1/10 paid 9/10 to go
The lawyer's voice droned on and on and I followed M's finger tracing the words of the contract. Every so often my eye snagged on a word and I would marvel at the Polish language's ability to place so many consonants together. This was swiftly followed by admiration for the lawyer who, despite her gravelly monotone, managed to skip lightly over the szs and czs, not tripping and stammering as I would have done.
I stopped my daydreaming and snapped to attention as she turned to me. 'This is the paragraph that states that Pani speaks Polish and did not require a translator. Did Pani understand everything?' I felt the blood rise to my cheeks as I looked her in the eye and confirmed that I had understood. It was no lie, nor even a stretching of the truth - we had gone over every word the previous evening, M explaining and translating the bits I didn't get.
We continued with the contract and I did my best to concentrate. It had been emailed to us the previous day and I'd printed it out on the back of some old English lesson handouts that had never been used. When the seller brought out his documents, neatly filed in plastic covers of different colours, and stored in labelled folders, I eyed our copy, dog-eared and splashed with melon juice, with a certain amount of embarassment.
We finished the read-through, signed the contract and called the bank to make the transfer: 10% of the apartment's price as a deposit while we find the rest. Finally, it was all complete. Hands were shaken all round and M smiled at me. 10% is ours, soon we'll have a whole flat.
As we shook hands with the seller he congratulated us. 'Now don't forget' he said as we turned to leave, 'we shall expect you about once a week until the final contract is signed.'
'What for?' we asked with questioning smiles.
'To clean the part of the flat you already bought,' he said and winked.
I stopped my daydreaming and snapped to attention as she turned to me. 'This is the paragraph that states that Pani speaks Polish and did not require a translator. Did Pani understand everything?' I felt the blood rise to my cheeks as I looked her in the eye and confirmed that I had understood. It was no lie, nor even a stretching of the truth - we had gone over every word the previous evening, M explaining and translating the bits I didn't get.
We continued with the contract and I did my best to concentrate. It had been emailed to us the previous day and I'd printed it out on the back of some old English lesson handouts that had never been used. When the seller brought out his documents, neatly filed in plastic covers of different colours, and stored in labelled folders, I eyed our copy, dog-eared and splashed with melon juice, with a certain amount of embarassment.
We finished the read-through, signed the contract and called the bank to make the transfer: 10% of the apartment's price as a deposit while we find the rest. Finally, it was all complete. Hands were shaken all round and M smiled at me. 10% is ours, soon we'll have a whole flat.
As we shook hands with the seller he congratulated us. 'Now don't forget' he said as we turned to leave, 'we shall expect you about once a week until the final contract is signed.'
'What for?' we asked with questioning smiles.
'To clean the part of the flat you already bought,' he said and winked.
posted by Becca | 2:30 pm
5 Comments:
This is the most interesting account of a real estate purchase I`ve ever read. And for a real estate lawyer that`s saying a lot.
You certainly have a way with words.
You're a bonafide grown-up...Oh my God!!
Aww Szwed, you're the best kind of commenter... keep it up ;-)
Monef, no no no, I've discussed this at length, and it has been generally agreed that only married people with kids qualify as grown ups!
congrats on the new pad :) look forward to seeing the pictures when you move in!
Thanks claire! You can count on there being photos, lots of them - before, after, in between...
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