Stephen here. If we came away to Australia shirk all responsibilities and forget about home and the UK, I must say we've not really succeeded. Since we left we've had a lot of stuff to deal with there and seem to have been on the phone to my mum a lot to get her help.
Just before we came away I received a speeding fine. I've never had one before, and was a bit annoyed, but it's my own fault so I can't complain. It meant, however, that I had to leave my driving licence at home and my mum has been dealing with it. Grrr.
We're renting out our flat in Ealing and are paying a letting and management company to find tenants and manage the property. They found tenants without too much difficulty (but we did have to pay for a new bed to be put in the spare room). The problems started when the gas inspector found that our (relatively new) gas fire was not installed properly and "capped it", meaning it can't be used until it's fixed. B&Q only installed it in February 2002, so it's still under warranty, however we can't find the forms. We thought we'd given them to the management company but apparently not (they better have look thoroughly!) My mum's been searching through our stuff for them, and we've written to B&Q. B&Q don't seem to be able to find any record of the installation. Grrr.
The next big problem is the bl**dy Inland Revenue. They've fined me 100 pounds for not submitting a tax return for the year ended 5 April 2002. You only need to self-assess if you receive a return to fill in. I didn't receive one (and have never had to self-assess before - I've always paid tax via PAYE). Perhaps they had an old address for me, or it got lost in the post. Or perhaps the unhelpful idiots didn't send it. Am I supposed to have phoned them on the off chance that I was meant to receive a form? Last year my mum didn't receive a return to fill in, and phoned the Inland Revenue to ask why (since she usually self-assesses). They were quite patronising and told her that if she didn't receive a form then she didn't need to submit one and perhaps she should go away and leave them alone. What a stupid system when they'll fine you for not returning a form, and the only way you know whether you're obliged to
submit a form is if you receive one, and they have know way of knowing if you received it or not. Grrr!
I've had to pay the fine and have appealed. The Inland Revenue haven't acknowledged my appeal and my mum can get no joy from them. I've asked them to send a new form to my mum's address so she can fill it in for me and submit it, but they've not sent it and have instead sent a threat of a further fine if I don't submit it soon. Grrr.
From this you may be able to tell that my mum is a godsend and is probably getting sick to death of us being away and having her run around sorting everything out for us! (Sorry and thanks, mum!)
Things were probably easier before mobile phones and the interweb. At least then we'd have been blissfully unaware of all the problems back home.