We live in a retirement housing estate where you can only buy a house if you are older than 58. Children and pets are banned – cats in our garden are rare.
Each owner becomes a shareholder of the Estate Management Company – of which I am director. We all pay a service charge into a reserve fund which meets the cost of the necessary administration, insurance and maintenance of the landscaped communal grounds (including lawns in residents rear gardens), buildings and contents insurance of all communal and residents property, external maintenance of all residents buildings and garden fences, window cleaning etc. Road maintenance and lighting is also covered because the road is private and not adopted by the Council. The present monthly service charge is £135 – the amount being agreed each year at our AGM. Thirty pounds a week to cover all those items I reckon is very reasonable.
When I took over as director I started to attack our annual costs. Apathy and inexperience had caused my predecessors to not question any charges and insurance renewal costs. By changing our insurance providers, gardeners, maintenance procedures etc I have been able to shave £30 off the monthly service charge for all residents.
Hence, we are self-managed and not the victims of being managed by a third party who is in it to make profit. For me, it is a voluntary labour of love – I just get reimbursed for my expenses which average £200 per year. However – I enjoy the challenge - it keeps me active and alert.
As director, I do a considerable amount of admin work – being the point of contact to deal with residents, third parties, maintenance contracts, legislation and the preparation and issue of monthly accounts summaries and newsletters to all residents. We employ a professional estate management firm to just provide legal assistance, look after our banking and provide the necessary official audited accounts each year for Companies House.
Hence our study is also an office with all the company records etc.
Because I do so much admin work – Microsoft Office is used extensively and following a recent M$ update has developed a really niggling problem.
When I highlight text to right click and cut or copy it – the highlighting disappears and I have to use a keyboard shortcut Ctrl C etc.
I found that if I highlighted the text – then waited about 10 seconds before right clicking on it – more often that not it worked OK. T’was most frustrating.
This morning after a good Googling I found that I was not alone – others had experienced the same problem as far back as 2016. With another cluster of problems in 2017. However, someone in 2017 suggested that in Word a solution was as follows :-.
File
Options
General
Untick “Show mini toolbar on selection”
I did this about an hour ago and have typed several Word documents without a problem. However – the mini toolbar still shows for some obscure reason. It is of no consequence – I’m happy that my cut and paste is working via the mouse again.
Fingers crossed it keeps it up.
I have not used Excel yet and hope I find the same solution applies there.
