Surveyors

We are still stuck in the 'sold subject to contract' status which is a kind of limbo land. Dad has now run out of obvious jobs and projects to do, although the garden could do with a serious weed and tidy to get it bedded down for the autumn. He just wants to get the whole Project Erroll thing over now and move, so that we can all devote some time to getting the new place sorted, rather than hanging around tidying up the old place.

The buyers, their solicitors and their nominated surveyor have us all on hot coals, needling us occasionally with bizarre questions like whether the new French Doors installed by the Panini Brothers have FENSA certification. We have to Google this and it turns out to be a "Fenestration Self Assessment" form. The builder who fits your doors can now fill in a form and sign it himself saying he fitted them properly. Given that none of us can ever see a builder filling out a form with a tick in the "Nahhh... not sure, might have bodged it" box, this seems to be completely pointless and our Estate Agent tries to calm our nerves by saying everybody does this now and it's never a problem. It's just a box ticking exercise which solicitors like to be able to file along with all the other paperwork.

The surveyor, when he comes is a nice enough bloke, and just doing a mortgage valuation on behalf of the buyers money-source. He wandered about, took a few measurements with a laser measurer and stuck his head into the loft (no squirrels apparently). He asked a few cursory questions about whether there were paths or access at the back the other side of our fences (no) and that was that.

Dad was free to head for the barge, where it turned out to be too wet to do any painting. Better luck tomorrow.

Deefs