Monday, August 14, 2006

The Neighbors

So my condo building's property manager sent the following email today...

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I received the note below and am concerned about the extent of the damage. Wendy are you still on site to keep track of this stuff? I am just back from vacation so have not had a chance to investigate. this sounds pretty serious.

kathleen
I am not sure what the protocol is for remodeling, but I feel that a unit is not being very considerate. I am not sure what the unit # is, it is directly off of the elevator on the 3rd floor, it has a door mat in front of the door. The reason I am emailing is that all week there has been a considerable mess from Post Alley, in the elevators, to the unit. Who ever is doing the remodel has left debris, quite a large amount, all the way up. They have broke a light bulb in the elevator, they are not using the pads, so they have damaged the elevators, especially #1, pretty extensively. One of the panels is coming off of the wall as well as a huge chunk of the finish is torn off, they have scratched the ceiling, walls, etc.. . I normally would not complain but this is pretty extreme. The cleaning company was here the one day, they had just completed cleaning the elevators, vacuuming, and within 30 minutes the place was filthy again. I as a home owner do not want to pay for the damage they are doing and I feel they could at least vacuum and clean up after themselves in the public areas.
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I don't know what it is with my neighbors. If someone is remodeling, there will be some dust and debris tracked into the hallway. Last week I went over one evening and saw that there was a few scraps of debris and I picked them up and threw them away. When I went back over the weekend, the hallway was pretty clean. I went into the garage and elevators and things looked OK to me as of this morning, so I was floored to get this email.

Well, when I went to the building and things looked mostly OK to me. I agree that there is some damage to one of the panels in the elevator, and I'm following up on the issue with my contractor. But for the love of GOD (!!) there's no other apparent damage. Oh, except that I forgot: one light bulb is burned out of the elevator... Um, hello!! The friggin' lightbulbs are burning out all the time even when there isn't any work being done in the building!! So I seriously doubt that my contractors caused that. And many of the scratches were already there (as documented in an email I sent to Kathleen last week) before the crew started work. I called the property manager and she had me talk to her husband Thor, who had already been over to check things out. Thor said that all he observed were some scratches in the elevator that looked like they could be buffed out... his overall impression was that there wasn't anything to be too concerned about.

I'm just like: WHAT IS IT WITH MY FREAKIN' ANAL RETENTIVE NEIGHBORS??!!

I appreciate being concerned about the condition of the building, but they have to be reasonable. Anyways, after talking with the condo manager over the phone, I sent the following to Kathleen and the board to document everything...

Hello Kathleen, et. al.:

FYI, I have called my contractors to inquire about the damage to Elevator #1. I did see the loosened panel when I went to the building this afternoon and will check with the contractor to see if he can/will confirm that his crew caused the damage. I will reiterate the need to keep things clean, but as I confirmed with Thor over the phone this evening, there did not appear to be any damage other than to the elevator.

I also located the elevator pads, but I left them in the janitorial closet since my understanding is that someone is moving in tomorrow and will need to use them. I will also call the contractors and make sure they know where the pads are in case the pads aren't up and they need to move anything in or out of the unit using the elevators.

Please also feel free to call me if there is a noticeable amount of debris/dust in the hallways or other concerns. I am not on site, so I don't know how things are on a daily basis, but I am of course willing to come down a few times a week to vacuum the hallway in the evenings.

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