The high quality block in which I dwell has only one real problem, the folks next door! By that I do not infer the folks next door are a problem, I mean the fact that someone is next door is a problem! Only two of the six flats here actually connect with me in a real way, the others are situated so that I am not really disturbed by them. Now we face a dangerous and problematic time, that is the actual folks next door have left and this means we must await replacements. The question is what will they, he, or even worse she, be like?
Nowadays the landlord whom I have known for twenty years gets local agents to do most of the paperwork for new tenants, he himself being in his seventies he spends his time in his Rolls Royce or travelling the world to find warm places. His mind is always on the houses mind, and he has hundreds of them! His staff of two lovely young ladies and two ageing fast handymen, 'bodgers' as they are known and excellent men and I get along with them well enough. Also my rent increases every couple of years or so rather than steeply every year. The empty flat next door will no doubt see an increase on the price charged but what that price may be I can only guess.
The tenant get along reasonably well. Not too much noise, unless the old girl gets drunk and brings out the romantic music records, and the man downstairs makes almost no noise at all in spite because I make noise by generally living life. The problem is that while we can ll get on what will the new tenant be like? Consider this, who can afford to rent these days? Who can afford to buy? Either way who can guarantee having a job tomorrow to pay for it? Banks, including those this government has a hold over by shovelling cash into them do not wish to lend either to housebuyers or businesses. They can however give huge bonuses to those at the top! The Co-op Bank has a loss of £1.5 Billion yet the new boss has been awarded £3.5 million in wages and shares. Very Co-operative that! Therefore a young couple (and we don't want any of them here) must rent, and the money spent on rent reduces the savings made for a house. For me the housebuying thing is a Thatcherite problem she demanded everyone buys a house with little thought to the needs of the people or the problems involved. Her rich friends of course went along with this, and profited greatly. She sold off all the council homes, homes built after the war to house homeless people. Today we are building 'social housing,' which is the same thing but councils do not run them, private organisations do. There are not nearly enough. Add to this the weakening of marriage, easy divorce, kids living together and females getting priority over males simply by being pregnant and homelessness grows.
What I mean by this is that the likelihood of a suitable male or even female tenant being able to afford the rent is rare. If they apply for Housing Benefit, something pensioners and others can receive, they may be able to move in. So far two young girls and two probably suitable males have turned it down, clearly the cost is too much. This increases the chances of a young couple arriving and splitting the costs, if they have jobs. With them comes what all young folks have, noise, parties, hassles, rows, babies. Not that I am one to complain but if people want to have fun they need not come here! The last couple were working, well he was, and both were about 21 years old. Once indoors they were OK but there were constant faults found with the building, OK she fell through the rotten wood in the kitchen I'll give you that, twice actually, but there was an inability to keep the shared stairs clean, though spreading muck was easy for them and general human attitudes were missing, caused by age.
Mind you one or two elder statesmen we have had here have not stayed long, I suppose the police knocking on your door at six in the morning might hasten your removal, and drink does make some folks a bit oblivious of their duties. Overall the crumbling somewhat stinky building has its benefits. Everything is near, the view is tolerable, mostly we live amicably, and the landlord is OK and repairs, when required, get done eventually, even the window man might turn up soon. However we live on tenterhooks awaiting the newcomers, this could of course take six months. I care not who moves in as long as they are quiet and get on with everyone, the days of suffering loud noisy folks are passed for those of us here now.
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