I need help understanding something.
May 2023, working from home, hear some crackling outside, went out and see the house next door on fire. Run in, get my wife to call fire brigade.
October 2023 move to a different town 600km away.
April 2026 received a demand from court to attend as witnesses. As we opened the letter we were like wtf who is this and what is this about. We did not recognise the name of who is being sued nor did we understand why we are being called as witnesses in some negligent arson accusation.
It took us about 10 min to remember about the neighbours house on fire 3 years ago. Why so long? And why so long?
The first why:
Year 2019 we moved to Germany ( wife is German ), 2020 immigration office lost the entire file and tried to deport me. Lawyers, absorbent fees, a lot of stress..
Year 2023 February, a dentist ruins 8 of my wife’s teeth for life. For 6 months this dentist refuses to attempt fixing any of them. The court case started, the teeth are not fixed to date. The wife is still in pain, the new dentist is puzzled as to what to do although he’s one of the best ones in the country. Meanwhile endless accusations from the other side’s lawyers firm that the wife is lying about being in pain. Paperwork almost every weekend for over two years.
The first lawyer almost fu\*\*ed it up for us so we had to tell them if they don’t cooperate we will seek another lawyer. To what they’ve responded firing us. Then they tried to charge us for what they didn’t even do. Good thing we told insurance to not pay the old lawyer anymore.
The new lawyer fix the problem with the old lawyer. But it’s all stress on top.
Year 2023 as mentioned above moved to another town. Rental apartment. Landlord thick as a brick, tries to rip us off on yearly utility bills recalculation. Charges for winter service for previous year for the time we did not reside there, charges for rubbish from other tenants that reside there before us, etc etc.
Hired a lawyer, the landlord responded to the lawyer pretty much with ‘I don’t know what you mean, I’m right!’
This matter is going to small claims court shortly.
Meanwhile to at least somehow fix the teeth problem we drive once a month 300km to the expert dentist.
The court for fire is on the same week as one of the dentist appointments. So it’s 600km to the dentist and over 1200km to court to say what I mentioned above. We saw fire and we rang. Where the fire started what time etc we do not know and due to the stress we had in the last few years cannot remember.
We do not earn huge amount of money but just enough to survive. In the last 2 years we’ve been paying the new dentist over again, so we haven’t even been able to save any extra. The health insurance has rejected to repay the subsidy again. They were forcing my wife to go back to the dentist that ruined the teeth. We’ve had to send a few legal letters to the insurance, which in the end made them obey the law and pay the subsidy again.
We have not even been on holiday once in the last few years.
I have trouble with my eyes and need a surgery but we cannot afford it at the moment. Not until the dentist job is complete and we can save again. Why this matters is my wife doesn’t drive. So it’s a huge strain on my eyes in this week.
We have communicated this situation to the judge and the judge doesn’t care and is still calling us in causing hardship.
The court covers only half of the income lost, they also pay only reimburse partially for accommodation and food while away from home. We simply cannot afford such a trip.
The second why so long?
We, since receiving the letter from court, spoke to our x-landlord who said that the insurance of that neighbour paid him to build a new house and this is the fire department who is suing the guy.
3 YEARS LATER!
In any other western country the statements are taken right there and then and not 3 years later when everything is forgotten.
In any other western country the witnesses like us are invited to the court and not breathed with a €1K per person fine if they don’t turn up.
How is this even possible in the country that tells the entire world they are democratic?