Lights in apartment complex

vamos!

I rent in an apartment complex and in the past year all of the lights in the outside areas and underground carpark have gone. Ony a few work in the stairwells and hallways. My landlord says he has contacted management company. Is there anything that can or should be done? I have started parking outside insead of in the underground carpark because that's really dark at the best of times but pitch black at night. It's not nice to walk anywhere near the apartments at night because they are so dark.

djimi

Keep at your landlord to keep putting pressure on the management company, but my guess would be there is a dispute with the management agent and nobody is looking after the place. I could be wrong in saying this but I dont believe that the landlord has any obligation with regards the upkeep of the complex.

vamos!

Thanks. Landlord is nice and the actual apartment is fine. I just don't feel 100% safe in the evenings when I am walking to the complex. Will ask him to keep pressure on. He owns a few of the apartments so I might ask the other tenants to do the same.

The_Conductor

Perhaps getting all the residents to petition their landlords may have an effect- one landlord is only one voice, one vote, in the management company- irrespective of how many apartments he or she owns.

Paulw

It may be due to a fault that is hard to find and fix. We have one in our lighting system. The original cables for all lights is where you can't get near it. There is a fault in the cable, causing the lights to trip and go out. Resetting the trip switch can resolve it for a while, but sometimes it just goes again.

We have quotes to replace the cables, which is very expensive, so for now, we just live with it.

It can take time from the tenant calling the landlord, landlord calling the management agent, agent calling the contractor, contractor getting to site .... etc, and can depend on the level of service contract that is with the electrical contractor (24hr service, next day service, business day only service, etc).

All you can do is continue to chase your landlord.

Santa Cruz

The management company have a legal liability to maintain a safe common area. If a person falls and gets injured in the common area due to lack of lighting the liability will rest with the management company.
There may be a contact number/e mail address for the management company on a notice board.
If so send off an email explaining the problem, asking them to acknowledge and outline the insurance liability.
Of course keep pressure on landlord as well. You have paid your rent on an agreement that certain facilities are available to you. Access to the car park is one of them,

djimi

Santa Cruz wrote: »

The management company have a legal liability to maintain a safe common area. If a person falls and gets injured in the common area due to lack of lighting the liability will rest with the management company.
There may be a contact number/e mail address for the management company on a notice board.
If so send off an email explaining the problem, asking them to acknowledge and outline the insurance liability.
Of course keep pressure on landlord as well. You have paid your rent on an agreement that certain facilities are available to you. Access to the car park is one of them,

The management company has no obligation to deal with a tenant directly. I ring our management agent from time to time for small issues (ie if the gate stops working then its quicker for me to call them directly and they dont seem to mind dealing with me), but for if you are going to start asking for things like ouline of the insurance liablilty then expect to be told to piss off and go through your landlord.

P. Breathnach

It is a possibility that the management company does not have the funds to cover even routine maintenance. It seems that owners of BTLs are more likely to be in arrears with their management charges than are owner-occupiers, so if a lot of the properties in your complex are BTLs that might be the explanation. The landlord that you describe as nice might even be part of the problem.

Valentine1

Not a good sign that minor maintenance is not being carried out, could easily mean that the Management Company are bust and have stopped paying the management agents who do the actual day to day running of the complex. Call the management agents (their number should be posted in the common areas of the complex) to report the issue and ask why the it has have not been fixed. You should be able to find out pretty quickly what the problem is.

Santa Cruz

djimi wrote: »

The management company has no obligation to deal with a tenant directly. I ring our management agent from time to time for small issues (ie if the gate stops working then its quicker for me to call them directly and they dont seem to mind dealing with me), but for if you are going to start asking for things like ouline of the insurance liablilty then expect to be told to piss off and go through your landlord.

And what would be the harm in ringing anyway?
It might get them thinking about their responsibilities especially if a tenant has said that he is keeping a record of the faulty lighting, dates he notified the management company etc.

djimi

No harm in ringing and reporting the problem, but if you start emailing looking for insurance details etc expect to be told to piss off.

