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.
Thursday 19 November 2009
Wednesday 18 November 2009
.....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!
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.
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.
Saturday 14 November 2009
.....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.
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.
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.
Friday 6 November 2009
.....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.
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.
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