It has been a couple of days of ups and downs, yesterday we heard from John (Builder) that the neighbour had point blank refused access to the property to do the work needed to stop our house suffering from damp, therefore we went up and Marcela went next door, but Juan said his mother had not come back, however Marcela was given her mobile number, even though she had seen the Mother in the house, she rang, and the woman was very indignant, her problem is obviously with the last Owner, and she can\’t see passed that. However she agreed to meet us this afternoon.
Last night Don Pedro the previous owner, rang to say he had all the documentation from the Registro, and the property is now in our name, how he got that we have no idea, because if it is in our name, he should not be able to access these documents! The long and short of it was that he wanted the balance of his money for the house, however we held back on two counts, firstly we wanted confirmation from the Registro ourselves, that the property is now ours, and secondly, Don Pedro has bee a proverbial pain in the posterior regarding the collecting of some of his remaining building machinery, so I said that we would not entertain transferring the funds until he collected these items, as a result he said he would be at the house with a man and his lorry at 8am today.
We left the Apartment at 7.45am but not to go to the Finca, but with the trailer to collect our doors, only to find that they had only completed two, and the two windows, saying the rest would be ready this afternoon, that would have to do, there was nothing we could do to speed it up, so we set off for the Finca, arriving just before 9am, to find that the man and his lorry had loaded the cement mixer and what looked like a load of rubbish, which would reduce the rubbish we had to get rid of. Don Pedro his wife, and the two Commisionistas (the men who sold the house for him) in the mean time, were giving themselves a guided tour of the house, apparently Mrs Pedro was less than happy at the alterations we were making, thinking there house was wonderful… tough!
After unloading the trailer and parking it up, we headed down to Girardota in convoy, and we went to the Registro, confirmed the house is in our name, even though as usual they got mine wrong, despite being told numerous times, they can\’t accept that someone only has one surname, so I was Mr Richard Sale, although they said my ID card is the clincher and there would be no problem we have insisted on a modification, which will take about a week.
From there we went to the Bank and I went through numerous hurdles to prove who I was, due to the amount involved, we then paid Don Pedro, he in turn paid his Commisionistas, and everyone left happy.
We then moved on to Copacabana, the reason for this, was that we didn\’t think we were going to get anywhere with the neighbour she blows hot and cold more often than the winds of the Sahara. Therefore we had been advised to ask for a Local Authority Inspection, the idea being that they would see what the problem was and enforce the right of entry. However this didn\’t go quite as expected, Marcela dealt with this and we (Henri and I) stayed outside. Marcela was told that, because Don Pedro had built exactly five metres from her house, they could not enforce entry, however, because the neighbour has built a stable for her horse up against our boundary wall, we could have that removed, as it has to be at least five metres from any boundary, but first we had to find out her full name and ID number.
Whilst Marcela was doing this I went up to the Bank to draw some cash for John, only to find my account had yet again been blocked, despite the security checks in the bank at the time.
Back up to the Finca, and Henri and I went through the house seeing what electrics needed replacing and installing, the list seems endless, however when we finished John said he would meet us in the morning and take us somewhere we would get a good deal. Marcela in the mean time spoke with the neighbour on the phone, who said she would meet us after 3pm.
We then hitched up the trailer again and headed home for lunch, after which, Marcela and I went into town to sort out the Bank, our hearts went into our boots to start with,as the queue was horrendous and we would have been there all day, but Marcela went down, and got us in to see the Customer Service Manager who unblocked my account, it turns out that they had tried to phone me, but as I didn\’t have my mobile with me…
From there we thought we deserved an ice cream, so cornets bought, we headed home again, picked up Henri, Pépe and the trailer and went to collect the final door and window reja, before heading back out into the wilds, by this time it was 5pm.
On arrival, our neighbour came out, and we left Marcela to talk to her, nearly an hour went by, and we kept hearing raised voices from next door, and thought it couldn\’t be good, but then, Marcela returned with the neighbour in tow, and showed her our problem, and as the walls were wringing wet, there was no denying it.
Then they came out, and the woman was the most amenable person you could wish to meet, shortly afterwards, the son that lives with her Juan, or as has been mentioned \’The Marijuana Kid\’, turned up, and I then had my turn, I said that I was not Don Pedro, and didn\’t want any problems, but if they insisted… no no, they didn\’t want problems either, and Marcela had explained, that we were not just doing the house up to make a fast buck, this was our home for life house, this seemed to go down well. She had also earlier informed the woman that we had been to seek advice, and the legislation re her stable, which really worried her, because there is no where on her land that is at least five meters from a boundary, so she asked me if we would be pressing the issue of the stable, to which we said that as long as it was kept clean, and we had no pest problems, then we were happy to let bygones be…
Marcela then spoke with the eldest son on the phone, and arranged a site meeting for Sunday, when hopefully we will be given the go ahead to get the work done, Marcela stated we would also draw up a letter or neighbour contract, to say that we had no intention of trying to claim any of her land, and they in return would ensure we would not have problems from their stable.
By this time is was pitch black, and time to head home, although Pépe had been with us, he was not that happy, because we couldn\’t let him off his lead!, so he had his dinner and off we went along the river.
An Englishman in Colombia 