Ultimately you are better off putting your effort into keeping on the landlords case, as they are the ones who have the power to influence the management company/agent, not you.

listermint

djimi wrote: »

No harm in ringing and reporting the problem, but if you start emailing looking for insurance details etc expect to be told to piss off.

Ultimately you are better off putting your effort into keeping on the landlords case, as they are the ones who have the power to influence the management company/agent, not you.

I strongly disagree, having dealt intrusively with the Management Agent, Letting agent and their legal advisors in the past in terms of getting the complex upgraded to UPC services. I never personally felt excluded or intrusive in my efforts.

I succeeded in completing this btw and i am not an owner occupier merely a tenant.

Why should anyone expect to 'be told to piss off'


Utter unprofessional and they'd be getting an earful off me if that happened.

minotour

Agree on chasing management company.

As an interesting aside, all the street lamps in my complex were stolen recently. Im talking about the actual lamps on top of the posts, very professional job, didn't appear on any of the cameras and no one noticed for ages as it was late summer.

Management company had them all replaced within a couple of weeks albeit with an inferior lamp but less likely to be nicked.

Valentine1

listermint wrote: »

I strongly disagree, having dealt intrusively with the Management Agent, Letting agent and their legal advisors in the past in terms of getting the complex upgraded to UPC services. I never personally felt excluded or intrusive in my efforts.

I succeeded in completing this btw and i am not an owner occupier merely a tenant.

Why should anyone expect to 'be told to piss off'


Utter unprofessional and they'd be getting an earful off me if that happened.

You wouldn't be told to piss off by the Management Agent but as insurance policy, accounts etc is part of the MUD information pack they usually charge a fee for it, sometimes up to €250.

For some matters agents will not deal with Tenants only Owners as it is the owners who are members of the management company not the Tenants.

djimi

listermint wrote: »

Why should anyone expect to 'be told to piss off'

Because the management agent answers to the management company and have no obligation whatsoever to deal directly with tenants renting in the complex. Its one thing dealing with smaller issues, and as you have seen some of them may be willing to deal with tenants on larger issues (presumably with the consent of the management company?), but if you start getting ratty and/or demanding with them then they are fully entitled to cut all contact with you.

I dont mean piss off literally btw; I was a bit blunt there!

listermint

djimi wrote: »

Because the management agent answers to the management company and have no obligation whatsoever to deal directly with tenants renting in the complex. Its one thing dealing with smaller issues, and as you have seen some of them may be willing to deal with tenants on larger issues (presumably with the consent of the management company?), but if you start getting ratty and/or demanding with them then they are fully entitled to cut all contact with you.

I dont mean piss off literally btw; I was a bit blunt there!

To be fair complaining to the management company for lights that have been out months would be my first port of call.

I dont care who you are in the management company but if you aredropping the ball on safety in stairwells and not listening to the landlord id be hounding one of your directors out of it directly.

Too many people happy to let it go until someone gets hurt. Id imagine lighting isnt the sort of issue to sit on your laurels about after weeks in darkness, and we are moving into the winter now with darker evenings.

djimi

Dont get me wrong, if an issue bothered me enough then Id probably be doing the same, but ultimately if they dont want to talk to me then theres not much that I can do; they are not obligated to deal with tenants directly. If they decide to shut up shop then the only course of action is to deal through the landlord.

listermint

djimi wrote: »

Dont get me wrong, if an issue bothered me enough then Id probably be doing the same, but ultimately if they dont want to talk to me then theres not much that I can do; they are not obligated to deal with tenants directly. If they decide to shut up shop then the only course of action is to deal through the landlord.

I get that, but as i said im giving the OP the course of action i would take at this stage in relation to the issue.

vamos!

Thanks for the advice. There doesn't appear to be a number or name of any management company in the communal areas. Have contacted landlord again and said I will be giving my notice if there is no feedback or solution within a month. I am already annoyed about not feeling very safe and it's not even winter yet. I pay rent on time, am tidy and quiet so hopefully that should work. It's not particularly difficult to find rental properties in the area so moving out would be OK. Thanks again