h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Long time no etc. etc.

Settled into your new home yet?

Still en route, and finding it tiring. It takes forever to turn around an aircraft carrier. Still - hopefully only a few days of exchanging contracts. It'll be messy though, I am moving from a large two bedroom flat to a small one bedroom cottage!

B

Aaargh! I know the feeling. We went from a huge tenement to a 2 1/2 bed semi.

Just heard from my solicitor that the vendors don't have the guarantees for the work done, (damp proofing, re-roofing, stuff like that), so we are now looking at the indemnity insurance route. *sigh* Unfortunately the vendors cannot afford to provide this - and they probably can't: the house is being sold by the sisters and mother of a chap who died. I wish they had not been quite so hasty throwing away his paperwork when they went through it though. Assuming they did.

Every time I move I remind myself to never ever do it again.

B

Even if they did have the certificates, they're not worth diddly squat. We once bought somewhere that had been damp-proofed, and the vendors had the certs to prove it. Our survey found damp, but our surveyor told us it was still under guarantee. However...it turned out that the builder a) didn't plaster it to spec and b) went bust afterwards!

By a strange coincidence...I've just heard news of a friend. I was p----d off with her because she hadn't been in touch with me for ages, even though she knew I'd been ill. I'd written her off. It seems, though, that in the last couple of years she's moved house twice and jobs three times...so now I can understand.

Poor woman.

So maybe I'd be better of with insurance. Good point, and one which is cheering.

B

And almost certainly you won't need the insurance.

I really must try and re-establish contact with my friend. Apart from being highly intelligent and having impeccable taste, she's a total babe!