The Money Pit

Dead Boiler

Remember a year and a half ago we had a new boiler installed? Well, yesterday (my birthday!) we woke to find it had died. Completely. Not just a lack of hot water but the control panel and warning light were gone too. Doesn't take a genius to work out the PCBs have had it.

My first call was to the manufacturers, Glow-Worm, who, it appears, couldn't care less that it's winter and we're at home looking after a one month old baby with no heating and unable to wash either ourselves or his nappies.

Although I rang them on Thursday the soonest they could get an engineer out to look at it was going to be Wednesday. Six days without heating or washing?

So, I called the plumber who originally installed it and he offered to help out, as he knows people at Glow Worm and could probably get the bits off them. As far as I know he's doing the best he can to get this done ASAP. He's a nice bloke.

In the mean time I have a Glow Worm engineer booked in for next Tuesday (they managed to get one a day earlier in the end). The phone operator couldn't however give me any guarantee that he'd be able to fix it on the day or that he'd have the right PCB with him. This despite my telling them what model it is and that the problem is almost definitely with the PCBs. You'd think he might come with everything he might need and I live in hope.

The boiler itself is under warranty, but, as it's in the second year, only parts are covered and there's a £105 charge for labour! This to fix a £900 boiler that's less than two years old. Needless to say I'm a little pissed off about the whole thing.

If this were a Sky+ box on the blink I wouldn't be bothered about when an engineer could get out to see me. But this is a boiler. Something you take for granted until it's gone. Our well-being depends on it. It makes me wonder how many engineers Glow Worm have. Is it a team of dedicated people or one man who makes his way round the East Midlands as fast as he can!? You'd like to think that there'd be some urgency about matters concerning boilers in the winter where newborn babies are concerned. Obviously not though. You'd like to think the reply would be "We'll have somebody with you within the hour sir!" ala RAC-style roadside recovery. Instead you get a couldn't-care-less attitude from a company only to ready to make you wait and profit from it all in the end anyway.

The one blessing in all this is that we're saving a heap of money on the gas we're not using ;o)

How much did the house next door cost?

Watski sent me a link to a website, called OurProperty.co.uk that lists the prices paid for all UK houses bought since 2000.

Annoyingly, you need to register to use the service. Fear not though. I also know of a website that lists login details for 1,000s of sites. Here's a pair of credentials for getting access.

Enjoy. Just don't make yourself too mad, like I did, when you noticed your next-door neighbour paid half as much as you did just 2 years ago...

Financial Breakdown

We got a letter from our solicitor this morning with the "completion statement" in it. I guess this is as close as we're going to get to something in writing that says "You own the house".

It makes interesting reading. Who'd have thought that in the modern age of the Internet we'd still be charged £50 for "telegraphic transfers". The really interesting part though is that the Buyers paid too much for the house!

After their second viewing they put in an offer of £130,000. Five grand below the asking price (which should have alerted us to the kind of people they are). We outright refused it and they came back with a more reasonable £133,000. However, at some point there has been some confusion and our solicitor had it down as being for sale at £133,500. We noticed this and he told us to ignore it and see what happens - the only decent bit of advice he's ever given us. Looking at the statement this morning I noticed they did pay the extra 500. So, after all that haggling over the damp, the £750 we agreed to knock off only amounted to £250. It's nice to finish with a slight upper-hand!

Our House, In the Middle of our...

Ever wondered what this house I'm talking about actually looks like? Here's a little piccy:

It's on the day we moved in (14 weeks ago!). You can see me mum carrying stuff in. My dad's inside the lorry (the one we hired). You can just make out his leg - he's sat down on the fridge having a breather!

The house is Victorian and was built in about 1903. It's a double-bay setup (living room front left and dining room on right with kitchen behind it). There are four bedrooms and two toilets. It's neither large nor small. It's just right.

There's a nice garden behind it and the stream, of course. There's a separate garage at the end of the drive, which you can just see to the left of the picture. There used to be more land to the left that belonged to the house. Years ago a couple lived here and the man died. The lady sold the house (without the land) and built herself a bungalow in this land. It's still there and our garden is a lot smaller for it.

Since we've been here I've learnt quite a bit about the house and the street. That's another story, which I'll share later. With some more pictures probably.

