Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Last Friday afternoon I went off to see Tracey at the Nottingham house, to bring her up to date on progress (or lack of) in the purchase, to get some practical info (how the central heating works, when the binmen come, that sort of thing), and just to say hello and have a chat with her as she's a nice person. I told her about what my Briefs had told me, that her and Richard's purchase of the house in Trowell was in its "earliest stages". She looked very surprised and told me that, on the contrary, the searches had been done and she'd received the results. Moreover she and Richard were about to sign the contract of purchase, and that the only thing holding the thing up was this guy's precious cars. So that was good news, although it did show that either my Briefs or theirs had, basically, got their info completely wrong. The moral of this being that it's best to be in direct contact with those you're buying from, and selling to, rather than rely on often unreliable third parties.
When I got back to Hull later that day there was a message from my Briefs saying that they understood that a completion date at the end of November had "been agreed" by "all parties", which rather came as news to me as I hadn't agreed to owt. Still, end November would be fine, albeit 4 weeks (and thus 4 weeks temp accommodation expense) later than completion should have been. I emailed the Briefs saying this, and urging them to come up with a feckin' date asap so that I can arrange removals, but so far have heard nowt.
I then got an email from Paul G saying that his partner, Katy, was having to move out of her mum's house in Bridlington very soon, and that they had a shedload of furniture and appliances all ready to move into my house which they could delay little longer, so could I fuck off out of the house by the 14th. According to him, I had said that I'd be willing to move out to rented and stick my gear in storage in the event that my buyers found themselves in trouble. That is, to put not too fine a point on it, absolute cobblers, and IMO the guy's trying on another of his little domination games. I did say, when I saw them for the first time, that I'd made the offer of moving out and storage to Tweedledum and The Afrikaner, but I'm pretty damn sure I didn't make that offer to Paul and Katy. Even if I had, there's no way I'm doing it: I've spent over a grand on temp accommodation already, and going into temp accommodation full-time (rather than a few days a week) plus bunging effects into storage (not cheap - I've already had a quotation and the weekly figure would be over 100 quid for all my gear) would cost a stack more, particularly with no completion date in sight.
Anyway, why should I cough up for their cock-up? They should not have bought stuff, or arranged to move it in, BEFORE a completion date was agreed. That was a crass mistake which they should have avoided, given that they're almost certainly receiving advice from both sets of parents (and, I suspect, being bankrolled by one or both). So either they cough up for storage and temp accommodation or I do. And it's a lot easier, and cheaper, for them to do so than for me. I suppose the implicit threat is that they might pull out, but I'm now at the stage where I really don't care, and might even welcome them doing so so that I could start afresh, and be able to spend the Xmas holiday up here.
I think I've gone beyond anger, fury, and irritation, and have moved into Zen mode. As the Italians would say: che sarà, sarà. Events are beyond my control. The chain could collapse from the top, if matey doesn't shift his cars, from the middle, if Tracey and Richard's mortgage offer runs out (expiry date is 19th December), or from the bottom, if PG and KD lose patience with the delay and decide to start over. If I were in my buyer's shoes, I'd be well tempted to pull out and go looking for a house that's already empty, which wouldn't be difficult in Hull. The fate of the chain is out of my hands completely, which in a way is a relief.
And if it all collapses in a heap? I'm past caring.
When I got back to Hull later that day there was a message from my Briefs saying that they understood that a completion date at the end of November had "been agreed" by "all parties", which rather came as news to me as I hadn't agreed to owt. Still, end November would be fine, albeit 4 weeks (and thus 4 weeks temp accommodation expense) later than completion should have been. I emailed the Briefs saying this, and urging them to come up with a feckin' date asap so that I can arrange removals, but so far have heard nowt.
I then got an email from Paul G saying that his partner, Katy, was having to move out of her mum's house in Bridlington very soon, and that they had a shedload of furniture and appliances all ready to move into my house which they could delay little longer, so could I fuck off out of the house by the 14th. According to him, I had said that I'd be willing to move out to rented and stick my gear in storage in the event that my buyers found themselves in trouble. That is, to put not too fine a point on it, absolute cobblers, and IMO the guy's trying on another of his little domination games. I did say, when I saw them for the first time, that I'd made the offer of moving out and storage to Tweedledum and The Afrikaner, but I'm pretty damn sure I didn't make that offer to Paul and Katy. Even if I had, there's no way I'm doing it: I've spent over a grand on temp accommodation already, and going into temp accommodation full-time (rather than a few days a week) plus bunging effects into storage (not cheap - I've already had a quotation and the weekly figure would be over 100 quid for all my gear) would cost a stack more, particularly with no completion date in sight.
Anyway, why should I cough up for their cock-up? They should not have bought stuff, or arranged to move it in, BEFORE a completion date was agreed. That was a crass mistake which they should have avoided, given that they're almost certainly receiving advice from both sets of parents (and, I suspect, being bankrolled by one or both). So either they cough up for storage and temp accommodation or I do. And it's a lot easier, and cheaper, for them to do so than for me. I suppose the implicit threat is that they might pull out, but I'm now at the stage where I really don't care, and might even welcome them doing so so that I could start afresh, and be able to spend the Xmas holiday up here.
I think I've gone beyond anger, fury, and irritation, and have moved into Zen mode. As the Italians would say: che sarà, sarà. Events are beyond my control. The chain could collapse from the top, if matey doesn't shift his cars, from the middle, if Tracey and Richard's mortgage offer runs out (expiry date is 19th December), or from the bottom, if PG and KD lose patience with the delay and decide to start over. If I were in my buyer's shoes, I'd be well tempted to pull out and go looking for a house that's already empty, which wouldn't be difficult in Hull. The fate of the chain is out of my hands completely, which in a way is a relief.
And if it all collapses in a heap? I'm past caring.
