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Daylight Robbery:
Is that how the Rule of ‘Caveat Emptor’ is roughly translated locally from the Latin?
RARE GAME in these parts is the crucially important ‘breeding pair’ which settles to raise its family and adds substantially, by its professional skills, to the quality of life of the locality. It is additionally valuable when it creates its own jobs and/or provides employment for others.
Wherever it hails from, this gem is to be warmly cherished – as we “may all have arrived on different ships, at different times, but we are all in the same boat now.”
Thus it is cause for shame and embarrassment that this cautionary tale of one such rarity must be reported.
Family X chose to come to Highland Perthshire for the schooling and quality of life opportunities. Investing in setting up a restaurant business, and to meet the start of the academic year, they found – like many others – that they could not discover an affordable home to buy. They had to resort to the rental market.
They were obliged to lease a fully furnished property from a resident of Dubai for £1,100 per month – with one month held in deposit. In this six bedroomer they managed to contain also all their own furniture.
Unaware of the accepted procedures, family X neglected to arrange to check through in person the house inventory with the local agents for the absentee owners. Neither did they know to ensure that the supposedly full central heating fuel tank was properly filled before signing the lease. After just one month and five days, they were forced to spend £510 filling the empty tank with oil.
Eventually, they finalised purchase of a suitable local house and, concluding their lease, moved to their new home. First, however, with the aid of a professional, they completely returned the rented property to its state of cleanliness and order upon their entry.
Recovering from the shock of losing a substantial cash sum through being burgled during their first fortnight in their new home, they pressed for the return of their deposit on the rented property. And then they pressed again – and yet again.
Eventually, two months after vacating, they received not their cash back but notification that it had all been retained. They received also a demeaning and inaccurate itemised account of charges for delinquencies attributed to them, plus a demand for an additional £550. The list included several unjustifiable items embracing grass cutting services (£240) and changeover cleaning (£195).
The irregularity of what they experienced was most spectacularly demonstrated when the couple came to open bedside cabinets in one of the rooms to find drawers loosely containing watches, gold items and plentiful personal jewellery. Hastening to draw attention to this, they were told by a flustered agent that ‘it must be an oversight’ and that they ‘had no idea that it was there’!
The family is deeply shocked by these experiences in our rural community. Anger, hurt, insult and disillusion are added to this. They feel they have been exploited in the circumstances of their urgent need, and for their naivety, by the distant landlord, the local agent and cynical local ‘service providers’.
Renters beware!
Careless inventory practice COSTS by offering inventive opportunities to the unscrupulous!
BM
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