Could it be?

The weeks seem to pass one after the other as we get slowly get closer to completion, but with no obvious sign of it ever ending. Until this morning that is!

I rang our solicitor just to bug him really and hope he might make a call which might be the one needed to get through to somebody. Before I even had the chance to ask for news he told me there was good news!

Apparently our Buyers' solicitor had made contact with ours to say she had the mortgage offer and that her clients were coming in to sign later today. This is the best piece of news I've heard in a long time. Our solicitor is planning for completion on Friday. He just needs to talk to the buyer of our buyers' house (who he, coincidentally, represents) to make sure she's happy with that and will call me later to confirm.

I called Karen and the Owners to let them know. Needless to say there's a lot of relief in the air.

It's going to be strange finally owning the house. It already feels like home, so the legal change will make little difference really and probably be a bit of an anti-climax.

Almost There

Ok, the Estate Agents took the Buyers to the house and showed them round. They've measured the curtains and now they're happy. Some people! They are apparently even more keen to move in now. Hopefully this means they will be on the phone to get things moving and we won't need to call them any more.

Apparently, while they were there, one of their children found two pound coins. The Agent told them it was treasure and the kids left happy. I joked that we would add this to the price of the house. Having got off the phone and thought more about it I think we should. In effect they stole £2 from our house. Maybe I could report them to the police and press charges. Nothing would make me happier than to cause them some kind of stress comparable to what they've put us through. What I really might do is ask the Agents to tell them we want the money returned. Come on! Let's see who can get the most petty!!

I was laying in bed last night worrying (as has been the case quite a lot recently) that they might notice the different fireplace in the living room. As we suspected, they are too plain stupid to have realised. I can't believe I felt guilty about this at the time. Now I just wish we had taken more with us.

Getting so, so close now

We're so close to completion I think I can smell a smell that must be the smell of owning your own house.

Yesterday I went in to Phase II of Operation Exchange and made a series of phone calls to all parties involved. Out of all those I spoke to it's the Estate Agents who are the most useful, acting as the intermediary for all involved.

Ok, where were we? They agreed to meet us half way with the cost of the damp-proofing "needed". We then reached another stale-mate as they neglected to tell anybody about this. Whereas I told our solicitor of the change in house price they didn't think it important to tell theirs. So, I called the Estate Agents yesterday and they called the Buyers' solicitor who seemed to think they were waiting for our solicitor to contact them. The Estate Agent, now getting as tired of all this as we are, gave them what-for and informed them that everybody is waiting for them. But, at least there's some good news - they do have the mortgage offer and the monies are ready to be released. All we need now is for the buyers to contact their solicitor to arrange to go in and sign. Easier said than done! Their solicitor is impossible to get in touch with and has a secretary who is apparently unable to pass messages on.

Last night I called the Buyers, against their wishes. They'd asked that we only call the Estate Agents as they know everything we need to know. If only it were that easy. Anyway, I call them up and ask whether they told anybody about our arrangement. They hadn't. It seems she's got other things on her mind. Such as when she's going to get the keys so she can measure the curtains. "I've got two kids and I'm moving in to a house with no curtains". We had told them we would send the keys to the Estate Agents who would show them round the house again. Since then we've changed our mind and so told them our solicitor advised us not to until things are legal. She didn't seem too happy with this but I'm past caring.

So, that's where we're at. I've missed bits out because I'm bored of trying to remember it all. Karen sometimes comes home and asks who I called and what was said. I sometimes have to say I honestly can't remember.

Today I need to make more calls just to keep the momentum there. Hopefully this time next week it will all be over.

Finally, Some Good News

After criticising the Buyers for not returning the call I found a message from them on my mobile (which I'd accidentally thrown in the wheely bin!), asking us to call them. They actually had some promising news for once. The surveyor has finally relayed the information back to the mortgage company who are now holding back £1,500, because of the work needed to get rid of the damp problem. Not great news but at least we're at a point where we can move forward.

All we have to do now is decide how to cover this cost. You'd expect the Buyers to cover it, would you not? If you put in an offer then that's your offer. Well, they don't think so. In their words we advertised the house as "ready to move in to", which obviously it is. They think we should cover the whole cost so that they can actually move in.

