.....Car Lift Outage (both lifts) 19/11/09

Morning of Thursday 19th November, and both car lifts are again out of service meaning that residents cars are stuck in the car park and residents are forced to make alternative travel arrangements or if they did manage to get the car out before rush hour, they cannot enter the building on their return.

Two seperate and complete outages in two days. I think even thats a new record? Normally we have to wait at least another day or two for that to happen.

It would be nice if this blog were able to be used to say nice things about the building, and for residents to offer their own views on the city or suggestions etc etc but the overwhelming issues concerning the car park lifts have been in situ since day one and show no signs of abating. Infact, quiet the opposite.

.....Car Lift Outage - (both lifts) Nov 18th (update)

Both lifts were still out of service at 1130am and Otis who were on site confirmed that the lift does not have a load sensor, meaning that if there are 5 floors and 5 people waiting (1 on each floor) that the lift will stop at each floor on the way down like a lift for people as it does not recognise that more than one car cannot enter the lift at the same time!

Genius !

p.s.
No disrespect to Concierge, as John (for the last 12 months) and now Harry who joined us recently, you are both a credit to the building, but if you are frustrated with the situation and the complaints, imagine being a resident and living with it!

Car Lift Outage - (both lifts) Nov 18th

When both car lifts were in service at the same on Monday 16th Nov just two days ago, I said to myself that I must write a sarcastic message on the blog saying: "Hurrah! Both lifts working at the same time?"

With a busy schedule Monday and yesterday I intended to write about it later on today. Good to see that the outages being managed (or not) by Messers Thompson Moulton (part of Sutton Kersch), and Otis are still displaying complete ignorance to the effects on residents and a high level of professional incompetence.

Both lifts working lasted little over 48 hours!

This morning at 7am I was lucky/unlucky enough (yet again) to be directly involved. Upon entering Car Lift 2 (right-hand when viewed at street level) the lift proceeded to go up instead of down, and stopped on the 5th floor despite using the fob, and actually perssing the ground button as driving into the lift. After my venture up instead of down, the lift, upon heading in the right direction then proceeded to stop at every floor on the way down to the 1st, where it duly stopped.

After pressing the button for ground from within the lift, the doors would promptly close and I assumed I would be at last on my way. No such luck. The doors then opened whilst still on the 1st floor and after repeating several times with no additional response I reversed out to see if there was someone calling the list to the first floor, which could of affected the lift?

Upon reversing out on to the 1st floor (not my car floor) I saw that there was no other people waiting and assumed (correctly) that a fault was to blame. However, I thought I would give it one more chance and drove back in to the lift and tried for the ground level once more.

I would love to say that I left and made my merry way to an appointment in respect of my business, BUT that would be as accurate and truthful as the Thompson and Moulton / Building Managements claims that the problems are being sorted. In otherwords complete and utter bullsh*t.

Sensing the only option of freeing my trapped car was to reverse out onto the first floor and try Car Lift 1 (left-hand from street level). However, as Level 1 is not my car level, the fob to call the lift is obviously redundant and as such I attempted to see Concierge but at 725am I was not hopefull and upon going down to the office saw that it was empty. (anyone else see the promise of 24 hour Concierge upon moving in?)

Upon returning to the car, someone else was leaving and he kindly called the lift for me, so that I could leave. However, another car got trapped on the first level repeating my experience and to make matters worse, every car leaving via lift 1 would stop at all the floors on the way down thereby making it 4 times longer to use the lift!

The other person waiting also responded that he is moving out as a direct result of the issues with the car lifts.

Finally when the lift came I was lucky to get out BUT by being an hour late and missing a vital travelling hour from 7am to 8am in less motorway traffic I was now late, and the problem was compounding. The net result is that today, I personally have lost another half day which has to be rearranged causing loss of earnings.

.....Alexandra Tower and Letting / Estate Agents

Just a little spotlight on the legal aspects of either living in Alexandra Tower, or thinking about living in the building if you are either buying or renting.

If you are buying you are in luck, there are laws and regulations protecting you from misleading statements or omissions from estates agents, such as the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991, and the Estate Agents Act 1979.

However, despite such regulation, one of the most common gripes handled by the Ombudsman for Estate Agents is still "inaccurate sales particulars". In recent years however, it is now also a criminal offence for an estate agent to make certain statements about a property which are false or misleading.

