Country Retreat - 54. Disappointment

“Unless the court hearing is in Adelaide, I will not be attending, as I am currently arranging the selling up of my property and returning to Adelaide to continue my studies. In regards to the car accident in which I was a victim of an idiot's actions, I have Dashcam footage of the other driver pulling out onto the road attempt to do a U-turn right in front of me, without looking for oncoming traffic, I know that I am in the clear for that matter as well,” I stated. “I see, well we will have to ask you to go to a police station in Adelaide to give a sworn victim impact statement once a court date has been set.

In regards to the other matter the family of the other driver is questioning the facts of how the accident happened near the border, so if you can send me a copy of that dashcam footage, then the matter can be quickly resolved. Here is my business card with the details on where to send the footage. Have a good day and safe travels,” the senior officer said before leaving.

With Hunter having already packed up all of his belongings, we spent the next few days deciding what we wanted to take with us from the house, which wasn’t much, and we found that we could cram it all into the back of the vehicle without having to hire or buy a trailer. It didn’t take me too long either to pack up all of my belongings and just four days after being discharged from the hospital, we were on the road heading west for Adelaide.

Before leaving Allendale East, I had spoken to Giles by telephone and he had informed me that he had made a few changes to the living arrangements, since Antonio was no longer living there, he had moved to the larger back bedroom upstairs, to allow me to have the master bedroom, and Hunter to have the downstairs guest bedroom, which I was surprised by.

The trip back to Adelaide was long and tiring, but it was nice to be back in the capital city again, with it having a smaller population compared to Perth, it was a place that I felt happy to be living, even though I was still a long distance away from the family. With our new home now just five kilometres away from Flinders University, which is great for Giles, it meant a twenty-kilometre drive for me to Magill Campus of Uni SA and eleven kilometres for Hunter to attend TAFE in the city, which was fine as I could drop him off and pick him up in the way to and from Magill Campus.

We had just four days to get settled in before the start of the second semester commenced, which I spent mostly relaxing since I no longer had as much pressure on me with no work commitments. Hunter was a little disappointed about the lack of a garden in the front and back yards, but I planned to correct that in a small way, as I planned to purchase a heap of large pots and plenty of potting soil to establish a garden of sorts for Hunter.

At the end of our first week of the second semester, once I had collected Hunter from his place of studies, we called into a larger garden nursery, where I surprised Hunter with my plan for him to have a potted garden and told him to select what he needed to do this. After nearly two hours at the nursery, with pots crammed into the back seat of the vehicle and a huge selection of plants and bags of potting soil in the back, we headed for home, texting Giles before we left there to say that ‘operation greenery’ was on its way home.

For the whole weekend, Hunter kept busy filling the large and medium-sized pots in which he planted the small trees and shrubs that we had purchased at the nursery and watering them all, before installing a watering system. I was glad that Hunter was happy with working in the back and front yards with his potted garden. For the first half of the second semester, I kept my head down and concentrated on my studies, and a week before the long weekend, I made a call to Mount Gambier to check on the availability of the cottage, which was free for the last weekend.

I booked it for that weekend, before asking my two housemates if they had any plans for the September long weekend or not. When Giles asked why, I suggested that we go down to the cottage at Racecourse Bay for the weekend, flying to Mount Gambier, and hiring a car before driving south to the cottage, this would also give us a chance to check on the house in Allendale East as well.

After some discussions, Giles and Hunter agreed to join me for this trip to Allendale East, where we would leave on the early evening flight on Friday and we would catch the evening flight back to Adelaide on Monday. Giles had his last lecture finish at 3 pm, and I would be finishing work at the same time, collecting Hunter on the way home.

When the afternoon of our trip arrived, I was able to leave about fifteen minutes earlier than planned and I sent a message to Hunter to let him know that I was on my way. All of us had packed our bags the night before, so once we had had a shower and changed, we caught a taxi north to the airport to catch our flight to Mount Gambier, where we would arrive there at 8 pm.

