Category Archives: divorce

Ouch

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The credit crunch hurts. Having had the house valued in November for the divorce, the price has dropped from £195,000 to £180,000 (at best). Really paying the cost of the delays in the divorce going through (it should have been all over in March) since i had to pay a settlement on that £195,000 value. Luckily the local housing market is pretty bouyant and I am in a good location, plus where I am looking to buy has dropped in value by more than here. I should still be making a profit over the original purchase, but the difference over the settlement value is a very bitter pill to swallow (but swallow it I must and move on, literally). The housing market is going to take at least a couple of years to recover, so if I’m getting out, now is as good a time as any (you never know, there might be a lot of interest and I sell over the asking price).

Photos are being taken on Tuesday, so I have until then to get stuff tidied up, then it’s all go (HIP being ordered this afternoon for what it’s worth).

Productive journey home

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I’ve got a half day today to leave for the EJC, and during my journey home I managed to:

  • Cut my mobile phone costs in half by switching to a cheaper tariff
  • Close three bank account (two joint and one from the dawn of time)
  • Pay the settlement in my divorce (cheque picked up from building society and dropped off at solicitors)
  • Knit 3 repeats of border

Not bad going, really.

Now waiting for the car that’s taking me to Germany to be fixed by the AA and leave home.

Cutting the crap

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Still no sign of this letter my solicitors supposedly posted last Friday, so I dropped them an e-mail this morning to let them know, and also to say that if it was just confirming that the consent order had been agreed by the court I could make the payment before I can make the required payment this afternoon if they get back to me by 12:30 (both my building society and the other solicitors are on my route home).

Cue a phone call from a lovely, but confused, girl. Apparently they had sent me the sealed consent order (huzzah, I think this means the courts have agreed it) on Friday, hadn’t I received it? Er, no, that’s why I e-mailed you. Oh. Was is sent registered mail? It is an important legal contract. Er, she’ll have to check.

Oh and we can’t apply for the decree absolute until the outstanding amount had been paid, had I received their correspondence about that? I’d received the correspondence showing that my account with the solicitors is in credit. Oh. She’ll have to check on all of that and get back to me.

Yes, yes she will, and she’ll have to do it quickly if I’m going to get any of it done before I leave. Incompetents.

Normally it’s me rushing around to get something for a client, it’s nice that it’s happening to someone else for a change (and I’m damn well not going to be charged for them applying for a replacement consent order and having it sent registered mail to me when I get back).

Meanwhile I have finally sent of thank you cards from my birthday (better late than never, right?), completely failed to finish the knitting I wanted to get done (the remaining 5 hours work will just have to be done when I get back), and packed for EJC.

Frustration Sunday

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Came home on Sunday after a lovely half a weekend spent mostly listening to cricket expecting to find a package from my solicitor. There was a package, but it was the SIPs I had been waiting for and finally bought more sock yarn to replace (they’ll just have to wait until Karlsruhe, I’m on a deadline here).

Spent a fruitless 45 minutes swearing at my new internet connection not working despite using every combination of every password I’ve ever used (it took half an hour of re-entering the double-checked correct password this evening and several reboots of everything before it finally took), then an hour and a half checking the shops for something which just wasn’t being stocked any more and ended up getting the closest thing from the first shop I’d walked in to. Grr. Not helped by not having any contacts to wear with shades as the most recent month’s worth hasn’t been delivered to me yet and I need all the pairs I have left for Germany.

Still, I managed to do the majority of my packing for EJC (just a few things left that can’t be done before departure day), and today I managed to order some currency and get on with some knitting. Still nothing from my solicitors (other than an e-mailed bill, sneaky when they don’t think e-mail works), so I get to spend another day worrying that it’ll be bad news. Gives me longer to prepare myself for the possibility that the judge has made their own order or is dragging us to court. Meh.

Consent order curiousity

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There is a history of correspondence going missing between my solicitor and I, so they have taken to calling me when any post is going out so that I can keep an eye out for it. They called this morning to let me know that they’d received the consent order from the courts and were sending it to me today.

in my not-quite-awake state I forgot to ask (though it was the secretary and not the solicitor calling) whether the order had been agreed or rejected. Hopefully it’s being returned because it has been rubber stamped and not because it has been rejected. Fingers crossed the decree absolute is included too. Alas it is due to arrive when I am away and I will have to wait until Sunday to find out (I’m not running up more fees with a call, I shall just have to be curious a while longer).

