Belvue Apartments Crosslease 93132
Our storage lockers have been in a mess for years. The AGM on 21.11.2005 tried to set up a clean-up campaign encouraging our building manager Katrina James to "sort it out". OCMs on 2.5.2006 and 22.8.2006 dicussed this further and then quieted down. But this year it has been acknowledged that many of the lockers still contained garbage left by tenants who may have moved out more than a decade ago, with no clear and enforcable assignment of lockers to apartments. Catherine Byrne has now taken up the initiative to re-number the lockers sequentially and ensure that each apartment has exactly one locker and all excess garbage is removed.
Len Nola and I (Christoph Paszyna) checked our building for paint damage in September prior to the yearly paint maintenance. I have written up and forwarded a full specification of work that needed to be done to our painting contractor PPS. When PPS started their work, they initially left out the waterblasting of the western building side, because they could not get their cherry-picker truck around the building corner. They then also left the painting work half-completed, telling Katrina's son their job was finished. Neither Katrina, nor Len Nola nor myself were hppy about this. I wrote a letter of complaint and in the end, PPS have apologised for the "misunderstanding", returned to our building and completed their job satisfactorilly.
On 16.05.13, Otis Elevator Company issued a "defect notice" to our crosslease saying that our lift pit is flooded and we need to drain it. They quoted a total price of $1,240.00 Plus GST for the following: "Drain the water from the lift pit and treat the steel work for corrosion if needed. Note: Removal of water from the pit is the Owners responsibility, Otis will be onsite to only to provide access to the Lift Pit for the owners contractor". On 27.05.13, BCA forwarded this quote to the Owners Committee. The committee on that day rejected the quote by majority vote. One representative response was from Warrick Smith saying "we've been down this track previously with these thieving clowns. I'm bemused as to what their $1240 plus GST quote is for exactly, if they will not be doing the work"! Time passed and although initially I did not see any water and supported the majority in rejecting Otis' quote, on 15.08.13 I have noticed about 10-15cm standing water in the lift pit and e-mailed Owners committee members again, suggesting to them that whatever we think about Otis, we cannot ignore the water and therefore should give the go-ahead to pump out the lift pit. Nobody answered my e-mail (remember: I have criticised what I believed to be wrong before and had run into opposition with the rest of the OCM a few times, so some people seem to believe, they can simply ignore me). On 5.09.13, I've addressed the Owners Committee again, saying that we cannot ignore the water, because it's getting close to the electrical power connection to the lift engine. I offered to provide access to the lift pit for the pumping contractor myself. Again, nobody answered my e-mail. On 18.09.13, Alana (BCA) asked the Owners Committee again, supporting my call for action. It took another month until Alana had finally obtained the majority approval from the Owners Committee to proceed with pumping out the lift pit. Finally, on 18. October 13, a drainage contractor arrived to pump out the water. I (Christoph Paszyna) was the one providing access to the lift pit (while our building manager was on sick leave), saving our crosslease $1,240.00+GST to Otis. In the end, it was a simple and straightforward task, finally completed after 5 months unneccessary delays. A positive contribution that even Graham Smith, who in recent times mostly stopped communicating with me, had to acknowledge with a "thanks".