Sill-iness

There are many joys of being a landlord.  I will number them below:

1.  Getting rent in on time.

Oh, that's it.  Well, hey ho.  There are several downsides though, and anyone who calls it "passive income" is a big fat liar pants.  I have always loathed and detested dealing with Tower Hamlets Homes (my last letter of complaint to them actually used the phrase, "I seriously doubt that anyone in your department could organise a drinking session in a brewery", and their reply pretty much confirmed that, as they addressed it to "Miss Laurahmed Noon" and threatened to tow my car which hadn't been parked there for three years.)

Still, despite still being in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, a second flat we look after is managed by a different company - Poplar Harca.  I can tell you're riveted by this.  Stay with me.

Now, last week I made the mistake of contacting the tenants to organise a gas safety check.  Yes, this is a legal obligation, but inevitably, whenever you contact tenants to give them some information, immediately they give you a list of nineteen things that have gone wrong with the flat since you last spoke to them a fortnight ago.  So far, so exciting?

So this time, it's an ongoing problem with the seal around the window, which is letting in cold air.  According to Poplar Harca's website, this is their issue as building owners to repair.  According to the people on the end of the phone, this is now our issue as leaseholders.  I still haven't worked out why.

Now, the main difference between Tower Hamlets Homes and Poplar Harca, as far as I can tell, is that Tower Hamlets Homes will only employ people:

a) whose grasp of English is insufficient to do anything other than smile and nod (not ideal for a phone-based job)
b) who have moderate learning difficulties
c) who do speak English, don't have learning difficulties, but are vile and obnoxious.  Poplar Harca seems to employ lovely people who are actually fairly efficient.  This makes me nervous.  Surely this is too good to be true.

Still, whilst they do speak English, the accent was still something of an issue on the phone earlier today.  Tower Hamlets, being a diverse area of London, has tens of accents and various languages spoken.  But today my problem was with a Londoner.

Me:  Yes, I think it's a problem with the window seal.

Her:  Oh, we don't cover window sills.

Me: Not the sill, the seal.

Her: Oh, so you're saying it's not the sill, it's the sill?

Me:  *Trying to think of a way to explain to her that the way she pronounces "sill" and "seal" are identical.  Fails.*  Erm, yes.

See, told you this would be an anecdote worth waiting for.  Oh.  Sorry.