BT are muppets, it’s official

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I had a lovely lady from Plusnet phone me up today to say they were having problems activating my broadband and phone service because BT had de-activated the number. I gave her a give rundown of what had happened so far and she said that for a fee they could get BT to reactivate the number today – restoring my ability to make and receive calls by this evening and getting broadband within a week.

Being utterly digusted by BT’s inability to do anything, I took her up on the offer and submitted an official complaint to BT for being rubbish.  A few minutes after submitting the complaint I got a call from a lovely man at BT saying that the way the change in the account had been done was completely wrong: it should have taken about a minute to change the names on the account and get a final bill issued immediately. The service should never have been disconnected and was there anything else they could help me with. Funny, if they’d told me this when I had started complaining on the phone I may have stayed with them, but since I had several conversations with a number of different people, none of whom had an alternative for me, or an apology, that ship has sailed.

Moral of the story: always put your complaints in writing (even an online contact us form), it seems to get things to the people who know how to resolve problems.

BT, please can I have my life back?

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You’d think it would be easy to change the name on a phone account, but not with BT. To change back to my name (which the account was originally in) requires the account to be completely closed and a new one set up, as if I had just moved in to the property.

Fine.

A request for the account to be closed was made, and I stopped being able to make or receive phone calls on June 30th (my broadband continued until that account ran its course on July 10th).

I obviously want to be able to make and receive phone calls and also arrange to get broadband again, so I put a call into BT last week. After about 15 minutes of being shunted around departments I am told that I cannot be reconnected until the final bill is issued and paid, and they put a rush on issuing the final bill.

Lovely.

The final bill was issued on 13th July. I spend 20 minutes on the phone today trying to pay this bill before the direct debit date of 28th July. Apparently I can only pay this bill early by paying by cheque. WTF?

I’ve decided to switch my phone calls to my desired broadband provider, but of course they can’t hook me up with telephone or broadband until BT releases the line, which they won’t do until their bill is paid. Meanwhile I remain unable to call in or out of my house, with no internet access, all because they couldn’t revert an account to its original holder.

Really, BT in this day and age is it OK for you to leave your “customers” without service because they want to change the name on their account? My mobile phone provider has to provide information within 2 working days when I switch companies, so why don’t you?

You win some, you lose some

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Today’s wins: getting Delta Aviation to cut their “resurrection” fee and extend my voucher by a further 11 months, booking me in for my Tiger Moth flight at the beginning of September; hearing from my solicitor that the signed consent order has been received and submitted to the Courts today, along with the application for the decree absolute.

Today’s losses: not being able to use a free ticket (won by a friend) to go and see The Feeling on Friday because of an early start on Saturday morning; the office cricket team losing this evening.

In other news, turned the heel on my latest toe-up socks (win), wrap&turn still giving holes along the seam (lose).

That’s that

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As of this morning I finally got my house back.

There are still some final things to do (final bills to be paid, bank accounts to be closed, some stuff that was left behind needs to be dealt with, and the courts need to issue the final paperwork), but essentially it’s all done now.

Not sure how I feel about it all. Relieved, probably. Today is bound to be emotional (and I have a client meeting, d’oh), and tonight I get to move back into my room and sleep in it for the first time in almost 11 months. I might even move the furniture around a bit to make it differently mine.

In other news, I am awaiting on socks-in-progress to kill my fourth target with (they are in Australia), and I came fifth in last night’s poker (with an opening hand of quad 3s which I couldn’t be bothered to slow play and used to freak out my opposition).

 

 

All change

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It was the Big Move this weekend, with lots of hiding out in the spare bedroom and in town to avoid seeing all of  the stuff being taken out of the house (including the fig tree from the garden). I kept myself busy taking 4 bin bags of clothes and other textiles for charity recycling, along with 14 pairs of shoes (which might leave me in a position of owner fewer than 14 pairs of shoes). Also braved the summer sales to get a new set of good kitchen knives and a new kettle (I shall have to go out again for replacement storage containers).

I have been assured that the remaining items will be cleared out today, so I should be able to sleep in my own bed, in my own room for the first time in 11 months probably tomorrow (poker tonight, so I won’t be back until late).

I also spent a relaxed Saturday evening in (after the horror of the cricket) watching telly, eating pizza, and confusing the cat (easily done). Had one of the best night’s sleep I’ve had in ages and managed to charge through a load of knitting in the afternoon. I’ve now almost finished my commissioned pieces, but this week is looking hectic, so may not be done until the weekend.

Juggling ended up having a surprisingly high turnout in the end, and managed to get some decent 7c 2-count on singles in, and 13 catches of 4 clubs (and turned the heel on my sock). Not bad going, but then I stayed up too late watching Top Gear and getting some knitting to a particular stage.