me feeling the need to 'blow off steam'. So here goes. 

Wanted: facts. 

The title of this post is taken from and old footballing phrase relating to a foul. Playing the man, not the ball kind of sums up the various referendum campaigns at the moment. It's become a familiar pattern from both sides. It goes like this.

1. Side A brings out a statistic that can't quite be proved, but offers a point of discussion. 

2. In Response, side B the retaliates by claiming the person who made the announcement on side A is delusional. The key is to ignore the talking point entirely. 

3. Now side B releases a list of some guys on their side.

4. Side A immediately attack the side B spokesman, but says nothing about the list. 

5. And repeat ad nauseam.  

It's really annoying, and at the minute, the leave campaign seem to be the worst offenders. What we need are facts. So far the Leave campaign have failed to come up with a good explanation of what life after a no vote whole be like. We've been told we could have a relationship with the EU like Canada, or Norway, or Albania, or Switzerland or.....and so it goes on. To date, no definitive plan on this has been put forward, which makes it hard to vote for something that's undecided. 

Then there's the Single market itself. Apparently we'll have full access to the single market, but not pay in, or have free movement, or indeed be bound by their rules. Which is odd, given that those three things seem to be non negotiable.  Then again, Vote Leave Co-Chairman Michael Gove has said we not even need access to the single market. Hmmmmm. Again, there's no clear 'we will do this, this is our plan' type of thing from Vote Leave. Instead, depending on who is speaking, the idea seems to wander around from WTO rules to others and back again.

Vote Leave aren't the only ones being a bit fanciful. Better Together have been up there with the rhetoric. For the most part, the In campaign should have an easier job. The argument is simple, stay as we are. But it would be great if the in campaign could highlight a positive now and again. Most of the campaign has focuses on the economic risks of a No vote. It's a pretty good argument, as leaving would absolutely cause some form of disruption to the UK economy and the European on at that. But every time you hear the figures, they've gone up. It's something along the lines of this.

Hi, here's a £1. 

Thanks.

It's a good thing gave you that £2.

What?

That £5 will see you good. 

Hang on.

So that £10 is great, right. 

But...

Yeah £20 is fantastic. 

And it continues. After all, who doesn't need £50. 

Perhaps the biggest miscalculation on the stay side has been David Cameron's claims that leaving the EU would bring about WWIII! He was obviously looking to play up the peace that the EU has brought since WWII, But by damn he ran with it and now if we leave, it's going to be the actual 'end of the world' 

Spectre's of WWII.

World War 2 was inevitably going to be dragged into the debate at some point. Last week began with both sides arguing over who could claim Winston Churchill, with Churchill's own grandson claiming that the Wartime prime minister he would be on the 'in' side. But the biggest blunder of the week goes to prominent No Campaigner, Boris Johnson. He invoked Hitler, along with Napoleon, as examples of attempts to forge a united single Europe, albeit with different methods than the EU. It matters not of course whether Boris had a point. Comparing the EU and Hitler is always going to end badly. The Spectre of genocide is ever present with Hitler's name and to say that EU has 'similar aims' will inevitably draw criticism. Alarmingly, several Leave campaigners have rallied behind Boris, insisting his comparison was 'historically accurate' in terms of a Single european state. It matters not what the point was, Hitler should stay dead and far away from the debate at hand. 

Far more to come. 

June 23rd is still a long way away, and the next few weeks are going to see the campaigning ratchet up and up. With the poles currently sitting at 50/50, the only thing certain is that come June 24th there are going to be a lot of unhappy people. I fear the chaos won't end after the result either.