I am now dreading the PCI appointment on Monday, but anticipating an end very soon.

We had Kevin booked to do a re-inspection yesterday (Wednesday) and had informed our SS who had agreed to the appointment albeit reluctantly because "Wednesday is our office day" as we hear so often. However 8am yesterday morning OHs phone rings and it's the SS telling us that Kevin can't do an inspection as no-body is available to open up for him. He put up a slight arguement and the SS suggested that Kevin could do an external inspection but that he couldn't go inside. I was NOT impressed and so I got on the phone and all hell brooke loose....

I couldn't understand how the SS had agreed a day earlier and now it was a problem and so I argued. Eventually I heard the SS say to somebody beside him "see I told you this would happen". So I asked to speak with that person which I eventually managed to do after a lot of persistence. Turns out the other person was the construction manager and to call him rude is putting it lightly.

To cut a long story short, the construction manager implied that we were delaying the progress of our house and that quote "this can't go on any longer". We were also told that if Kevin attended our house yesterday we would be in breach of our contract and that if we wanted him to do another inspection that this would constitute our PCI and that we would be waiving our rights to attend a PCI.

I don't see how it is that we could be blamed for delaying the house when all we have asked is for 2 inspections to be done and then an additional one because items from the first report weren't fixed. The last inspection was done on the 1/7/09 and the house has sat there idle for the most part of the past month. For the month prior to that the house also had very little activity - none of that is our fault.

In the end I had to back down and cancelled Kevin's inspection. I was furious at the way that they spoke to me and how in they were telling me that they are doing more than is required to get our house ready but couldn't actually give me any details. They kept pointing out that they don't actually have to respond to anything on Kevin's report but they did and we are supposed to be gratefull...

OH is also furious and would like to fight it and according to the information that we've received from Kevin, they would cop significant fines for what they are trying to do (getting Kevin to sign off on the PCI for starters) but I've had enough. If we go into battle the only win is the fines that they receive - we continue to pay interest on our loan as well as rent and get nothing for the effort that it takes. Yes there is the satisfaction but that's only worth it if the impact of our action has an effect on them as a business. It's likely that the fines would be nothing to them and so I can't be bothered.

I am however dreading the PCI on Monday as the construction manager has informed me that he will be there and I am sure that they will argue against anything that we point out. The reason that they are so desparate to get us into the house is that they have exceeded their project time (not the contract) by almost double and it's costing them money (not money that they have to pay us, but in terms of their business and the costs of staff and not being able to start a new job). This really isn't fair as we are not responsible for their delays, we have not asked for anything unreasonable and we have let them go at their own pace. They know that I'm at my wits end and that I will sign-off on many things without much more argument, but we will be getting Kevin in to inspect the house after handover and we will pursue it with the building commission if the structural issues remain.

Anyway - sorry this is so long, I just needed to get it off my chest.

Oh and I got home from work yesterday afternoon to find the Certificate of Occupancy in the mail Apparently the house was inspected on the 30/6/09 and yet we were still being told at that time that it wasn't finished. And I thought that you needed a hot water service to get a COO but obviously I was wrong on that too.

And one more thing - one of our garage doors has finally been installed (the front one).