Answering some questions from Thomas :)
Cos it’s easier sometimes to write a new post.
This follows on from this post about my complaint to BSC Fireprotection
I for one would like to hear their side to this as there is always two sides to everything.
I would love to share that with you, but unfortunately the company doesn’t feel it needs to speak to me – so I cant tell you what they have said, other than what they did bother to say which was a polite version of “Sod Off”. And legally it turns out – BSC actually don’t have to answer to us, no matter how badly they behaved – and they obviously are fully aware of that.
In the complex in which you reside how many units are there and was there any others that had an issue?
There are about 140 units, and I’m not aware of anyone else having an issue. How many occupants need to have had a problem I wonder? Isn’t one enough? Hopefully I was one of the earlier units looked at, and they learned their lesson pdq. Many of the units are empty, as they are still owned by Century City – the developers- and are being used as extra Hotel Rooms for their Grand Mercure hotel which is at the front of the block.
Do you own or lease?
Both as it happens – which I did mention in the original post, and in a few other blogs. This unit, we are renting direct from Century City. We actually own one of the other units and have tenants in there on a fixed term lease till January. We are renting to “Try it out” and decide whether to move into our own unit next year, or whether we would prefer to sell it. We really need to live in the city now, but at heart are both country people, so it was worth renting to see if we could cope with the life of a city dweller.
Have you read the Body corparate small print?
Yes and no. Oddly, we were not given a copy of the Body Corp Rules when we moved in as tenants, which we should have been, but yes, I happen to have a copy of the Body Corp Rules because I’m a Unit Owner. It actually doesn’t make any difference to my rights, or the obligations of the Landlord or Body Corporate.
The web is a very powerful arena for public comment, but is very open to missinterpretation, as a Blogger you should be aware of this.
Yes I am quite well aware of that thank you. It also means that companies like this can no longer hide their shitty attitudes towards people – which is kinda cool.
If you are as you state a property investor, you should be fully aware of the compliances required on an annual basis and interuptions are the joys of living in a complying complex.
If? 
Yes I am thank you. I am also aware of the rights of my own tenants, and thus my own rights as a tenant. I’m also fully aware of what is right and what is wrong, and that if you treat someone the way I was treated – you should apologise at the very very least, and work your butt off to make up for it. What you do not do is ignore the issue, and make damn sure the people complaining then go lawyer up. Which is what we have done. Thats just bad manners, bad business and quite frankly – Stupid.
Our Lawyers inform us that in fact, we now have to make our complaint to the Landlord, and the Body Corporate, as it is their failure to communicate properly with us that lead to this issue. They are the ones that then have the ability to hold BSC to account for failing to behave in a proper or professional manner. So what should have been handled as a simple complaint, is now going to get complicated and cause agro for a lot more people than it actually involved.
We DO have the right to refuse entry unless it is for an emergency, and we have the right to insist that we are given proper notice. As the Body Corp and the Landlords have several methods of contact for us, the fact that they relied on a “Note through the door” (which we didn’t get) really isn’t up to scratch. Interestingly, the Body Corp failed to inform us as Owners of a unit, or the Property Managers that run it for us, so we would have failed in our obligations to inform our own tenants and make sure they were happy with this happening. This is not acceptable. I take my obligations as a landlord very seriously, and I feel awful that our own tenants could be left feeling that we let them down.
All in all – I think this constitutes “a right cock-up”, but its the refusal of BSC to apologise that is resulting in it becoming a legal complaint for everyone.
Century City have been quite lovely and understanding over this as it happens, and will be giving me the extra security in the apartment that we have asked for. I really have no complaint with them over the way they have handled the complaint – and it annoys me that we have to send them a legal letter.
Look forward to seeing your comments as you will post, you can’t resist.
I’m glad to oblige, though I hope you had more in mind when commenting than trying to wind me up – cos that would be just a tad sad. Whether or not I could “resist” is not the issue – you have asked some questions, and it would actually be rude of me to ignore them. I hope I have managed to clear that up for you.
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Related posts:
- Why can’t Kiwi companies ever say “Sorry”?
- Who exactly writes new laws in NZ?
- Moving to the city: not as easy as it sounds.
Comments
One Comment on Answering some questions from Thomas :)
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Avalon on
Sun, 15th Aug 2010 3:48 pm
Just wanted to apologise if anyone got caught reading that without the proper formatting. There was an automatic upgrade to WordPress tis week and it totally destroyed any ability to use the wysiwyg editor.
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