Thankfully, there was a supermarket still open at that time of the night, when we arrived, so we quickly did some food shopping, before making the half-hour journey south to Racecourse Bay, taking the eastern route, which wasn’t much in difference in travel time. When we arrived at the property, we found the gate to be wide open, which I was not too pleased about and soon discovered that the grass had not been mowed for quite some time.

“What the hell is going on?” I said more to myself than to my friends, “Doesn’t look too good does it?” Hunter responded, as we retrieved our large torches and made our way towards the cottage, where I found the screen door half off its hinge, and partly open, and the back door was unlocked. “I don’t like the looks of this, let’s go and find some alternative accommodation for tonight and come back in the daylight and see what is going on,” I suggested as I looked at my watch to see that it was almost 9 pm.

Quickly I made a few phone calls, and I was able to book accommodation for us at the Victoria Hotel in nearby Port Macdonnell, with a shared kitchen where we could store our shopping supplies. Feeling tired from the travelling and the busy day at work, we retired early to bed, waiting to see what we discover in the morning. After a sleep-in and a delicious breakfast, we headed across the road to the local general store, to make some enquiries.

There I learnt that Amanda, who I had hired to keep the cottage clean, and the local gardener, who I had hired to keep the property in a neat condition, had both left the district nearly two months ago, without saying anything to anyone. I was not at all pleased to learn this and asked if there were any other cleaners and gardeners in the district, of which I learnt the nearest garden contractors are in Mount Gambier, and the few cleaners remaining in Port Macdonnell have full calendars.

Returning to the hotel, we booked in for an additional two nights stay, so we could leave our luggage and food at is, before going back to our shared family room, to make some enquiries. After an hour of online searches and several phone calls, we managed to find a farm contractor, who could come out to the property in the early afternoon to slash the grass on the property, and mow around the building, while his partner would be happy to do the cleaning.

Once that was organised, we climbed into the hire car, and made our way back to Racecourse Bay, to see what the property looked like in daylight. I was shocked to see that there were several windows broken, as well as damaged furniture, rubbish left lying around the cottage, including rotting food, and also holes punched into the walls.

I telephoned the real estate agent, who I had contracted to manage the property, and demanded a meeting with her at the Racecourse Bay property at noon today, which surprisingly she agreed to do. The three of us spent a good hour photographing the whole property including all the damage to the cottage and the garage, which had a broken window and rubbish left lying around, where it looked like a party had been held.

I was also able to locate a local builder/handyman who agreed to come and give me a repair quote, and he arrived shortly after 11 am. I stated I wanted a high-standard quote for repairs to the cottage and garage, no matter the cost, as I intended to give this quote to the real estate agency to pay for, as they had failed to uphold their part of the contract to manage the property, keeping it to a high standard of cleanliness and order.

When I saw the full quote nearly an hour later, I smiled and thanked him, and I told him to expect an email when work can commence on the repairs. Just as he was driving out of the gate, the real estate agent arrived, and the look on her face was a good indication that she was not aware of the condition of the property. “Good morning Mr Kingston. What on earth happened here?” she asked me as she climbed out of her car.

“That is what I would like to know. Are you not contracted to make a monthly inspection of the property, and to take note and report any damages or repairs that are needed to be fixed?” I asked her, showing disappointment in my expression. “Yes, but I have not heard from your cleaner in a while, so I just presumed that the cottage was all ok since there have not been many bookings for the property in the past few months,” she responded.

As I had asked, Giles was discreetly recording this from a distance, since she had never met Giles before, and Hunter stood next to me as a witness. “I have just had a qualified builder complete a quote for repairs to damages caused by unknown tenants, and this is what it is, which I expect you to fully cover since you have failed to monitor and report all transactions and damages done to the property, and if you do not wish to do so, then I will happily pass this matter onto our family barrister, who will take you to court to recover all costs,” I said to the agent.

“But… this could not be possible,” she said to me after taking a quick glance at the quote with wide eyes at the final figure at the bottom of the quote.