Boy, have I got stories to tell…
So, dear readers – we left you having very little time to do any packing. Having just an hours sleep between Sunday and Monday, we managed to pull off the impossible. The removal was done quickly and we were left waiting for the monies to transfer so I could give the keys to our buyer. Eventually, at about 1.30pm, the money had come through and it was just a matter of me handing over the keys.
Of course, the buyer needed to bring the cheque to pay for the stock. The amount had already been argued over with the stocktakers the previous day, so I was expecting trouble. The man arrived, I am friendly, I offer him the keys and ask for the cheque because I really am late and need to go.
He refuses to write me the cheque. He wants to ask questions. Questions he has asked several times before. I say, no time for quyestions, we have completed. He wants to do a visual inspection. I say, fair enough, but I want to call my solicitor to see if I am legally allowed back in the shop. I expect him to want to do a visual inspection of the stock to make sure it is all there before he writes the cheque.
So I let him in, go to the car to get the mobile to phone the solicitor and then his head appears from our upstairs bedroom window. The place is dirty, this is unacceptable. At hearing this I had enough. The “dirt” was just the fluff you find under the bed and the removal men had packed our hoover and brushes. Before he could say anymore, I threw the keys at the floor and told him he’d be hearing from my solicitor.
You see, this was just another delaying tactic. I knew the next lines out of his mouth would be about taking money off the stock amount to pay for the clearing the “dirt”. In the car, I left a message for my solicitor and headed to the new house.
The next day my solicitor calls me. He tells me we need to discuss how to proceed and that I won’t believe the letter he’s received from the buyer’s solicitor. Before he begins, I tell him my side of the story so as we are both reading from the same page as it were.
To cut it short, my buyer has accused me of “trashing the home” and it is going to cost thousands of pounds to put right and this money should come from the stock take amount. This is all lies, I say. Why would I do such a thing. What would it achieve when I’ve fought so hard to rebuild the place?
And so my solicitor is now fighting to get back the money that is owed to me, whilst the owner of my old shop is trading with stock that he has effectively stolen from me. A right laugh, innit?