I have had a bit of a bleak week....and it's a time when I really should have been beavering away making cards to sell at the Christmas Fair....which is this coming Friday.
On Monday it will be Ten months to the day since we lost Ma and here I am still trying to sort out her very modest estate.
During this ten months it has been my responsibility to make sure that the house is secure, safe and has suffered no damage.
So we(himself usually comes along) have been visiting roughly, every other day.
Visiting the house is getting to be a bit of a trial for me.
I have all the same responsibility to get over there, but none of the pleasure of seeing Ma....having a chat, a laugh, a moan....and this was what visits to the house meant while she was alive.
It meant giving her food to eat, it meant vacuuming her carpets, it meant collecting her washing....sometimes putting the clean stuff away for her. It meant washing her pots(that was a job himself took on) it meant making her bed.
It was doing this stuff that made the visit worthwhile....and the fun was in the ribald conversation that took place during these visits.
So, now these visit are empty, soulless and flat...and it has got harder and harder to do.
To the point where I have to grit my teeth and make myself go up there.
You might ask why I have not remedied this by getting the place sold.
Well, that has been my aim right from the beginning.
I have done everything that has been asked of me....getting valuations, going round the place with surveyors....getting the energy certification done.
It all sounds so little, and so easy.
It should have been very very simple as the man who lived next door to Ma wanted the house and was prepared to offer full market value.
The snake in the ointment(I can't say fly, fly is small, insignificant and can be easily scooped out)...a poisonous toxic variety made every effort to thwart the sale.
He wrote letter after letter, e-mail after e-mail to the solicitors....and as you know each letter or e-mail to a solicitor costs money.
He wrote me nasty, lie filled intimidating e-mails...so much so that along with the probate solicitor we had to enlist the help of a litigation solicitor.
Since that was done I have heard nothing of him.
I made a decision in August to go ahead with the sale.
I was going to ignore the snakes threat to remove me as administrator.
So the process began.
I was told that it could take 12 weeks....the 12 week marker was due to pass this week.
Early in the week my solicitor called to ask if I had heard anything from the buyer.
I told her he had been asking me what the hold up was.
He said that his solicitor was blaming the delay on our side.
My conveyancing solicitor told me that this was not true...she had sent e-mails to ginger her counterpart along...but with no response.
In the intervening 12 weeks I had obtained the deeds of the house from the bank..I had filled in a tenpage document, and a further six page document...I had signed to get the special insurance for the house.
While the snake in Sydney basked in the glow of knowing he had me for a mug.
Everything I had done was returned the same day as I wanted all this business sorted.
So why am I telling you all this?
It will all become clear very soon.
I gently suggested to the buyer that he went a jollies up his team.
He did this and was met with the response of
'There is a problem. The vendor(me) is trying to sell you something they are NOT entitled to sell'.
He was told that he needed to meet with his team the following day at 2pm.
This worried him as he could see the sale withering away.
He phoned me late Wednesday afternoon to tell me this news.
If I say I was gobsmacked, terrified and despairing in equal measures then that would maybe give some idea of how I reacted....except it wouldn't really.
I tried to process the information. To try and think of a simple reason that could account for this bombshell.
I got on the phone to speak with my conveyancing solicitor.
She was not in the office that afternoon.
I rang the probate solicitor....she was in court wit a case and would not be available until the next day.
I left, what I am sure, was a very garbled message on her voicemail.
I tried to distract myself by setting about making a cottage pie for tea.
All the time I was peeling the potatoes I imagined myself scraping the skin from sensitive places on the snake.
I had convinced myself that he had chucked a spanner in the works....and the more I thought about it, the more my stress levels rose.
(I do not normally stress out about things....I,look for practical ways to do something).
Then the phone rang. I was sure it would be the solicitor.
It wasn't....it was a neighbour of Ma's who was phoning to tell me that the front bedroom light was on.
She asked if we had been up that day( we hadn't....I had to wait in for the delivery of a microwave)....and because we always go up in daylight, I do not put the lights on.
She said that the front door was secure, but she could not see the backdoor.
