SomersTownLisa

London Life
2020-12-08 22:38:03 (UTC)

Getting things sorted out

Tuesday 8th December 2020
Didn’t wake up until 9 and didn’t get down to much work. Yesterday the issue with the ground floor flat came to a head. The owner, who is selling the flat, had written to me some time ago saying that because he’d arranged for some communal area decorating, he was with-holding his service charge to pay for it. I know he’d done the decorating to help sell his flat, and he had no right to be doing anything to the communal areas. Yesterday he said I needed to change my statement to his solicitors, when I said “no” in answer to the question about whether the service charge was up to date. So I wrote to him:
"I am writing on behalf of the company, so I cannot make an incorrect representation that the service charge is paid to date.
Should it be considered that any repair or renewal is required, this should be brought to the attention of the directors of the company, via myself or Phil, who are legally the custodians of company funds and will usually consider the cost and make a decision. Large jobs such as internal decoration which is budgeted for every four years, are always considered prior to being done, at the company AGM. An urgent repair can usually be cleared by a phone call to myself in advance, with an estimate of cost. Clearly a situation cannot exist where individual flat owners decide unilaterally that a repair or renewal is necessary, and effectively use company funds without any prior consultation".

I expected him to object, but he came straight back yesterday and asked how much he owed, and he paid the full amount a bit later - he was just trying it on. I said last night that I’d look up the amount he owed, but as I still can’t get into the account, I told him today he could work it out for me. I still needed to phone Barclays, because since I changed the batteries of the card reader, it won’t work. However, while I was waiting for the bank to answer the phone, the card reader started to work, so I was able to pay the gardener his last two invoices. I still had a lot of questions from the solicitor to sort out, and I need to phone Barclays again, about getting the other director on the account.

At lunchtime I cycled up to Highgate to pick up my purse from the man who’d found it in the woods. He said it was hard to see on the ground, as it was the same colour as the leaves. I gave him a bottle of wine from our fridge, which I would have used in cooking. While I was waiting I enjoyed seeing a girl walk up the steep steps above me to the road, in a stretchy black micro-mini skirt. I got the Tube back home and I had time to go to Ellie’s with Jack.

I was a bit late leaving for a task 12km away at Brixton, and I decided not to go. I was only going to know one other person there, admittedly the extremely gorgeous Frances C (who doesn’t talk to me unless I make an effort), but that’s not usually a problem as I like talking to different people. However, I don’t usually keep up with any of the new friends afterwards, or even remember them, and I was pleased that I could finish the reply to the solicitor instead.

Jack was going to a play at the Palace Theatre and I did have an idea that I could meet him during the interval, on my way back from Brixton, but I ran down there from home instead ,and we went in Fiori by Leicester Square station. I ran back home afterwards but realised the Strava GPS was playing up, giving me remarkable running speeds. I only use it because my watch has stopped connecting to GPS, but when I tested the watch as I got back, it picked up the GPS, the second miracle gadget recovery of the day!




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