Chapter 110: Moving Day, Rights Separate
We could sell the house without selling the books, once the documents stopped pretending they were the same asset.
On Wednesday, the valuer placed numbered cards in each room of the house Oliver and I had shared.
Our solicitors worked from the dining table while she completed the inspection around us.
Her report covered the building, fixtures, mortgage balance and estimated sale range.
It contained no manuscript inventory, royalty valuation or publishing-rights opinion.
The property draft beside it was less disciplined. Its mixed column could have converted a publishing dispute into a different share of bricks and land.
Oliver's solicitor had inserted accrued old-book royalties into the proposed equity adjustment column.
My solicitor marked the entry outside scope before any figure could influence the house division.
Royalties remained on the separate publishing schedule confirmed on Monday.
The £8,000 material-use payment remained on Oliver's sole closed-deed line.
Neither amount increased or reduced the physical property's net value.
The joint savings and mortgage obligations stayed within the family schedule.
I walked with the valuer from the study to the kitchen without opening a single archive box.
She recorded fitted shelves as fixtures and labelled loose filing cabinets removable property.
She did not decide who owned the words stored inside them.
Back at the table, the family solicitor displayed the publication exclusion clause.
The sale agreement would not transfer, license, value or release any copyright or author credit.
It would not alter Marian Crowe's existing old-book schedules.
It would not give Oliver control over Saltmere or give me control over Larkspur.
It would not decide the optional final volume or its unearned advance.
The clause also excluded the pending German audio audit from the property calculation.
Only received money lawfully classified within the family process could enter later financial disclosure.
Publishing ownership remained governed by its own documents. That separation applied whatever price a genuine buyer might eventually offer.
Oliver asked for a larger equity adjustment for furniture he intended to leave.
The valuer priced the listed items without turning the discussion into a rights exchange.
I accepted the neutral figure for the furniture rather than bargaining with future licences.
We agreed to place the house on the market under the independent valuation range.
Net proceeds would discharge the mortgage and sale costs before the remaining equity was divided under the property agreement.
The exact final proceeds would depend on a real sale rather than today's estimate.
I signed the principle agreement at the dining table.
Oliver signed the matching property instruction through his solicitor.
Both signatures incorporated the publication exclusion without amendment.
The family solicitors stored the signed agreement and valuation in the property file.
Our publishing solicitors received only the exclusion confirmation, not private household figures.
North Quay received no authority to administer the sale.
The estate agent received no manuscript list or royalty statement.
The house could now be marketed as a house.
The books remained governed as books.
The practical cost appeared in the occupancy schedule.
I agreed to remove my personal belongings, clean-room equipment and private files by 14 February.
Oliver received an equivalent deadline for his property under the same access protocol.
Neither of us could use collection visits to inspect the other's devices or records.
An inventory appointment would handle disputed household objects through the family channel.
I signed the moving date knowing the house had contained twelve years no valuation could divide neatly.
The agreement still divided what it had authority to reach.
At 16:32, the valuer removed the final numbered card from the dining-room door.
My copy of the occupancy schedule showed one fixed date in bold.
I would leave the shared house on 14 February.
The property agreement could move ahead independently.
The termination terms for our unaccepted final volume remained unwritten.