Further ramblings of a self-made pauper

I wandered downstairs this morning to find the place lit up like Christmas tree. I know that it’s dark in a morning now, but really. The lights on both landings, in the kitchen and the living room were all blazing merrily, though the rooms were empty.

Virtuously, I wandered around turning them off, but I think we might have moved past the concept of a carbon footprint. I think we need something more impressive to define it.

Door security continues to trouble the Athenaeum Club. I have lost track of the timeline; but this has been dragging on unresolved for months and I am running out of inspiration. We can now only close the entrance door by slamming it hard. That closes it and we can lock it securely, but it is hanging at an angle on the hinges and I suspect that continued rough treatment merely to open and close the door will see it degrade over a period that I cannot estimate, but I would expect it to be shorter rather than longer.

I don’t know if any of you good people has any ideas what exactly our rights are as tenants? I am reluctant at the moment to withhold rent as that will put us in breach of contract, though a part of me whispers in the dark that hitting the landlord in the pocket is a sure fire way of getting his attention. That said, we would like to retain a modicum of goodwill. The lease has until the end of June 2008 (or July, I can’t quite recall) to run and we will probably seek to renew it provided the door situation is sorted out.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can profitably do next? Can anyone point me in the direction of (free) legal advice for private tenants? Can we pay for the repairs and deduct it from the rent? Help me, Lazyweb: you’re my only hope.

Today I am at home.

Finally Trevor, the maintenance man and his assistant are here to do some of the work we have been pressing the landlord about for months. There is much cursing and banging emanating from the bathroom where the non-refilling cistern and oddly truculent hot tap are getting told what for. I am hopeful that the sink in the bedroom can be fixed too, but although the u-bend has been taken off and a long metal snaky thing shoved down the pipe, their informed opinion is to pour some chemicals down the pipe. We tried that with acid unblocker several times to no obvious effect. Trevor and bloke pooh-poohed that stuff and reckoned that they know of something so effective (presumably they mean corrosive) that it would make an Alien Queen blanch.

I have not mentioned the issue of the door to the flat yet; or rather I have not mentioned it to Trevor. I spoke to the assistant while his boss was parking up the van and he reckons that they will be getting another company in to quote for that job. May be - hopefully - we will have a secure door sometime before the lease expires. Either way, there is some progress at long last, so let's look on the bright side, eh?