Mon, 12 Mar 2007
Rant: moving house
We moved from Putney to London Bridge recently. Moving house is never pleasant but this time it was especially unfun. Some highlights:
- There were still painters working in the bathroom as we were moving in to the flat. The estate agent called us on hour before we were due to move in to let us know that the painters hadn't finished yet. Of course, the paint wasn't dry by the time we first tried the shower meaning that it has run in parts.
- The cleaning of the apartment that had been promised wasn't done. Carpet cleaners had been organised for 2pm on the day we moved in meaning that we had to put all our gear in the kitchen and couldn't unpack until after they'd left. Overall, the place was filthy.
- The phone line and broadband was supposed to be transferred on the day we moved in. Having seen telcos screw this up many times before I was dubious that this would happen. BT didn't disappoint: the phone was working on the afternoon we moved in, but broadband still wasn't up the following day. It took over a week of persistent calls to BT to get the link running.
- The landlord has decided to store a bunch of her junk in the hall cupboards. The estate agent had assured us that the stuff wouldn't be there while we were there for a viewing. We are now trying to get it removed but are having considerable difficulty. We need the space but the landlord doesn't want to move it elsewhere. It doesn't help that the landlord is in Australia at the moment.
All in all the moving process has been pretty awful. BT and the estate agents really let us down despite us doing all the right things.
Despite all of the above, we're happy to be in the new flat. The location is excellent, it's a bigger place and we've got some great short-term housemates. Just a few more battles to get through...
posted at: 21:53 | permalink | comments