We got up bright and early this morning and finished preparations for the expected electrical inspection. The main one was shifting the bed that blocked access to a power point. All this work will have to be reversed to make the flat habitable again.

Tigger then went to work and I settled down to wait for the electricians to turn up .

By 12:30 there was no sign of the electricians so I rang the company. This was the start of a series of phone calls over the next hour or so. The company denied all knowledge of an appointment. The Council, because it had not made the appointment itself, denied all responsibility. It became clear that an error had occurred, whether within the company or the Council or both, I do not know, and we should not have been sent the letter asking us to make an appointment. (The whole matter, which I managed to disentangle, is rather complicated and I won’t bore you with what would be a tedious account of it.)

Because the appointment was made verbally by phone and no appointment letter was issued, we do not have the means to make a claim against either the company or the Council. The most I can do is contact one of our Council representatives but I very much doubt whether that will produce a useful result.

An electrical inspection will be arranged at some point (from May onwards) as it is a legal requirement for one to take place every five years. This means that the exercise of putting things in storage, as documented in recent posts, will have to be repeated – and so will the expense. You can be sure that this time I will obtain an appointment letter and will refuse access unless one is forthcoming.

I have kept Tigger informed of all these shenanigans by text. We may have dinner out tonight to “celebrate”.

Curiously, both of us remain fairly upbeat about what might seem to be a depressing situation. Perhaps it is because all the work we have done has been rather fun in its way. It has been a new experience and we have learned from it. I have very much admired how Tigger took the matter in hand and organised everything as well as buoying up my spirits when I felt stressed by it. Next time, we will know what we are doing and how to do it so it will be that much easier.

—————————-

Because of the tube strike, traffic was heavy and therefore slow in London’s streets and buses were crowded. Once home, Tigger didn’t want to face the wet weather and crowded transport again so, instead of going out to eat, we stayed home and ordered a meal to be delivered, a little bit of luxury to make up for the disappointments of the day!

We chose Indian to cuisine which we ordered online using Tigger’s iPad. It’s the modern way, don’tcha know? 🙂 We chose, we paid and then we sat back and waited for the ring on the doorbell m. The nominal delivery time for the food was 20:40 but it in fact arrived about half an hour earlier than that.

We will spend the rest of the evening relaxing. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day without the frustrations visited upon us by mendacious electrical companies.