This has been an interesting week. I came up to Katy’s to spend the week with her as it was my birthday on the 24th and her Mum’s 60th party on the 2nd July. Prior to coming up I discovered that my MoT had expired and I knew that my insurance was due for renewal this week as was my Tax.

We visited her Mum early in the week and I accidentally curbed the car at about 40mph on the way home which damaged the tyre. So I went to a local garage and bought a new tyre. Then I rang my insurance company to get a renewal quote. They informed me that my insurance policy had been cancelled over a month ago due to lack of payments. I asked why they hadn’t informed me of this as I was quite understandably vexed by the fact I had been unwittingly driving without insurance and they told me they had sent me five letters. I explained that I hadn’t received them and questioned as to why they hadn’t contacted me by phone or email, apparently it’s not their policy to do so. Hooray. So I had to pay them for the period in which I had not been insured as they refused to give me proof of my No Claims otherwise.

Then I rang another insurance company and organised a policy with them for about £200 less. Next I took my car to be MoT’ed which it failed spectacularly. On returning to Katy’s I rang my new insurance company to cancel the policy as the car was no longer road worthy and had to pay £1.90 for a days cover.

Now this left me with a bit of a situation, I was over two hundred miles from home with no car. I had two choices; buy a heap with MoT and Tax and use it while I found something better or find something better. I went with the second option. I bought a copy of Autotrader and phoned around for quotes on a new (used) car. We also went to a Motor Auction which was interesting but ultimately fruitless. In the end I found a car within my budget in Wolverhampton, I took a train there, met the guy, haggled a bit and finally came a way with a 1995 2.0l Toyota Celica, the insurance on which is less than I paid last year for my escort.

On the way back to Katy’s from Wolverhampton I rang my housemate to let him know that I had sorted out my car troubles and he gave me some more bad news. Darren, their previous housemate, had come back and let himself in with keys we believed he didn’t have and taken the washing machine, fridge/freezer, dish washer, one of the TVs, my bed and TV stand and Chris’ Xbox. He left our food from the fridge on the side in the kitchen next to the bin which was thoughtful, along with a note saying he’d be back for the sofa and other assorted goodies.

The trouble is all the thing’s he took (except the Xbox) were his but he had previously said that he didn’t want any of it and he had given it to Chris and Sam as he had messed them about while he had been there as well as owing them money for bills. All of this, however, had been relayed through Sam who is not the most reliable of sources. Had he asked us for his things back, we would have gladly obliged and made sure he got his Xbox back instead of Chris’ but to come and take things with no prior warning is just not on. Chris called the police but they said it was a civil issue and told him to talk to the CAB.

We have tried contacting Darren but there’s no answer on his phone and he left no forwarding address. So we just have to hope that either or both of us are there when he comes back to have a little chat with him. I’m furious. I should be elated that I have a really, really sexy car but everything just seems to be going wrong at the moment I just can’t concentrate on that. Hopefully tomorrow will herald the turn for my luck.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 30th, 2006 at 11:43 am and is filed under My Life in my Words, AutoJunk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.