7th Feb 2012 – cars stuck in lift outage, AGAIN

For the residents of Alexandra Tower, Liverpool, this morning was a cold and misty one with fog still hanging over the Mersey and yet if there wasn’t enough to contend with, the ever failing car park lifts at the building both failed, leaving residents unable to get in or out of the car park.

Yet another incidence of residents being denied use of their cars to go to work, take the kids to school or go about their busy lives or self employment!

That the lifts have been failing like this for 3 years doesn’t seem to motivate the buildings’ owners/management to act when two years ago, assurances were given by Zolfo Cooper, that “if need be, the car lift system will be replaced”. Still waiting on that one....

This blog is now getting hundreds of visits per month, and is currently sitting on the first page of Google for all relevant search terms, right along side the very agents that are marketing this property.

Somehow, and despite a legal obligation to inform potential future residents viewing the building, about its problems, who in all honesty thinks that the letting agents are being upfront in their disclosures of information, which would otherwise have a bearing on the decision whether to live here or not?

Its not so easy to ignore Google when it places this blog (written without spin or misrepresentation of facts) alongside the very estate agents websites marketing the property. This building has so much potential to be a prime residence of the Liverpool waterfront, but with the current management, many feel it is destined to become nothing more than waterfront student accommodation and weekend party rentals as many working professionals are leaving the building, never to renew their leases.

*ps nothing against students but this isn’t a halls of residence or party building, hence the recent notice in the lobby from the buildings management, about noise complaints.

Falling Glass from Alexandra Tower Liverpool - update

This was in the press March 10th 2010

The managing agents of the Alexandra Tower building in Princes Parade were last night ordered to undertake the task after a 100kg glass sheet shattered and fell to the ground.

Liverpool Echo story here in full

Now the funny thing is, nearly two years later and the safety scaffolding around the building, preventing more 100kg glass panels hitting the ground with full force is still up and only yesterday, a letter was delievered to all occupants, that the safety inspection (ordered 2 years ago) is now taking place.

If the bulding was safe from more falling glass, then wouldnt it be logical to remove the eye sore that is a ring of scaffolding around the building?

Another question for would be residents is this:

Do you want to live in a building that when 100kg glass panels fall off it, those that manage and own the building have so much respect for the residents, and their safety that after two years, no progress is made?

If the powers that be dont seem to be too bothered to act and reassure residents about 100kg glass panels falling, do you think that they give a damn about smaller issues which dont mean life or death, but whether you enjoy living in the building?

View from Alexandra Tower Liverpool

This is the lovely view from the river facing floor to ceiling windows of Alexandra Tower Liverpool

Great for NOT being able to see the river view you thought you were getting

Alexandra Tower Liverpool / Dec 2011 Car Lift Outage - update

As per the last blog post (Fri 30th December) and for which every resident at Alexandra Tower, Liverpool are all too aware, there was a complete outage to the car park lifts on Friday 30th December, 2011.

It is now Tuesday 3rd of January 2012 and for most people, a day to get the kids back in school, the first day back at work, and the first day back to their own businesses. It is also the 5th day of consecutive outage for the car parks at the building, and denial of use for their cars.

From people wanting to have any sort of private/social/family life over the New Year, to a couple of self employed cabbie’s not able to use their car on New Years (resulting in serious loss of earnings), the loss of use was frustrating, but add now the holiday period is over, the misery is still there and cars remain stuck in the building.

Resolution?
Most residents, including myself have long since given up any hope of either the management company Braemar Estates or the administrators Zolfo Cooper overseeing the building post liquidation dealing with the issue now in its 4th year. Both parties have a stock excuse involving “our hands are tied”. Braemar Estates say they can only do so much and blame Zolfo Cooper saying that Zolfo make the decisions, and Zolfo Cooper in turn blame the banks saying the banks (with Barclays possibly as the largest stakeholder) control the purse strings.

One has to wonder if Braemar Estates mention to Zolfo Cooper that no tenants seem to want to remain past their first 6month lease and if in turn Zolfo Cooper communicates this to Barclays?

