In The Offing

In April 2009 our co-op was semi-taken over by three outside Board members to stave off bankruptcy. Two members from our membership were elected as well, but the real power lay in the hands of one of the outside Board members. In 2010 one of these Board members was replaced by a co-op resident. This year one more Director from the co-op will be elected - the election should be held in June.

Committees have been stayed during these past two years. Our only mode of communication has been through the Office Co-ordinator and therein lies the problem. Members are bewildered - how come they can't get through to her? They try by phone - the voice mailbox is either full or the phone is on FAX. They drop off notes in the office mailbox, but they never hear back. They go to the Office - she's never there. Members are left in the lurch dealing with leaking basements on their own and repairs that never get done.

Favoured members get new windows and flooring - no protocol is required. As I've been posting on this blog, we have been submitting the same work orders from the day we first moved into this unit seven months ago, including the need for a new front screen door. Our neighour just got his screen door replaced - the Office Co-ordinator won't even acknowledge receipt of our work orders.

Members have nowhere to turn - no one can get past the Office Co-ordinator. Will things change with the upcoming election? The Old Guard seems to be rallying for re-election and they were very tight with the Office Co-ordinator. Maintenance perks work well.

One Good Thing Leads to Another?

The flooring contractor and his assistant came by yesterday and glued the seams down in our kitchen/hallway linoleum. They also injected glue into many air pockets, then rollered them flat. They were very conscientious in their work and I am pleased with the result.

I tried for seven months to get this work order done. It is not the fault of the contractor - the responsibility belongs solely to the Office Co-ordinator. And now for ALL the other outstanding work orders?

Persistence

Fix This!

Emails to Office Co-ordinator:

Hi ____ - In October, 2010 and on January 26, 2011, I sent you the following email. Next week please have the linoleum contractor come by our house to fix the multiple air pockets in the linoleum and to glue the seams down.

None of the below listed work orders have been done. Please have [maintenance man] drop by our unit next week.

Also, the basement floor is further corroding because the cracks weren't attended to. [Maintenance man] had merely painted over the efflorescence, which is now pushing up all over the basement. The repair costs to this basement will be significant.

*****

Hi ____ - Here's an email I sent you on October 20, 2010. We never received a response from you.

The kitchen linoleum has huge air pockets and the seams are not glued down. In October I tracked down the flooring contractor and he came to see our unit. He said that when he installed the flooring, the temperature in the unit in January was too low for the glue to adhere. He said he would come back the following week to repair the floor. [Maintenance man] also saw the floor about three times and said that he'd bring the contractor in. No one has been by to repair same. I've used packing tape to tape down the seams to prevent the linoleum was ripping further and also because it's a very dangerous situation for [husband] with his poor eyesight.

We need new weatherstripping on the front door. It is old, dirty, tattered and torn. The front door jam is smashed in. There must have been an attempted break in at one time. [Maintenance man] said that he'd come by and fix that. He never showed up. I'm attaching a photo of the door frame again.

We had to put plastic up over the living room window to try to warm up the place. The back door though has proven to be next to impossible to fix. We bought new weatherstripping - that didn't work. We had to duct tape the bottom of the door where cold air was pouring in and we had to stuff plastic bags in between the door and the frame to try to prevent cold air from pouring in there.

We bought a new sliding door track for the upper bathroom to replace the rusty, disgusting, filthy track left in place in this unit.

Please have [maintenance man] come by to do these work orders.

Thank you.

*****

Hi __ - Here is a list of deficiencies we have encountered in Unit __. We are still very concerned about the basement leaks documented in photos we took prior to the basement floor being painted.

Humidity

• The unit is extremely humid at all times. Humidity in our son's room reads 88%. His window is dripping with moisture on the inside. He has developed pneumonia. We are monitoring and recording humidity levels throughout the house. Humidity in homes should be between 30 - 50%. Ours is constantly at 80% and over. This is absolutely unacceptable and is proving to be a health hazard.

Front Steps

• [Maintenance man] made a wooden temporary step. He will fill in space under precast cement stairs and improve on wooden step.
• Need safety handrail installed.
  

Dryer Vent

• Crushed/bent - new one required to allow for efficient drying.

Screen Door

• Needs replacing - bottom panel kicked in exposing sharp edges and open to the elements. Hydraulic closure broken.
  

Door Lock, Frame & Weatherstripping

• Door lock almost impossible to open. {Maintenance man] will give us the locks from Unit __. Door frame severely damaged - lock on frame pushed in - mangled. Weatherstripping needs replacing - ripped.
  

Kitchen/Hallway/Powder Room

• New linoleum has air pockets all over. Seam lifting - have placed a box over part of it. [Maintenance man] must call contractor.
  
• Need new sink strainers - both were broken. Ones from Unit __ don't fit.
• There are long plastic toilet paper holders (?) in each washroom which we'd like [maintenance man] to remove. They are eyesores. We would also like the walls touched up where they were mounted.
  

Sump Pump

• The sump pump was on when we first entered the unit and it didn't turn off for over a week. A sump is supposed to turn on and off - not to run continuously at full tilt. This will cost us hundreds of dollars a month to maintain. The sump is so noisy that one wouldn't be able to listen to TV upstairs in the living room or enjoy peace and quiet. The noise would also interfere with one's ability to sleep.

Sewer Maintenance

• Basement intermittently smells of sewer gases. The sewer lines need to be cleaned from inside the units out to _____. Failure to maintain regular maintenance on the sewers will result in sewer back ups and damage to the units, personal property, as well as health and safety concerns. The co-op must provide us with a basement floor drain back up valve.
  

Basement Top Landing

• Detached from basement supports - big gap - can see directly into basement - also slants in corner. Dangerous!

Basement Door Warped

• Had to struggle to open door. Getting better now that heat is on.

Basement Window Safety Bars

• We would like [maintenance man] to remove old padlock on window bars.
  

Thanks a lot.

*****

It irks me to see the maintenance man casually going into a Board Member's unit with four cups of Tim Horton's coffee and over a period of a day replacing her patio door, whilst I, and others, can't get any work done whatsoever in our units.

Trailers, Tires & Trash

A few weeks ago I wrote an email to the Office Co-ordinator with the above heading. I said that it was time we dealt with the large wooden trailer in a member's driveway. I described it as 'dripping with garbage' and that it was by far the worst eyesore in the co-op. The Office Co-ordinator asked if she could forward my letter to the member in question. I said sure - for the member to clean it up for the betterment of the co-op. The trailer isn't there anymore; I wasn't the only one who had complained about this problem.

Other members have been busy raking up leaves and picking up garbage. Parts of the co-op are looking a whole lot better.

April and May are very busy months in our home with birthdays and all.

It is very pleasant for Spring to have arrived at last.

This just in: The trailer has found a new home- in the parking area near the back row of the co-op. Better, but quite out of sight!