Definitely 'Horse Manure'

[Vulture]

OK, children, now we have the debit-card fraud sorted I'd like your thoughts on my new problem.

Scene: Block of flats, 3 floors (Ground, first and second). Gardens at the rear.
My son lived in flat on the second floor for two years, and when his wife was expecting their third child, I swapped my three bedroomed house so she wouldn't have to drag a pushchair and three kids all the way up to the flat.

I have now lived in this flat for nearly twelve years. I found out yesterday that all the top-floor flats have 'room' on the ground floor to enable them to keep gardening equipment and junk in general so they don't have to drag it all the way upstairs.

It seems that the boyfriend of the tenant before my son 'gave' the key to the family on the ground floor (because he was Irish and so are they and the Irish should stick together [I would also point out that HE was not the tenant, he was just the boyfriend of the legal tenant]......). The fact that these tenants have a large garden attached to their flat and could easily have put up a shed to keep their junk in, should also be noted.

So only the flat keys were handed in to the Council when that tenant left and it seems there was no query at the time.

Now, my problem is: Do I go to the Council and explain all this? I don't know if I have been paying extra rent to cover this extra room - in which case, I'd like it back. I don't want to get the tenant on the ground floor into trouble (her husband has just died), or the tenant next to me who hold me about the double-dealing.

I could just go to the newly-widowed lady and ask her for the key and if she says she doesn't know anything about it, I could then go to the Council and ask them to sort it. 

The main thing that occurs to me is: I have been a good neighbour. I have give lifts to both the lady who told me and the tenant on the ground floor. We have chatted about this and that over the last twelve years, they have commented on how my three grandchildren have grown and aren't they lovely, etc...  AND they have both stolen a piece of my property; one actually and one by keeping silent. I feel betrayed, somehow. 

So: does anyone have any ideas (other than chucking Mince off Beachy Head as a sacrifice to the Gods)?

[The Peepmaster]

Difficult. I'd chuck Mince off Beachy Head anyway, to be on the safe side.

Couldn't you have an informal chat with your Housing Office? Explain that you don't want to cause ructions. They could approach it as if it was something they'd discovered.

[Vulture]

I actually didn't want to go to the Council first: I'm frightened that they'll say that as it's been so long, the space now belongs to the people on the ground floor. (I only heard about this yesterday, but it's surprising how much stuff I've imagined will fit in that space!)


But I agree about Mince. I think the Gods will look favourably on the sacrifice.

Peter - where is Mince exactly?

[peter]

i would say somewhere in his car.
The Mincey spies have let me down they will not get paid for this.

[peter]

I would speak to the ground floor tenant and ask whether she knows of this arrangement.
As your other tenant has just told you of the room down stairs that she wants to use.

[Roger Kettle]

Vulch, this is an awkward one for you and I realise you don't want to create an atmosphere with your neighbour---particularly since she's been recently widowed. However, I tend to agree with Peter in that it would be best to bring the subject up with her first. You say that you already chat amicably and that you help her out from time to time, so it shouldn't do any harm to ask her if she knows what the set-up is. Good luck.

[The Peepmaster]

Vulch, this is an awkward one for you and I realise you don't want to create an atmosphere with your neighbour---particularly since she's been recently widowed. However, I tend to agree with Peter in that it would be best to bring the subject up with her first. You say that you already chat amicably and that you help her out from time to time, so it shouldn't do any harm to ask her if she knows what the set-up is. Good luck.

And then punch her.

[Roger Kettle]

 

[Vulture]

Vulch, this is an awkward one for you and I realise you don't want to create an atmosphere with your neighbour---particularly since she's been recently widowed. However, I tend to agree with Peter in that it would be best to bring the subject up with her first. You say that you already chat amicably and that you help her out from time to time, so it shouldn't do any harm to ask her if she knows what the set-up is. Good luck.

And then punch her.

I'd love to, but she's even older than I am!

[Vulture]

I would speak to the ground floor tenant and ask whether she knows of this arrangement.
As your other tenant has just told you of the room down stairs that she wants to use.

The ground floor tenant, and her now deceased husband, were the ones who have been using 'my' junk room.
My neighbour (and friend......), another top floor tenant, has had full use of her junk room and has waited twelve years to tell me about it!

[peter]

I would speak to the ground floor tenant and ask whether she knows of this arrangement.
As your other tenant has just told you of the room down stairs that she wants to use.

The ground floor tenant, and her now deceased husband, were the ones who have been using 'my' junk room.
My neighbour (and friend......), another top floor tenant, has had full use of her junk room and has waited twelve years to tell me about it!

Thats why I should blame her when you talk to the one on the ground floor.

[Vulture]

Sorted!

Once I'd written down everything, I realised I still have to live with these two women. I go passed their front doors every day and, short of slapping them, I had no way of legally retaliating. So I didn't.

I explained to the lady on the ground floor that I was looking into buying my flat from the Council and they had verified exactly what was my property and the cupboard on the ground floor had been mentioned. I believed that her husband had been using it for the last 13 years, could I have the key? And that was that!

When we looked at the cupboard, it's full of junk and cobwebs, so I gave her the key back and told her to give it back to me once all the stuff had been removed and everything was quite amicable. (I hope she takes the cobwebs too!)   




 

[peter]

A simple talk with the lady sorted it
No problem

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

So you didn't punch her then?

[Vulture]

So you didn't punch her then?

She's in her seventies. She doesn't even come up to my shoulder! Admittedly, she totally blamed her husband - he gave the bloke a couple of quid for the key, only he used the cupboard........ He'd been in a nursing home for four years before he died 2/3 weeks ago, he's not going to argue!

She knew exactly where the key was and she made no demure when I said I'd like it back - I wonder if my  next-door neighbour forewarned her?