What comes down

Gratitude this morning for sunlight streaming in my south facing windows...For water not streaming through the building!
For waking up in time to get up to watch Australian Open tennis and for some shout out loud good tennis to watch!
For mastering my new home blood pressure monitor and the reticence I have a) at having to have one (I associate them with hypochondriacs and invalids and am not keen to align myself with either group!) and b) at discovering the reading. It was OK and I give thanks too to the good doctor for suggesting that going to the surgery to have it done is probably pushing it up!
For text chats with both my good chums Jared and Clive...
For my very helpful urology nurse arranging the bone scan on the same day as the CT scan but in such a manner as both can be done in one trip
And that my appointment with the surgeon to discuss the results and feasibility of operations has been arranged for two weeks after that which gives me time in the middle to take my booked break...

AAARGH! (DON'T READ ON IF YOU ONLY WANT GRATEFUL NEWS).I wrote the above and went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea...and found that there is water coming through the ceiling and wall. I knocked on the door of the flat above and asked the tenant if she had a problem and she said it was the boiler and the water pressure was all over the place and the freeholder was going to come round to fix it sometime next week. I took a picture and updated the council official and he said I had to try to ring the freeholder and I did and the freeholder said there was no problem with the boiler - it was the tenant who didn't understand how to regulate the water pressure properly and that the water couldn't be coming from her boiler anyway as it was over the hallway, not over my kitchen. I reiterated that the water was coming into the flat from above so should be attended to anyway. He said as far as he was concerned the leak was not his responsibility but coming from my hot water tank (which is neither on the same side of the building nor above the level of my kitchen).

He said he would come and have a look tomorrow as he had to come round and serve a summons on another leaseholder for non payment of ground rent and buildings insurance. I suspected I knew where this was leading (all the demands arrived by the same post and, unless they had different dates, although due none of them was overdue)and sure enough he then went on to point out I hadn't paid mine either. I asked if the other leaseholder's demand had been accompanied by a Summary of Rights and Obligations as is required by law because he wouldn't be able to serve a legal notice if not, and explained that mine hadn't and they weren't legally binding unless they had been. He said we'd been through all that before with me trying not to pay what I owed (we hadn't but I had queried some charges previously)and it didn't matter if I'd had a bit of paper or not he'd take out an injunction against me. I explained that he wouldn't be able to unless he served the demand correctly in the first place and he said 'Whatever' and slammed the phone down.

I had a long chat with the Leasehold Advisory Service and they advised me to write to the address on the demand by recorded post and request a fresh copy accompanied by a Summary of Rights and Obligations and to apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal regarding the disputed charges.

It's all very well knowing I am in the right but I still feel uncomfortable and vulnerable. I don't know if he will come round tomorrow and think I might just try to hide somewhere in case he does as I feel he will threaten and intimidate me, and whilst I know he 'can't' that doesn't mean he won't try and it frightens me that I won't succeed in not being frightened.

I don't have problem with paying anything I legally owe if I'm asked for it in a legal and reasonable manner. I also try to be generous of spirit and not vindictive. I don't wish harm or distress on this man, I just wish he would have an epiphanic moment and realise he is being a complete arse! And further to my answered cosmic request for some free legal advice I'm now putting out an APB for someone big and strong and kind to be on call for me when I feel the need of comfort and protection.

I was going to upload a photo from yesterday of winter sunlight on the sea and river at this point to cheer us all up but all my camera batteries are flat. Have this instead - it's irrelevant but pretty...Newquay May 2009 I think...