This development would require a visit.....and I could not go....I wanted to wait for the call from the solicitor.
To be continued....
On Monday it will be Ten months to the day since we lost Ma and here I am still trying to sort out her very modest estate.
During this ten months it has been my responsibility to make sure that the house is secure, safe and has suffered no damage.
So we(himself usually comes along) have been visiting roughly, every other day.
Visiting the house is getting to be a bit of a trial for me.
I have all the same responsibility to get over there, but none of the pleasure of seeing Ma....having a chat, a laugh, a moan....and this was what visits to the house meant while she was alive.
It meant giving her food to eat, it meant vacuuming her carpets, it meant collecting her washing....sometimes putting the clean stuff away for her. It meant washing her pots(that was a job himself took on) it meant making her bed.
It was doing this stuff that made the visit worthwhile....and the fun was in the ribald conversation that took place during these visits.
So, now these visit are empty, soulless and flat...and it has got harder and harder to do.
To the point where I have to grit my teeth and make myself go up there.
You might ask why I have not remedied this by getting the place sold.
Well, that has been my aim right from the beginning.
I have done everything that has been asked of me....getting valuations, going round the place with surveyors....getting the energy certification done.
It all sounds so little, and so easy.
It should have been very very simple as the man who lived next door to Ma wanted the house and was prepared to offer full market value.
The snake in the ointment(I can't say fly, fly is small, insignificant and can be easily scooped out)...a poisonous toxic variety made every effort to thwart the sale.
He wrote letter after letter, e-mail after e-mail to the solicitors....and as you know each letter or e-mail to a solicitor costs money.
He wrote me nasty, lie filled intimidating e-mails...so much so that along with the probate solicitor we had to enlist the help of a litigation solicitor.
Since that was done I have heard nothing of him.
I made a decision in August to go ahead with the sale.
I was going to ignore the snakes threat to remove me as administrator.
So the process began.
I was told that it could take 12 weeks....the 12 week marker was due to pass this week.
Early in the week my solicitor called to ask if I had heard anything from the buyer.
I told her he had been asking me what the hold up was.
He said that his solicitor was blaming the delay on our side.
My conveyancing solicitor told me that this was not true...she had sent e-mails to ginger her counterpart along...but with no response.
In the intervening 12 weeks I had obtained the deeds of the house from the bank..I had filled in a tenpage document, and a further six page document...I had signed to get the special insurance for the house.
While the snake in Sydney basked in the glow of knowing he had me for a mug.
Everything I had done was returned the same day as I wanted all this business sorted.
So why am I telling you all this?
It will all become clear very soon.
I gently suggested to the buyer that he went a jollies up his team.
He did this and was met with the response of
'There is a problem. The vendor(me) is trying to sell you something they are NOT entitled to sell'.
He was told that he needed to meet with his team the following day at 2pm.
This worried him as he could see the sale withering away.
He phoned me late Wednesday afternoon to tell me this news.
If I say I was gobsmacked, terrified and despairing in equal measures then that would maybe give some idea of how I reacted....except it wouldn't really.
I tried to process the information. To try and think of a simple reason that could account for this bombshell.
I got on the phone to speak with my conveyancing solicitor.
She was not in the office that afternoon.
I rang the probate solicitor....she was in court wit a case and would not be available until the next day.
I left, what I am sure, was a very garbled message on her voicemail.
I tried to distract myself by setting about making a cottage pie for tea.
All the time I was peeling the potatoes I imagined myself scraping the skin from sensitive places on the snake.
I had convinced myself that he had chucked a spanner in the works....and the more I thought about it, the more my stress levels rose.
(I do not normally stress out about things....I,look for practical ways to do something).
Then the phone rang. I was sure it would be the solicitor.
It wasn't....it was a neighbour of Ma's who was phoning to tell me that the front bedroom light was on.
She asked if we had been up that day( we hadn't....I had to wait in for the delivery of a microwave)....and because we always go up in daylight, I do not put the lights on.
She said that the front door was secure, but she could not see the backdoor.
This development would require a visit.....and I could not go....I wanted to wait for the call from the solicitor.
To be continued....