Only certain route to resolution?
Perhaps the only way to get the message across is in having potential residents see this blog, and report to the likes of City Residential (the principle agent) that they have no desire to move in with so many high profile issues, and with no resolution in sight?

Who would want to move in knowing what is reported in this blog? I wouldn’t and I live here now, have done for over 3 years, but my resolve is being tested.

It also has to be said that there is no spin or glossing over of detail in the writing of this blog. If you are thinking of moving in, ask the agent about the issues, ask the onsite staff in the office. They may not volunteer the info unless you ask, but if you ask, they cannot lie as to do so is a criminal offence.

Alexandra Tower Liverpool - Dec 2011

As someone who is stubborn and has little other choice but to have lived in this building for the last 3 years, and has a wont be beaten attitude, I would say to others, that unless you have the same attitude, steer clear and live somewhere else.

Below are a list of some of the issues that have been experienced at Alexandra Tower for the last 2-3 years. All without resolution....

Unsafe Building?

A 100kg glass panel fell off the building from one of the top floors in March 2010 narrowly missing a delivery driver near the front entrance (reported here in local news) yet nearly 2 years later, the safety curtain around the building to prevent death to residents and passing public (from further falling glass) is still up. Why is that?

No Maintenance

Despite said glass panel falling off the building nearly two years ago it has yet to be replaced. This is reflective of the care that is taken with the rest of the building, including getting one of the building lifts fixed so it doesn’t get drenched in sewage when it reaches the ground floor. One of the lifts routinely smells of sewage and despite complaints from both residents, visitors, letting agents and staff, the problem and the smell remain.

No Window Cleaning and very little other cleaning

The windows to the building, despite having a winch and cradle on the building roof to do so, haven’t been cleaned once since the building was built. So, that River view you thought you were getting is largely smeared with salt and sand with the winds that the building is exposed to. So when the Queen Mary II or other cruise ships are docked mere feet from the building, you can forget seeing them or taking a photo of them.

This attitude is also applied to the general upkeep to the building. There used to an onsite cleaner but that has been replaced to hovering the communal carpets once a month. So if there is any mess, and sadly some residents have been scumbags or have had scumbag guests who will leave faeces in a lift, or in the fire exit staircase, along with rubbish they can’t be prepared to take down, the problem stays there for days, or weeks through lack of on site cleaner.

Carparks and Cars getting stuck

If you have a car, don’t live here. You will be late for work. If you are self-employed you will miss meetings and upset clients and as a result, you will lose business. Not to mention the extra taxi fares you have to pay out when the car park lifts fail. AND THEY DO FAIL.

This issue with the car parks has been ongoing and without a complete resolution but temporary fix after temporary fix for two years. As I write this blog post both car lifts are out and my car is stuck inside the building.

During this month of December 2011 there has been several outages and approx 4 days of total outage in this month alone. Granted a lot of outages are caused by residents hitting the doors and breaking them but not all outages, and in any case, whatever the reason for the outage, your boss, business customer, children needing picking up from school, dentist or any other thing important in your life wont give a shit about the reason, just that you werent there when you were meant to be!

Residents

By and large, most residents are a nice bunch of people. Working city dwellers and students make up the majority of the building yet earlier this year one major Liverpool letting agent was found out to not be carrying out any checks on the tenants it was putting forward. A practice that had gone on for some time. Therefore, not only were credit checks not being performed or former landlord references being checked, they weren’t even asked for. Surely this is counter productive as by opening your borders to any old person you may well attract some nicer elements of society but chances are you will let in those that will ruin it for everyone else. And this is exactly what happened.

Whether this practice was agreed by, or under the approval / knowledge of the management company (Braemar Estates) or the Receiver’s (Zolfo Cooper) overseeing the building post liquidation of its former owner is anyone’s guess?

When you don’t perform any checks before people move in, and you also allow people to pay cash, apartments get ransacked, drugs gangs etc move in and the building becomes like something out of the Wire. Several police raids have taken place at Alexandra Tower this year.