Instead of accepting this we simply offered to meet them half way, lowering the price of the house by £750. We really want to tell them to go swivel, but have to sensible about it. In the long term it's a much better option to give them £750 and get this whole thing resolved.

After the phone call I talked to Karen about the idea that we might have to lower the price by the whole £1,500 if it really came down to it. She didn't take this well and started to scream and shout (she really does hate this couple!). After she calmed down I managed to reason with her. I too hate the idea of giving in to them, but you've got to look at it from a business angle and not let feelings get involved. If we told them where to stick it we would probably end up spending more than £1500 in other fees. All I want is the quickest and cheapest way to completion. At the moment this seems to be to swallow our pride and give yet more money to the fuckwits that have already cost us too much money.

Maybe we can't blame them completely. With hindsight on our side we should have read the signs earlier on and put the house straight back on the market. We should have done this as soon as knew they had gone on holiday, returning the day before the agreed move date, with nothing signed.

Bridging The Gap

This weekend we had a worrying phone call from the Owner(s). There were the usual pleasantries, but also a few shocks. It pains me to find out they are actually losing sleep now and waking in the middle of the night. Speaking to him he sounded distant and withdrawn. Not his normal cheery self.

The outcome of the call was that they have to have a completion date that's before the end of this month. He didn't make it clear what would happen otherwise, but I wasn't going to ask. Instead I promised him that, one way or another, we would get the sale through by then. To do this we have to do one of two things. 1) Get the Buyers sorted out 2) Find the money we would be getting from the sale elsewhere.

So, last night, I called the Buyers. I had to do it because Karen can no longer stand to talk to them. If she did it's likely to erupt and who knows what would happen then. Instead I put my diplomat's head on and called them. The outcome wasn't great but it's a step forward. Things are still held up by the second surveyor, on whose desk the report has been lost. The Buyers seem to think they've upset them following a previous complaint and assure us they are going to make another complaint. I told them I don't care what they are going to do and that all I care about is them getting the obstacle cleared. The only thing I could do was tell them to get down to the office and accept nothing but a meeting with the guy and a resolution to it all. I don't like to patronise people but it really is like dealing with dumb and dumber. They said they would call back tonight but haven't, as is typical with them.

The other option is a Bridging Loan. Expensive to say the least but a solution to half the problem. The only problem would be that we are then paying the interest on the loan and mortgages on two properties. It would stretch the budget to its limits, would normally be our last resort, but is looking more and more likely now.

Anybody have any ideas? Is there an alternative?

Another Update On The Farce

I'm so bored of telling this whole damn saga now that it's taking me a long time to get round to this post. It's so farcical now that it's best not thought about too much.

Tomorrow it will be ten weeks since we moved in and there is still no obvious sign of completion being any time soon.

Where were we last update? You know about the damp problem and the retainer. Well, since then, another surveyor went back to have a closer look. He confirmed there's a problem and that it will cost about £1000 to rectify. This was relayed to the first surveyor and we're now waiting for him to look at this and relay it to the mortgage company. How long do you reckon this would take? Three whole weeks!

There have been a lot of frantic phone calls to the estate agents. Not sure why but we seem to be back to dealing with them now and the solicitors are out of the loop for now. It drives you mad as they have to remain impartial to both parties. Secretly though they've been slagging them off to us and agree completely that we're dealing with idiots.

What we can't do is talk to the Buyers' mortgage company and try and speed things on. We could phone the Buyers and try to get them to but we've stopped calling them as it just makes things worse. You try and explain what the situation is and how badly it's denting the bank account and they come out with stuff like "Well, yeah, we had to cancel a furniture order last week". They're impossible.

In a decisive move we've put the house back on the market now. We asked the agents not to make this known to the Buyers. If they can get it sorted soon then the house is theirs. If a cash buyer turns up next week it's theirs instead. This is obviously not a nice thing to do to the buyers and not something I'll be happy doing. However, as I've said before, I have little else but contempt for them. If they would just say sorry. Just once. Then this might not be the case. Instead they continually place the blame with others. At the moment they blame the surveyor who, apparently, has a bad name anyway and they've lodged a formal complaint against him. Like that's going to help...