So there was I, home at lunchtime, happy to have an afternoon off with Spider and plans to make a cake later on…I have checked it out Basil is not unusual in a cake, in fact there is quite a yummy chocolate basil cake out there if you google.
Anywhere, there on a mat was a letter from a firm of solicitors in North London. Someone please tell me how a letter from a loss adjuster claiming that their outlay is predicted to be £500 change to a letter from a solicitor claiming that £6K damage has been done to their client’s property.
Yes I know as a solicitor myself I should not be surprised at all, and as a lawyer I do know that we have a good case and her lawyer has no idea whatsoever, but trust me, getting a letter like that, even though you know you are in the right is like getting a punch in the stomach. I felt very wobbly and had to go and have a shower to wash the letter away from me.
Anyway, having gone from needing to cook the weather out of my system I am now ignoring the kitchen completley and have sent Husband out for a chinese take away and some red wine…tonight I want not to think at all. I want oblivion.
Tomorrow I get… a bit “radical”…I have never argued a case unless I think I will win…admittedly I haven’t always won but I have never been 100% in the wrong.
If there is anyone out there planning to argue with their neighbours about anything and are instructing solicitors then take my advice. Don’t. I know what is about to happen. There will be about 3 years worth of angry correspondence. Proceedings will be issued. The District Judge will refuse to deal with it until its been to “alternative dispute resolution”. One side will succeed. Both parties will incur large legal fees. The solicitors will be very very happy because they get paid whatever…but you know what the ironic thing is, the winning party will not actually have got what they wanted out of the whole dispute…and to top it off they will have a really really bad relationship with their neighbour which they will then have to live with for the rest of the time that they live in their house and will then have problems selling because of that question in the Sellers Information Questionaire which asks you if you have ever had a dispute with your neighbours !
Don’t do it. If you want to argue with your neighbours then cut the hassle and go straight to ADR or Relate (if there is a property dispute alternative) and hope you can salvage something out of the situation.
