The Joys of Ones Own Property

There I was, fresh out of the shower (sorry for that mental image) still slightly dripping when the downstairs doorbell rang.

So... me, chipper as always hoping that finally the box with goodies that John sent me would have arrived, answered 'Hello?'

'Hello, this building manager here, did you just use water?'

Erhm.. well.. erhm.. yah.. just had a shower... (frantically thinking better put something on if he wants to check my water)

'Oh, ok then I will come upstairs shortly because we think somebody on the 5th floor has a problem because of your connections.'

So.. he came up with a bucket and some green colouring.. threw a load of water through the bath and on his walkie talkie asked the neighbour 2 floors down if she saw anything and she said 'green water'.

Boohoo!

Turns out that this is a known issue in these flats. The connections to the main wastepipe from the toilet, basin, bath and kitchen is getting really thin after 40 years and causes leaks. Every week there are about 3 people with the same problem but of course I wasn't aware.

It means they have to break my lovely tiles in the toilet, bathroom and kitchen and only when they open it do they know how big the wreckage is going to be. Upside I suppose.. as far as upsides go in these kind of situations.. the community pays for the wrecking, they repair the pipes etc. but the repair afterwards is the owners responsibility. And well.. of course.. the tiles are old and there are no spares at all so I would have a nice repaired pipe but a wrecked toilet!

So.. of course I was in tears and called 911 (John ;-)) who of course talked some sense into me and told me to call my brother to share and then my insurance person to check if it is covered by my contents insurance.

Did both which made me feel better when my brother said 'poor sis!!' and the insurance guy that he would check it out.

Now.. 3 days later it turns out that it IS covered under my contents insurance, upto 4000 euros even, although only upto 1000 euros I can get away without an expert coming around.

So.. now it is waiting for the plumber to come and do his deed and tell me what it will cost me to revamp my toilet!

I tell you, these are exciting times!