On Thursday evening, Bartholomew made a hole in the side screen door and escaped into the night. The boyfriend and I were rather worried, what with the number of hoons about the streets and cat-hating neighbours, even though we were fairly sure he would only stay away long enough to get very friendly with his big old girlfriend next-door.
The boyfriend stepped out onto the side deck to have a look around the yard while I was inside holding Hinkler/Hogwart (the smelly grey kitten who of course is still with us!) to prevent him also running into the night and I saw the boyfriend stumble forward whilst emitting a string of expletives and my heart fell into my toes as I thought he had tripped and gone head first over the railing. I flew outside to see him still on the deck but the end railing was missing the top two planks. The boyfriend had leaned on the top one to look over the side when it gave way and he instinctively grabbed the second plank only to have that go as well.

The bottom planks had been replaced in December 2002, but the owner (who is a registered builder!) had declared the rest of the deck stable enough.
I rang the real estate office first thing on Friday morning saying that I had a serious maintenance issue and told the property manager what happened. She said that she would have it taken care of that day. I got a phone call from the property manager a short time later saying that she had called the owner and asked if it would be possible for her to come out and see the damage, 'cause, you know, I could have exaggerated about the seriousness of the situation.

She arrived around lunchtime and told me that the owner would be down some time "next week" to fix the deck and some other things and that she would call me as soon as he called her. I stated that as I was unable to allow my children to be outside I wanted a reduction in rent for the period of time until the deck was fixed. She said she would "ask the owner".
Today is Wednesday and I have not yet heard the news that the owner is on his way.

Two of the posts holding the deck up have come away from the decking - the wood has rotted due to that area being rather shady and so it stays damp for longperiods after rain.

So in summary ... the children have not seen the back yard since Thursday, if it had been one of them causing the railings to fall they could have died, my drains are still blocked, my ceilings are still flaking, my powerpoint still hasn't been replaced and I am VERY PISSED OFF.

sidetrack:- note the next door neighbour's house on the boundary, acting as my fence - grrrrr, the whole street is like this!