Letting Agents like City Residential who handle the majority of Alexandra Tower sales&lettings, are not bound as tightly in their obligations to tenants, yet they and other letting agents could be falling foul of the law in respect of very recent legislation, namely the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The new Act now prohibits 'agents' (letting or otherwise) omitting material information from consumers, if that omission might cause the consumer to take a
different decision. (see section 6 of the Act)

Material information is defined as 'information which the average consumer needs, according to the context, to take an informed transactional decision'.

As such, it would now seem that agents have to disclose the existence of any 'adverse information' on a property, without having to be asked, if that information would affect the consumer's decision.

It could certainly be argued that the car lift issues are 'material' in that if you were duly informed that on numerous occaisons, both lifts at Alexandra Tower fail, thereby denying you use of your vehicle, with related loss of earnings or employment issues as a direct result, that you would likely think twice before completing the transaction?

The old 'if they don't ask don't tell' excuse no longer applies so I would be keen to know if the estate/letting agents with any Alexandra Tower apartments on their books (e.g. City Residential) are in fact disclosing the issues to their clients (namely private landlords) or prospective tenants when they have an obligation to do so.

Sticking to the letter of the law, the car park issue could conceivably be withheld from tenants looking for an apartment to rent in Alexandra Tower without parking, as it could be argued that no material information exists in their case, seeing as they wouldnt be using the car lift.

However, aside from a building report, an argument exists that estate agents cannot omit the car lift issues, or other 'ongoing and persistent' issues from prospective buyers as such information would likely affect the overall 'resale' and rental value and could be argued to be 'material' even if it was not disclosed in a formal managment report.

November 2009 Car Lift Outage (ongoing)

This week has been an eventful one yet again in the ongoing and continued issues with the car lifts. The incompetence of the management company in 'managing' (and I use the term sparingly) this is all too apparent.

Car lift 2 (right-hand when viewed at street level) has been out of action for more than a week now and has been so case countless times over the last 12 months, with only one lift working, the extra stress on that one remaining lift always causes it to fail also, leaving both lifts out of action.

Car lift 1 (left-hand from street level) went out of service sometime between 10pm on Thurs 12th and 8am on Friday 13th (which i'm sure is the only excuse not used by management/otis to date) therefore leaving some estimated 80 plus residents without access to their vehicles are late/lost hours of business etc.

Car lift 1 was rectified at some point during the day on Fri 13th yet lift 2 is still out of service.

On occupying the building some 12 months ago management informed residents that the issues with the lifts etc etc were just "teething" issues BUT to any person with an ounce of common sense can see the bigger picture behind the majority of the problems.

Millenium Estates went into liquidation it but chances are this wouldnt of been without compromise on behalf of the developer during the build. Hypothetically, why spend x amount of £'s on a carlift that does the job properly when you can save tens/hundreds? of thousands of pounds by cutting back on items like carlifts or materials and keep the company afloat a little longer?

However, back to Thompson and Moulton, et all. It stands to reason that if the car lifts are inferior and prone to break with 30 residents (as was the case 12 months ago) that if you increase this to some 150 residents that the likelihood of your inferior car lifts breaking will also increase?

Yet when only one lift is working (i.e. most often than not) there is not a rush to fix it and therefore there is (as indicated) only one point of failure left. A single point of failure with prior history.

.....You guessed it - more car lift outage

As reported in a previous blog post, the 'weekly' car lift outage hasnt disappointed and surfaced again on Friday 30th Oct and lift 2 (one nearest dock to side of building) was out of action from Friday until Monday 2nd even though it was also out earlier in that week.

It seems once weekly is not enough at present.

p.s. It seems that either the concierge or the management company have removed the notice of this blog from the lobby?

Dear concierge/management, residents of this building have a right to express their views based upon factual events and if you are concerned about the effect on attracting new residents, or losing current ones then why not address those issues as opposed to brushing them under the carpet.

If you remove the next notice, more will just be put up and a leafleting campaign done to all apartments.

.....Horrid smell of sewage at Alexandra Tower Liverpool - Passenger Lift

Has anyone else noticed the horrid smell of sewage and drains in the passenger lift without the removal padding? Its vile and at times embarrassing if you have guests coming into the building and commenting on the smell.

Apparently the management company know about it but its been there for months (on and off) so likely not a priority, just like the comfort of the residents it seems!

Car Lift Outage - 27/10/2009

Like clockwork and on time to maintain its weekly outage status, the left hand lift (from street level perspective) is currently down!

Its only been 6 days since the last outage and during those six days both lifts have not exactly been fault free. If you are on any carpark floor other than the 1st you will know how frustating the problem is and how time consuming it is to wait and then use the lifts (or should I say 'lift').

