Well, seems I’ve taken a two week unscheduled holiday from the blogging world. No dramas or particular reason to blame, just that returning to work seems to drastically reduce the amount of time you have available to sit and write about what you’re doing. Even then, if you had the time, writing ‘got up, went to work, came home’ is a bit boring – even for this blog.
One problem we’re having though is probably worth mentioning. For those joining us late Rae and I recently purchased a block of land and are planning on building. This week we got a call from Henley, our building company, and what should have been a pretty straight forward start has turned in to a bit of a nightmare – it appears the owner/builder on the next block has built 4.5cm on to our land.
45 small millimetres. Not much in the scheme of things but, thanks to council regulations, when it comes to positioning our house it may as well have been a metre or two. I went out to see the builder. He was very contrite (“I sign anything. Just tell me, I sign.”) but I’m sure once we start asking him to pay for the extra costs we are now incurring (already about $800) that mood may change.
I’ve also had it pointed out that if we do nothing then after 12 years the land he is on becomes his. Arggghhhh. The best solution for us would be to sell him 4.5cm of our land and have the titles adjusted accordingly, but that’s going to cost him even more so I’m not sure how he’ll react to it. I think the first thing we’re going to have to do is break the he said/she said stalemate that will eventuate and get the lots independently surveyed to make sure Henley have it right. From there on out I can only see lawyers.
Any one have any advice?