Outlook?

That not one single issue highlighted to the management company in the last 2-3 years has been effectively tackled or seemingly even attempted to be resolved begs the question as to how long the building owners will allow a revolving door policy to flourish. One where most people don’t renew their leases and owner/landlords are having their investment handled no better than a Nick Lesson hedge fund.

As other new apartments are completed (eg Mann Island) the likes of Alexandra Tower wont be able to compete (it cant now really) and until that day where it cant get any worse, and it does feel like the current powers that be are just letting it run down until that day, then maybe they will act?

Bearing this in mind, ask yourself if this is a building you would like to move into?

I will tell you for certain that if I hadn’t invested my time and money in this building and my business wasn’t in the city, and I was faced with the decision to move into it now, I would stay the hell away.

.....Alexandra Tower - Dont bother moving in

Do you have a car and need to get to work in the morning?
Do you like to use your car to visit friends and family?
Do you use a car and as such care about being able to use it?

If you answered 'YES' to any of the above then Alexandra Tower Liverpool is not the building you should live in.....

Do you want to miss family holidays because you can't use you car and get to the airport on time, as your car is stuck in Alexandra Tower's carpark and the only means to get it out is broken and may be for a few days each month?

Do you want to miss important meetings and lose business because you need you car to travel for work/business but cant because your car is stuck in Alexandra Tower's carpark?

Do you want to have the worry of missing anything important in your life because your car will likely get stuck in Alexandra Tower's carparkwith no means of getting it out?

If you answered NO to any of the above then Alexandra Tower Liverpool is not the building you should live in.....

Granted before December there were a few outages but this month the car lifts have had problems every week and there have been several days of complete outage, and several other days of just one lift working.

It also has to be said that on some days (inc today 30th Dec and 14th ) that the lifts went off more than once in the same day, got fixed, then went off again...

At the time of writting, there is no access to cars parked at Alexandra Tower Liverpool. Cars are blocked inside the building and those arriving home from work have nowhere to park...


What is the Car Park lift/s?
For non residents (perhaps looking at this blog and thinking of moving in?) Alexandra Tower, Liverpool has an adjacent 5 storey car park for some 80 or so residents cars. Whilst a dozen or so spaces are accessed via the road into a ground level car park, the majority have to use the upper floors of which the only access to these floors is via a car lift system.

As with any normal lift in any other building, the principle is exactly the same but the notable exception is that if a lift is broken, people can use the stairs!

At Alexandra Tower Liverpool there are two lifts and since they were installed, they have been besieged with problems, faults and also damage which causes one, or as in most cases, both lifts to fail in quick succession.

Unlike any other lift were people can use the stairs, for obvious reasons no such luck for cars and the net result is that for several instances each month, there is a complete shutdown to the lifts and your car is then trapped inside the car park, or outside on the road. A road which is a private and owned by Peel Ports who have no sympathy for cars parked on said road (fine when lifts are working) and as such are never slow to get out the parking fines/tickets when the lifts are off.

“Surely the lifts are being looked into?” we residents hear people ask….

And the answer is that although the lifts are a well known, well documented fault with many a resident citing it to their letting agents as a direct reason for non renewal and leaving the building, no solution (beyond temp fixes) has ever been, or likely ever will be actioned.

The building has so much potential but there is no movement on any issues which have plagued the building over the last 3 years.

IF YOU HAVE A CAR AND NEED IT, DON’T MOVE IN

.....Residents Forum

Hi All,

Its been some time now since the last management company departed our building and the new management put in place.

I know there are a number of onogoing issues and some new ones have come to light since the New Year so if you want to email any comments rather than post in a public forum, get in touch via this email alexandra @ edibleinternet .co.uk and I we can start a dialogue on the good/bad/ugly comments some of you will no doubt have, and I can put them to the management for a response.....

Cheers

Lee
(Blog Admin)
p.s. the spaces in the email address are to only avoid spam bots!