In November I get a letter, that my old appartment is ready to be moved back to on 16 December.
Super happy about this - but knowing that I have had several previous dates just simply forgotten or moved on - I write back asking how serious this is. I get a prompt reply saying that it is 100% sure. I can move back on 16 December.
On the tenth of December I am supposed to get 30 boxes. I have to do the packing myself. Late in the afternoon - like 18:00 - I give them a ring asking abou the boxes that were supposed to be delivered.
With a fluster of "Only on the 10th" muttering - I get the boxes. Start packing.
I spend the weekend, setting up an exact plan. Which furniture goes where, which boyes go where. The rooms are numbered matching the boyes. A floor plan with the furniture drawn in, is sent out, so that no-one can ask "where does this go?" etc.
Monday morning, 16 December - the move should start at 09:00. I go over to my old apartment at 8:45 where I will be moving in to today, and find chaos.
Nothing as agreed.
- Open brick wall in the entrance makes the place look like a pizzeria from 1994.- The much fought about "Open Plan Kitchen" is non-existent. Instead, as I always wanted it - as it was when I left.
- As gas has been taken out of the apartment, I am supposed to have a new stove. This is not done yet.
- The shower in the bathroom is not done yet.
- The entrance to the apartment is short of going into a building site, wires hanging loosely over the entrance way, the door has no colour, the door is not lockable.
- There is a building site door a staircase down, closing entrance to the whole floor.
- The floors are super dirty, the windows have never been cleaned.
- The door ringer down stairs is not connected to the apartment (The apartment is on the 4th floor)
- The bathroom is only half finnished. It is missing tiling on one complete wall, the bathroom has a new bath tub, which is huge, but tiny on the inside.
- The bathroom heating has nt been installed.
- The heating of the kitchen does not have thermostat, meaning that the place is heated to a cuddly 35°C
Before I have a chance to stop the whole operation, the guys who work as builders on the building site have already started moving everything.
Everything is carried over to my old place within 2 hours. Of course, the plans that I drew up I might as well have used to clean my shoes. Everything is just packed in to where there is space. Absolute chaos.
I spend the rest of the day giving instructions, re-organising and cleaning the place. As much as I can.
I cancel any idea of possibly going to work on Tuesday and I spend the whole day cleaning and re-organising the chaos.
At 15:00 on Tuesday I get a call, that Acksel would like to do the hand over of the apartments. i should suggest two dates.
I suggest 17.12 - 17:00 ot 18.12 - 09:00.
I phone up my friend to come along as a witness, and everything is sorted. Wednesday morning 09:00, Raabe str. 1.
At the handover, Mrs. Acksel (Ulf Acksel's sister) says that the tiles are dirty in the kitchen, I should clean them, and also in the bathroom the cupboard.
I tell her, that the apartment was in such a dirty state when I got it, that it actually is quite silly that she asks me to clean the place. (Last Paragraph here: The Move
I clean all the stuff she says, and in her presence she says the place is fine - luckily in front of my witness.
We go across to my old apartment. She is obviously shocked at the state, and suddenly says that she is not going to sign anything today. So the whole thing was just a waste of time.
Luckily I had a list of things that needed to be done, which I asked for deadlines and I asked for it to be filled out in front of all of us. According to this plan, everything will be fixed by Friday 20.12.2013.
As the day goes on, arounf lunch time (I'm still cleaning and unpacking in my new place) I get a call from Ms. Acksel asking whether I am done in the old apartment. I am a little confused, because I had already given her the key, and I did the cleaning she asked for, while she was with me. When I ask "Why?" She says, well Mr. Acksel is currently at the old apartment, and he has found a few things that still needed to be done.
I am completely flabbergasted. What is the sense of what we did in the morning, if we can still carry on finding mistakes after the meeting.
Ulf Acksel sends me photos - close ups of the toilet, the tap and the fridge. He says that he cannot rent the apartment further in the state. I write back that I am more than willing to clean anything that goes over and above the usual signs of usage. He writes back that he has already told a professional company to clean the place, as I saif that I was done on the phone.
Still thinking that this is absolutely ridiculous, I phone my lawyer and ask how I am supposed to handle this. She says that Acksel has just informed me of the steps. It does not mean anything.
An hour later he sends me a bill for €190,- and a deadline to pay it till 29.12.
I refuse to pay this bill. They let me move into complete chaos, complete dirt, I have been trying to get the place liveable for two weeks.
Come the 20.12 - only one plate of the stove works. The heating meters, and warm water meters have not been installed. The bathroom is not done.
This is how I go into the festive season. No possibility to cook anything except a dinner you can make on a one plate stove... the dirt does not stop, and I am living in the middle of the building site.
