All Posts in "Out Of The Blue"

I find it hilarious that the agent wants to come see the house tomorrow with the goal of trying to market it for a new tenant.[ad#ad-1]

Her colleague had had the audacity to send us a letter stating that he could not talk to the electric company, so it was up to talk to them and we should do so ASAP as our lease is quickly nearing the end.  First of all, why send us a letter to tell us that?  The previous agent (who no longer works with them) had no difficulties; the postal service is extremely unreliable given the postal strikes (it took my occupational health assessment a full week to travel a couple miles); the ball is no longer in our court as concerns the electric company.  No replies to our email stating all this.  Then, out of the blue, they want to see the house because the landlord wants to remarket it.  That’s on top of telling us that our lease will expire exactly 30 days from when we definitely stated we will not renew.  Never mind that we had suggested this two months earlier but no one bothered to acknowledge or question it then.

I wonder what the agent will think when she parks up and sees the rubble in front of her.  Our nearest neighbours, also tenants, are showing signs that they are possibly moving out.  They have been the longest tenants on the estate, but I suppose that when the adjacent storage collapsed one morning, they decided that the safety of the structure they are living under is suspect.  We all knew that it would collapse eventually, but to see it happening in front of your eyes was quite novel.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  This was two months ago, and the only thing that has happened is that the landlord’s workers removed the collapsed bricks and placed a metal fence around the area, which meant that our neighbours have been a bit inconvenienced.  Well, we’ve seen furniture being removed from their property and their chickens went today.

I also wonder what the agent will think when she actually walks through our house and sees the mess.  What more surprises will she have in store for us? How will she react when we confront her for maladministration on their part?  We have a very strong case against them and the landlord.  How can they justify forcing us to pay for an extra week when we aren’t even being compensated for living in this neglected property?  And, of course, what have they decided about the electricity?  Still no answers from them on that score.  Yet another example of maladministration.  They drag their feet when it benefits us, but rush when it benefits them.  And they tried to tell us that as agents, they work for us as well as the landlord.  Pull the other one.

Well, I guess, if they will force us to pay for the extra week, we’ll have to prevent them from coming in sooner to fix up the house.  They cannot possibly expect someone to move in with these conditions, unless the new tenants are gullible enough to believe that repairs will be done before they move in.  Wish I could be a fly on the wall when that happens.

Financial stress is still fever pitch, but we’ve agreed on another house and will sign the lease tomorrow.  The movers will come next week, my first day at work.  All I can think is, if we get through the next 3 weeks without further financial burdens, we will manage.

Yank by — October 1, 2009 in My Journey 1

Though road construction is, by far, less extensive over here than it was in the US, we do have occasional road closures due to the road work.  Having been used to seeing the signs for construction in the US and understanding exactly what they mean, I find that the warning signs in the UK are very ambiguous.[ad#ad-1]

Granted, some road work can be longer than the one-day jobs and signs forewarn drivers of this.  However, the ambiguity exists when there are the one-day jobs.  I refer to the signs that state: “road closed ahead”.  It might not be so ambiguous had it not been placed on a corner of a junction and the driver needs to determine to which road the sign refers.  There is no mention of the road name nor the distance.  In the US, they usually tell you how far ahead so you can plan whether or not to proceed forward.  However, if you do not know the distance, much less the road, you cannot plan ahead.  One time we saw this sign, it referred to neither the road we were on nor the turning where the sign was posted.  Instead, it referred to the street at the next junction.

To further the confusion, we sometimes find “diversion” signs out of the blue.  Driving further, we discover the road is closed, blocked off by a truck, with no sign of any work going on beyond the truck.  Other times, we have followed diversion signs that are so inadequately placed that you do not realise you have missed a turning until you go miles and miles at a stretch without seeing another “diversion” sign.  Another time, we followed our own instincts for direction and discovered that follow-up “diversion” signs were placed where we can only see them after we had already made the correct turn. The diversion took us over several miles and diverted us onto another “A” road, rather than just around the road block.[ad#ad-1]

It’s extremely frustrating and it also makes me wonder if the British use the same tactics as the Americans in making diversions.  For example, we had recently moved into the town where we last lived when we encountered road work on a bridge.  We followed the “detour” signs, which took us at least 10 miles out of our way.  The work continued for about two months, at which time, we became familiar with the layout of the neighbourhoods and discovered that we could bypass this same road work by turning the opposite way and going into the town a distance of half a mile.  So far, no road has had to be closed for that length of time here.

Yank by — June 18, 2009 in Travel 0