The best day ever?!

“Oh Mummy, Today is my best day ever!!”  V exclaims with gusto.  I grunt doubtfully back at her as I cast my mind back over the day.

It started out alright.

On Wednesday, I had collected the keys from my suspected thieving tenant (see yesterday’s post on tenants) without a fight.  He thankfully awoke from his drunken stupor of the night before and calmly asked me to pack his things up and bring them to him.  I must admit I feel sorry for him even though I do still believe he stole my TV.  I think he did it to gain the attention of the one he loved.  Unfortunately, he did not receive the attention he wanted.

I try not to judge people but the person he loved was about 15 – 20 years older than him.  The person also was in a long-term relationship with someone else.  My property had been used as a love nest to hide the ‘mistress’!!!  I was pretty annoyed when I was informed of the reason I was being kept away from my family on Tuesday night.  Waiting for this older person, who was also the guarantor, to come and get the tenant out; Waiting for the tenant to return so I could ask him politely to leave; Waiting for the Police to hopefully arrive and save the day (still waiting on that one! In fact, the Police asked me to do the investigation for them and give them my findings so they could tie it all up neatly – Un-amused I am).

Back to the present day… I had to get a Doctor’s appointment for V as she has been complaining of tummy aches for a little while now.  That unfortunately got in the middle of my allocated school time.  I hate when that happens.  We got to the GP and I had to get a urine sample from V and I have to say, I was uncertain how to do this.  We tried doing it at the GP’s but she could not do the deed and I must admit I am thankful for that as it may have got just a little messy! 😀

Thank God for neighbours who pointed out that using a bowl may help collect the urine easier.  So that is what we did.

We then start to do the formal education of the day.  I get a phone call – It is from a cool tenant and his opening words are “You know its bad news, right?” My heart sinks.  It turns out the overflow pipe of the Boiler at the back of the house is pumping out water and has been doing it since ‘who knows when’.  Of course, this is a house that has just had a water meter fitted so who knows what the bills will be?

I panic slightly at this point; I tell the tenant to figure out how to switch off the water using the stopcock.  I pile the girls into the car, and much to their dismay, I say “we need to go to a house”.  The grumbles begin 🙂 .

We are there in 5 mins.  The tenant has found the tap on the boiler and switched it off so the water has reduced to a dribble.  I call a gas man to come check things out.  He cannot come until the evening.  I return home and attempt to carry on with the education bit.  I give the girls lunch and then receive a call from a potential tenant and his guarantor.

We arrange to meet at the property at 3pm.  The potential guarantor guy had sounded great on the phone the night before.  The potential tenant was an Italian who needed a place rather quickly.  He had been in the country a year but could not speak English.  He was moving from up North or something and was gonna take up a job fairly locally.  I said I would only take him if the caller would be a guarantor for him.  The caller agreed.  He claimed to be in property himself.

We meet at property with girls in tow. I show them the room.  The potential guarantor starts talking about the radiator not being hot enough.  He claims now to be a plumber.  Alarm bells start to ring in my mind. They proceed to discuss things in Italian for a prolonged period.  I am thinking “Get a move on, Are you taking the room or what? My babies are waiting for me!”.  On the outside, I am the picture of calmness.  I decide to take control of the situation and ask them if they would like the room.  They respond in the affirmative.  I then confirm with the guarantor that he will need to have checks done on him and I will require £50 to hold the room.  At this point, he says “who are you going to call? I am in a better social status than anyone that owns this property”

First of all, I think “Is he insulting my social status, whatever that means? He – a plumber/minor property player VS me – a pharmacist/amazing property investor!”  I keep my peace and say ” Well, that may be so, however I do not know you at all so I will need to confirm that.”

He proceeds to inquire as to why the £50 needs to be paid and I say “You mentioned you are in property, are there no fees involved in that?”  “Absolutely not!” He says.  “I am in commercial leases and things like that.  Solicitors deal with everything.”  To which I respond  “Well, you cannot have been in property very long then, if you have never come across any fees”

He says “I do not deal with rooms.”  He makes ‘rooms’ sound like some kind of a sordid thing to deal with.  I ignore that but am getting increasingly convinced that I do not like this guy or want to deal with him and frankly, would just like him to leave so I can get on with my life.

But I am a professional Amazing Property person so I keep my peace and quietly try to find a way to NOT rent the room to him or his friend …

We make an arrangement to meet back at the property in 2 hours so he can pay the £50 to hold it.  Please do bear in mind that he was very aware that he had to pay this money as I had informed him of this when I confirmed the address and viewing with them.  On the way out, I scan my brain for a way to subtly get rid of them without offence (after all, I AM still a professional!)  so I ask how long the room will be required for.  They say just 4 weeks!  To which, I inwardly am both irritated (Why did he not mention, it would be such a short period and why did I not ask this yesterday!) and gleeful (Woohoo, a reason to get rid of them!).  I say I will not be going through this aggravation again in 4 weeks.  Thanks but no thanks.

To which he responds “Well, I do not want to deal with you anyway!” They get in their white van and drive off.

I am irritated with them.  Everyone loves me!  how dare he?  I go back to my kids and move on to the next thing – Moving in a tenant at a property in Birmingham.  That happens without a hitch apart from my kids hiding the keys, making me look like an idiot as I search for them 😀 ! Another tenant decides to move into the thieving departed tenant’s room as it is bigger. I am happy with that so I take a picture of his room to use in marketing.

We go back to the car.  I press the button ( yes my car has a button, rather than a key) and… NOTHING!

The car will not start.

Girls are getting antsy and I am stuck 8 miles from home and silly car refuses to start!

My brain goes through various permutations.  Major problem being how to occupy kids while waiting for breakdown cover.  The TV is stolen from the house so they cannot watch anything while we wait. Who is my breakdown cover with?  Should I call the hubby?  Any other solutions?  I need to get us back to the Doctor’s office as we are carry the sample bottle around?  Aaargh!!

A lovely thought occurs to me.  I have a friend down the road.  Maybe I should give him a call and see if he is home.  He is a really handy type and can generally solve any problem so I call, hoping and hoping they are home and WooHoo! He is and only 5 minutes away.

He comes, He solves the problem.  We drive off.  All is well.

I take V’s sample in, pick up bread and gravy, rush home.  V changes into her Girls’ Brigade Uniform.  We rush to Girls’ Brigade. After dropping her, I call Gas Man, No sign of him yet. I stop off at the house and realise another unknowing tenant has switched on the heating and all is well.  I cancel Gas Man. I rush home with remaining two kiddies, finish off dinner that one of them does not want.  Sit down for a second and rush us all back out of the house and pick V up.

And then finally get them all into bed around 9pm.  At this point, V makes the opening statement – Best Day Ever! – and I grunt…