My tally of tenants was now down to 24! An improvement but still a headache. A row of garages in close proximity to a row of terraced houses had guaranteed zero vacancy for the time I had owned them. Even before I knew it, word got out that there would be one available and the phone started ringing.
A couple of the tenants approached me about buying the one they rented but since there were 8 in all and attached, I wasn't keen on selling just an odd one here and there. They persisted and rallied the other tenants around and before I could catch my breath, I had 8 buyers. It took several months but when the papers were finalized, my load was lighter and my bank account, healthier. Those were good sales!
In a back lane near where my father's business began was another group of 8 garages. 5 were in one block and 3 in a separate block. Again, I had very little turn over in tenants but two were delinquent in their payments. Miss Marjorie Phelps was quite elderly when first I took ownership and had paid annually until she stopped. My attempts to contact her went unanswered so I enlisted the help of a neighbor, who was also a tenant. Two more years were paid up and then nothing.
Around the same time a second tenant stopped paying. The rents were small and didn't justify hiring someone to try to collect so for a while I did nothing. Well, not quite nothing. I fretted, often during the night when I should have been sleeping. Had Miss Phelps died? Had Mr Kemp departed and left me all his trash?
During this time, all remaining properties were being transferred from the company that had been formed, to me personally. This turned out to be an agonizing process that continued for more than 2 years. It seems that two of these garage (2 out of a block of 3) had no recorded deeds and nothing to prove that I owned them. The property in question backed up to the business premises owned by my great grandfather and had been passed down through three generations. At some time, probably in the 1960's my father had built the garages on every available square inch of what he believed he owned.
Proving you own property without documentation is quite daunting. I had been collecting rent for more than 10 years and nobody else had claimed them but that was not enough for the Land Registry. Petitions were filed by my solicitor but no give. We were at an impasse.
To top it off, a certain, rather pompous gentleman contacted me to buy all my remaining property, It was time to cross the Atlantic and face a myriad of issues.
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