Please reply instantly if not sooner
I got a letter yesterday.
It was from the SEAI mob. To paraphrase – as they had tried to get in touch with me and I hadn’t responded, that I was to be removed immediately from the scheme unless I replied by return.
Their “getting in touch” obviously consisted of one phonecall which I missed. No messages. No repeat phonecalls. This apparently is sufficient to kick me into touch.
As I mentioned on Monday, I had indeed phoned them back purely because I call back missed numbers anyway. There was no mention of an impending letter.
I got another letter this morning. It was a long one confirming my qualification for the project and detailing the procedures I can expect, though no immediate timescales.
It’s a neat trick. Make a brief phonecall. If it’s not answered, don’t leave a message. Another one off the list.
I’m going to have to keep a sharp ear out for the phone….
We have something similar going on over here, and it all seems in complete disarray!
I applied for a grant to have our night storage heaters replaced with more efficient ones, and their excuse not to comply, was that our house is in a ‘Conservation Area’, (you probably have a similar situation where buildings are in protected areas to safeguard views, new buildings etc.), and they couldn’t help!
It’s absolute crap, as usually, one places radiators INSIDE a building, and they normally are invisible to anyone outside…
I gather it’s all part of an effort to stop the planet exploding or something. If it saves me a bit on the oil bills then I’m all for it.
I envy your conservation areas. My own gaff would surely fall under that category and I would have no problem with that [it might have stopped some pretty hairy building in the area]. However conservation areas, as I understand them, apply solely to the outside of a building unless it is of some particular historical interest. Do you live in a castle?
Be careful what you wish for. . . . .
In the UK many old properties are ‘listed’ under various grades, in many cases that impacts what you can do internally as well as externally. I recently viewed a ‘listed’ property which had four bedrooms, it also had four staircases as it was originally a barn and its listing protected the internal staircases as well as various inconvenient openings from its past use, rendering it impractical for regular domestic use.
Designs, materials and techniques for any changes are closely controlled, therefore dramatically more expensive than elsewhere – all the trades know it, so can freely screw you.
In addition, if any property lies within a ‘National Park’ or an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’, you are tightly restricted in what you can do on any of the property, not only the buildings.
Still envious?
“Do you live in a castle?”
No, but we have the local boneyard – or ‘stone orchard’ if you prefer, on two sides of ‘The Turrets’, so when we fart, the sound reverberates throughout the history of the 20,003 souls who reside there for eternity…
Tunbridge Wells BC is renowned for stupidity, but this crass ideology is totally lost on me…