Admin Errors

Well, almost 9 months after putting in an offer on the house in Linton, and a year after we'd decided it was time to move, we are almost there. Hopefully (fingers crossed) by the end of this week we will have exchanged contracts and received the keys to our new house in the centre of Linon... but it still amazes me how things can go wrong! Here is just a sample of the last two weeks...

After my 6-monthly haircut in Linton I decided to go and have a look at the house as I wanted to see where the evening sun would fall in the courtyard. Arriving at the house I noticed that the postbox had been blocked up (because it had been re-possessed) and the posty had been leaving the mail in a little alcove. Being the nosey so-and-so that I am, I had a quick flick through only to find that some of the mail had been addressed to us. Opening one of the letters it took me a few seconds to digest what I was reading.... Summons for Non-Payment of Council Tax.

What? Why? What for? ... I then realised that the council were trying to claim that we'd owed them over £400 because we'd been living there since the 10th of December. Err No! I don't think so. We haven't even bought the place yet! Needless to say I contacted the council the next day who accepted that they were wrong, and I was right! I asked where they'd received the information from and the lady tried to quote the Data Protection Act on me... I soon corrected her saying that seeing as they held info on me, I had the right to know where it came from! She soon gave in and it turns out the previous occupiers had informed them we'd moved in in December! They were still living there in January.... crazy!

Onto the next hiccup... we received our mortgage approval last week!! HOORAY... but wait a minute, it was for the wrong amount?! How? We'd even received a PDF and email from them confirming all the details back in April, but they'd still managed to give us the wrong amount. I really don't understand that one! Anyway, after a bit of a stressful evening, and a phonecall the Nationwide who described it as an Admin Error the mortgage has now been approved for the correct amount and we are full steam ahead! Watch this space...