Rolling on summer

Since my last few posts things have moved forward...and also not moved forward at all!

We went to court.

The outcome was...a mixed bag, really. The judge seemed to get the general idea of things, but declared that we were all victims of an unscrupulous original seller who should have set up the services before dividing the building up for sale.

This is not untrue, but some of us (well, Matt and me!) have suffered undue delay and damage due to the actions of no one other than Mr A and his witch girlfriend.

The judge has appointed an external syndic or building manager, and an external expert in building matters to assess the damage caused and help us forge a path forwards. We will not allow the slate to be wiped clean, and if the worst comes to the worst we will sue individually. At great cost…but now I’m at a point where another 700-800 euros feels like a drop in the ocean…

So where does this leave us? No sign of a date that we might be able to fit our heating, and a moratorium on ALL works ordered by the judge means that setting up our camping-out option is unlikely to be of any use.

The good news is that the experts are answering to the judge and not the co-owners, which makes me feel a little more secure that A&B won’t manipulate the situation to their advantage. I’m looking forward to seeing if they can act like normal people now that they’ve got what they want (pigs might fly, right?).

We need a solution to the extra money we are spending on rent. I made a detailed budget for the next few months and we need to be free of rent expenses by October, so it looks like we hand in our notice within the next month, pack our stuff off to storage and move to…Rixensart!

It’s where I spent my teens, it’s where we got married, and it’s where my mum lives with a spare room in the attic and a garden for Nina to explore.

In other news, we have had some elections, with a predictable champagne socialist win in the south and Flemish flag waver win in the north. Things roll on…plus ça change…..