Thursday, July 9, 2015

The Reluctant Landlord - part 6

The Reluctant Landlord - part 6

In March 2014, I landed at Heathrow Airport, picked up my tiny yellow rental car and braved the early morning London traffic.

The journey to Warwickshire where I would be staying with one of my nieces and family, was less than 2 hours, allowing for some good family time before launching into the next four days of problem solving.

My prospective buyer claimed to be interested in purchasing all of my remaining property if we could agree on price. As much as I would like to unload the lot, I wasn't about to give them away, just yet!

The 8 garages in 'Back Lane' were in reasonable shape so we agreed to meet there first. The tenants have their own padlocks so I knew I couldn't get access to the insides. Arriving ahead of time, I was surprised to find one of the doors unlocked and even more surprised when I looked inside.

Beneath all of this junk was a car that had probably not been road worthy for at least 10 years. From the looks of things, the family of Miss Phelps had emptied the contents of her home into Garage 7 hoping someone would come along and help themself. Miss Phelps, it turned out, was in state care with dementia.

Not a good start to the day! The arrival of Felix, the prospective buyer didn't make the day go any better. The son of a well known author with money in his pocket and an oversized ego, appeared to have some interest but only as a hobby. We went through the motions but his lack of questions and knowledge was not encouraging.

We moved on to Park Road where I held my breath as we took the tour of the two flats. Upstairs is tiny but clean and orderly but downstairs was a disaster. It was so awful that I am embarrassed that anyone is living there. If I could just move the tenant out, basic improvements could be done and the building sold. The way it is, there is not a chance. The six garages are in fair shape although some of the roofs leak. There is an abandoned car tucked in a corner of the property belonging to ??? To give the buyer credit, he didn't gag but politely told me he would get back to me.

Returning to Back Lane, I met with the tenant of Garage 6. He expressed interest in renting #7 once free of contents. That was certainly incentive to dispose of the contents and start collecting rent again.

My other delinquent tenant was in #5 and that was locked up tight. Nobody, it seems, had seen anyone coming or going from #5 in a long time so now my imagination was running wild. What could be in that one? Treasures, junk, a dead body? The possibilities were endless. The neighbor saw me examining the padlock and offered to cut it off. I guess he was as curious as I. This time, the surprise was more welcome!

Now, I could use that!

I sought out a local hardware store and purchased a couple of padlocks to secure my 'treasures' before packing it in for the day. Will be back tomorrow to track down the delinquents.

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