It has come to my attention that I haven't blogged in quite some time.
This will mostly be due to the World Cup and then Kath starting her new job as well as her other job on weekday evenings.
It has meant that on most days I get home from work and take on the kids for the evening, once they're in bed I just have enough energy to veg on the couch and catch up on some shows on the DVR.
I really can't be bothered to think or write or upload photos.
Also it's been a very rough couple of months. Whilst Kath concentrates on the positives and good times via her Blog, let me tell you a little about the reality.
PEI is great and the move was well worth it.
But since June the house we rent has been up for Sale and we've been looking for a new place to rent. For me I have found it very stressful and I hate the uncertainty, and the prospect of moving again. This time lots of factors must be considered as Taryn begins to walk and Hayden will be looking to go to schools, plus of course the bus routes for winter (in case of a car break down).
Add to that the fact that our landlady wanted the best of both worlds - wanting us to rent until she sold, and tried to keep us tied up until November.
Of course we can't risk being thrown out on the street in November with 5 bedrooms worth of stuff and 2 kids!!. After seeing 15 houses in our price range (approx $1K per month un-heated) only 2 were worth anything - the rest were complete dogs.
Much worse than Spring Street!.
One was my boss, Gordon's rental, and whilst nice, just seemed too tight in layout and the location was not great. And the one we found. We move soon into that, but had to pay down payments, and with the landlady being really stingy we had some stress trying to convince her to let us go with 2 months notice - otherwise she was going to steal the damage deposit of $1K!!!
Now the real reason I have been a bit too depressed to blog anything happy or worthwhile is due to our tenant in the UK.
Since moving in she has never paid her rent on time. and is now behind in two payments. The agents there said that she had a guarantor who would pay if she didn't... and he's not answering the phone or letters.
The neighbours have complained about the house stinking.
So my Dad went round the other day and took a picture of the garden from next door...
My home. My house, destroyed by this woman. I was so proud of my lawn, which I seeded and nurtured over a couple of months to make a lovely flat rich lawn. she has not mowed it, and there has been a pool covering most of it for the whole of summer.
And yes, that yellow water? rancid stinking standing water - wafting into the nostrils of our neighbours every time they go out in the garden this summer!!!.
The deck? Not maintained and left to dry up without any oil.
The walnut worktops in the kitchen, destroyed and dry - needing to be completely refurbished.
And what can we do about this woman?
Absolutely nothing. the 'computer says no' attitude of the council woman I spoke to could only quote that the UK government pays money direct to the tenant, and will not give it to us. When I said, 'yeah but she's not giving it to us!!!', all she did was go on quoting about law and that we have to be behind a full 8 weeks. This clever tenant however pays in 50 quid here or 40 quid there and thus remains inside 'the law'.
And what can we do?
Wait 14 days for this letter to be sent to her. Then if there's no response she has 8 days to do something. Then if nothing we can serve this and that... and she has 14 days to do something. then if nothing we can do this, and she has 8 days to do that.
On... and on... and on.. and on. All the time being we get slowly charged our mortgage with no way to pay it.
She steals thousands from us.
At the most if we somehow manage to get rid of her before March (the tenancy agreement) we only have her damage deposit to keep from her on grounds of unpaid rent. What about the rest of it? Court... the damage, the garden? all on us!!
How do we legally fight someone in court from Canada?... wait for weeks, months whilst it's all conducted.. the whole time losing mortgage payments, going overdrawn and being completely screwed.
Do we sell as soon as we get her out? We lose 8K in early repayment fines to the lender....
what do we do... do we rent it?
Top dollar is what we rent our place for - due to the garden, the kitchen and the quality of finish... is it quality anymore? No..
She's reduced our house rental worth, which means we'll have to rent for much less as nobody would feel that it's anything better than a scummy council house that they can get for 400 quid a month!!!
This woman plays the system, whilst taking away my families future. She steals my possibility to sell my house in the UK for full whack and have enough profit to put a down payment on a house here in PEI to buy something.
She forces me to worry, and stress and argue with everyone, whilst I see my future here on PEI and my kids future dwindle.
I have a house in the UK, which when sold at top whack would give me 20K profit, in the pocket to buy a house here and clear up my debts... my family would be debt free, we could finally go on real holidays, pay off the car, buy things without guilt - take a trip back to the UK to see our friends...
And all of that is slowly being taken away with each missed mortgage payment and each month that passes as the house falls into a state of disrepair. Do I sound over dramatic on this occasion?
Personally I don't think so... can I do anything... ANYTHING about it... none!
The law is firmly on the side of the tenant and she is in full power whilst I sit back and watch her take away thousands from me, thousands that would have set me right, and helped me here.
Why did we EVER rent it... simply because the market collapsed and the early repayment penalty threatened to take 10K extra for settling early.
We had no choice but to rent it and hope that it would stay rented for 4 years, covering the mortgage, until the market was stronger and the penalty duration over.
So... aside from having no time to sit and blog with any gusto, of late, I've been pretty depressed and in no mood to write. I'm sitting here at the end of a work day, blogging, having been reminded that I haven't for a while... and it's been... 'good' to get it off my chest.. but... it changes nothing, and tomorrow another day passes where nothing changes in the UK and my grass grows a little longer, and my garden gets a little smellier and my agent charges me a little more of his 10%, and my overdraft gets a little higher and the woman gets paid rent from the council, which she spends on whatever she wants...
