Ok then but I will not take long on this because its too painful. In my previous post I mentioned an architect who wasn’t. Well someone in the practice where the “Irishman” worked was an architect of sort so the corporate blurb, at a stretch was true but there are lots of people out there who ‘design properties’ who have no effective grip at all on the likely cost of the building they are designing. ‘Project managers’ in building speak generally ‘aren’t’ and any back of the envelope calculation will be wrong in every way by a huge amount-that is fact!
Our lawyer at the time represented a major firm in the area. She was a partner and we liked her a lot. We told her of our various issues with ‘architects’ and builders and their willingness to misinform us re costs etc. She confessed to us that in a recent similar project she personally had ‘gone wrong too’. She recommended an ‘expert’ who she said she too was going to engage to take legal proceedings. We were told the man was at the top of his game and seldom if ever lost a case.
The chap wore a three piece suit, was portly and a strange mix of self confidence, and arrogance. Ring a bell?have you met any lawyers like that? We engaged him. He took the ‘project manager and his business to court and yes he won. The chap was fined a small amount of money as he steadfastly blamed the ‘architect for misleading him’. We were awarded damages -‘to be agreed’ I was not in court but I heard the judge or whoever had taken little time to deliberate -they sort of all got together-job done. Except it wasn’t. The project manager went bankrupt only to reappear via his website the following week with a marginally different name. We got no damages and the only course we were offered to get any was to go after the individual personally which, we were told, ‘might be difficult” !
What we did get was a large bill from the lawyer which our sense of acting ‘properly’ meant we paid.
0-1.
The ‘architect’ whose fees we had not paid, as he was the root of all the troubles now came after us. Disappointed with the first lawyer we sought council from another. Thankfully, looking back, this one advised us to ‘move on’ which we did. We had to pay the Irishman in full plus a bit!
o-2.
I suppose to be fair we now have a fantastic house but my good ness were some lessons learned. Sad to say it was not the first time the law ‘let us down’.
We lived in a fantastic Old Rectory in small Devon Village. It was in truth The Trophy House. We loved it and we did our best to be good neighbours to all in the community.
Ralph and Dianna were an odd couple. He was stick thin with strange spectacles. He looked like a spooky scout master. Dianna was a bore. Desparate to spend more than 5 minutes with. A paddock on our property bordered on to a lane that led to their house. It had a basic wire farm fence along its length. As part of our property improvement we decided to post and rail the field completely not only to look a lot better but also to insure it could be used by Jo’s horses. For a reason I cannot now fathom we asked R and D around for dinner, told them of our plans and we then asked them to choose some trees that we would provide and we hoped would make an enhancement to the overall look of their drive. They appeared pleased in what was possibly the most boring evening of my life, but I did behave. We had the fence installed and we even moved the border over so as to leave room for the tree painting which was also completed. All seemed well.
Around six months later I looked out from my house and saw Diana kneeling on a mat digging plants into her side of the fence making a border to the drive. I thought no more about it only to record that it might have been nice of her to ask first, particularly as the land was technically ours. No matter!
A week or so later on a Sunday Ralph knocked on the door. He looked angry which to be honest was quite funny although I did not let him see my amusement. He started a tirade. Your horse is leaning over the fence eating Dianas plants he squealed. He then started pointing at me before finally poking me in the chest. As he did this he actually threatened to ‘kill’ one of our horses.!
I paused feeling the rage rising. I looked at Ralph and moved a step closer to him. ‘Run’ I whispered, quietly at first but soon again but this time in a roar. He turned and stated to run I gave chase. ‘If I ever see you on my property again’ I shouted as he scuttled down the long drive, Liz was watching from the window and she said in retrospect that watching me chasing “The Scoutmaster” down the drive was one of then funniest things she had ever seen.
Not the end of the tale. We contacted a lawyer, this time a barrister. He claimed to be the leading man in the field of equine boundary disputes and a whole lot more. I was fully committed. He rang me back soon after my email enquiry. ‘I have just come out of the High Court in Cardiff where I have had rather good day’ he told me.-This man must be good I naively thought. He listened to my story. He tutted, appeared genuinely enthusiastic regarding his ability to make sure everything was sorted. There was an upfront fee with the proviso that he would write for us his ‘Findings” These findings would establish exactly where we stood and best of all it would allow us to approach Pinky and Perky with a document of substance in order to make sure they realised exactly what was what.
We paid the fee and 3 weeks later another call. ‘The Findings’ would soon be available but it was ‘normal’ to pay up front. We did a total of around £2500 in total.
By recorded delivery they arrived in an envelope that had a piece of string around a sealing mechanism. We expectantly opened it and guess what. His opinion was we were in the wrong!. We should restrain our horse and the only suitable solution was a second fence line! We put one in. It looked stupid and became a topic of conversation every-time anyone visited us.
0-3 or possibly 0-4
The lessons in all this? Well make your own mind up.
Tales of a Life Well Lived 