The problem is that if you are on say the 4th level and you call up the lif and its not broken, when you get into it the lift then makes a stop at level 3, level 2, and level 1 on the way down to ground. If you are one of those people waiting to get out at level 3, level 2, and level 1 seeing this, you will (like the person in the lift) be somewhat put out at the wasted time.

Also, has anybody noticed that if the lift is in use, you cannot (like any other lift in the world) maintain your position in a queue. I know we Brits love to queue but its the fact that you have to repeatedly sit there pushing the call button on the fob every other minute or so until the lift has finished and you can call it? Why no queuing system?

Carlift Outage - 21/10/2009

Its been a year since the first residents moved into this building and yet the car lift is still suffering regular outages, and today both car lifts are inoperable yet again.

If you have parking at Alexandra Tower, Princes Dock, Liverpool, and the lifts are not working (a weekly event) then in addition to being late for whatever or wherever you are meant to be (for most, work) then you are denied the use of your car, and have the added expense of alternative transport, usually a taxi to reduce the delay to your day any further.

As a long term resident, on average £50+ is spent on taxi's per month, just to provide alternative transport when the lifts break.

Over the last 3 weeks I have talked to a small (but likely growing) number of people that are so fed up, that they are moving out of Alexandra Tower.

I wonder if the management company will now take note? Unlikely, it has been a year and still no movement. Yes, Otis come out and install new software, or a new motor, but after 52 weeks + the problem is no better. In fact, you could say its worse now as instead of the lifts affecting 25% occupancy the building is now 75% and therefore affects 3 times as many people.

Surely a reason not to move into the building in the first place if I were now considering this building? Not sure if City Residential are obliged to inform any people enquiring to move here about the problems, but will look into it and update as and when.

Alexandra Tower - Ongoing Problems

Whilst the main issue at present seems to be the car lift, (and please post your comments on that), use this post to notify me of any other issues that you maybe experiencing and I can then post another category on that subject to get everyones response on any other issues.

I have started a dialogue with the management company and should be feel it useful, I have alerted the management company (Thompson Moulton), who are part of Sutton Kersch, about the feelings of many of the residents and the desire to arrange a Residents Meeting with all parties concerned.

At present there are several interested parties with their own agendas and at times it can be very frustrating for the residents in trying to get a) answers, and b) an outcome to the problems. As such, the bank and the reciever's interests may not lie directly with the residents and so in short, they should be made aware of the residents wishes and feelings (hence this forum).

Taking the car lift as an example, there is the original installer, the manufacturer, Otis who now manage the ongoing maintainance, the bank Barclays, the management company, the recievers who handled Millenium Estates liquidation, and the residents.

With the car lift, thats 7 parties with an interest and their own agenda, yet its the residents, and not any other party that has to directly put up with the problems and the fall out from them.

Passanger Lift - Misuse

Whilst the car lift is a major long standing issue, the management company and Otis have commented that residents and/or guests of residents are misusing the lift. This is usually late at night and usually involving alcohol.

To provide a bit of balance to the forum and in an attempt to outline the problem (if it exists at alleged) then we have a duty to ensure that funds (which are limited) are not being unnecessarily used to fix the passenger lifts by damage caused by residents or their guests, which is in effect criminal damage.

Any money spent on calling Otis to fix the passenger lift for misuse, which is not covered in the maintanence agreement is less money to fix other problems. However, not for one minute are ALL passenger lift breakdowns down to this so just keep it in mind and be vigilant.

.....QM2 - Liverpool Visit - Poor View from building?

Whilst the visit yesterday of the QM2 (Queen Mary 2) was a delight for the city, and crowds into the thousands, for those living in Alexandra Tower, Princes Dock, the view from the apartments was not quite the 'river view' we have been expecting of a 'prestigious' building on the waterfront.

Since the building was occupied circa Sep 2008, it may come as a surprise to many, (not the residents however) that the featured, floor to ceiling windows have not once been cleaned. The net results is that, those with river views from the end of the building opposite to the car par, and directly facing the river, a build up of sand, and dirt has collected, thereby obscuring the view, which for many, was one of the main reasons for moving into the building.

The hoist that operates the window cleaning mechanism is German made and as such, needs work doing to it to make it operable and safe for cleaners to use. Then, a cleaning company need to be appointed, and have staff adequately trained to in health and safety and to use the hoist.

The cost of this has been estimated at up to £15,000 and between the building management company (Thompson and Moulton), the receivers, and the bank(Barclays), this is not deemed to be high on their agenda.