Just passing

Believe it or not I gave this shot some thought. The few flower displays in town deserved to be recorded but they were difficult to compose without street furniture in the background. And there was a gap between the two displays. These two admirably filled the gap.

A trip into town that took longer than expected. Quite a few things to be done, all successful. This led to a late lunch.

We spent the afternoon working on Doreen’s garden. Mowing, weeding and cutting back all the time anxiously looking over our shoulders at the clouds. Just before we set off we had the most tremendous downpour, lasting just a minute or two which we thought might scupper our afternoon.

We have another fight on our hands as the adjudicator rejected our claim for retaining the tenants rent to restore the garden on the grounds that we didn’t just restore it, we improved it.

We’ve lodged a complaint with the letting agent for their failure to look after our interests as landlords. They failed to ensure the tenants were keeping the garden tidy, they failed to obtain the tenants signature on photos taken of the garden at the start of the tenancy (the adjudicator would not accept the marketing photos submitted by the agent) and they failed to consult us on the evidence they were submitting on our behalf.

As a result are £1000 out of pocket and have a garden which is nowhere near as good as it was when the tenancy started. In addition to the garden going wild, several expensive plants have died and for three years we paid for a large hedge to be maintained, an apple tree and shrubs to be pruned.

If we can’t challenge the adjudicator we have raised a formal complaint with the agent - who was meant to get back to us by today. Guess what?