Gangs of young ones

bernyh

We live in an apartment block,

over the past few months there has become an increasing problem with "young ones" hanging around both inside and outside the block. They break in through fire exits or are allowed in by people too meek to question them.

The walls of the block both inside and outside are being destroyed by graffiti, burns on the carpet, evidence of drug use (cannabis), the list goes on, I have personally removed kids every other day for the last 3 or 4 months.

I have lived here for 7 years and don't remember ever having such problems before they built a football pitch outside our apartment about 1.5 years ago. Since then we have "young one's" using our common area as an unnofficial community centre, when its cold or wet.

I went out to the shop tonight and I'm not joking when I say there were at least 50-60 teenagers congregated at the entrance to my building, when I went to close the door one went to hold it open, obviously looking for access to the building to shelter from the cold.

I know that most of the apartmenst are rented so most have no care about how others use the building and will not refuse access so its an unstoppable force if you get my gist, and they are given free reign if none of the owner occupiers hear the noise they make and eject them.

I wondered if there are any laws that can be used in this situation, the apartment building is in bits as it is without this, how can we deal with the antisocial behaviour? I have called the guards and they say that if they are not drinking in a public place we can't do anything about them....

If nothing else the congregation of 50 people outside your home is intimidating.

irlrobins

If they are inside the building they are on private property and therefore trespassing. So call the guards in there instances.

I'd also contact the management company/agent to see if they can installed additional security. And contact your local counciller to see if they can assist in any way.

Maybe installing a few Mosquito's will work?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

the groutch

agree with all the above except the Mosquito.
it would be unfair on the kids of other tenants or some of the few adults who can hear them, and their legality is questionable

conorhal

I think you need to talk to the management company, perhaps there might be an AGM coming up at which you could discuss the issue with other owners? I'm sure that any owner or tenant would be concerned.

The management company clearly need to spend some money to address the issue.
Where I live there were some minor issues, mostly with illegal parking and dumping, but the management is very proactive in the development, so CCTV cameras were installed last year and 24 hour security hired for a limited period of time, just a month of full time security and the deterent of CCTV stopped the issues dead. They may also need to look at the points of access in the building and how they can be secured.

Jehuty42

conorhal wrote: »

I think you need to talk to the management company, perhaps there might be an AGM coming up at which you could discuss the issue with other owners? I'm sure that any owner or tenant would be concerned.

The management company clearly need to spend some money to address the issue.
Where I live there were some minor issues, mostly with illegal parking and dumping, but the management is very proactive in the development, so CCTV cameras were installed last year and 24 hour security hired for a limited period of time, just a month of full time security and the deterent of CCTV stopped the issues dead. They may also need to look at the points of access in the building and how they can be secured.

That sounds pretty amazing, really, where was this that you had such a great managing company?

conorhal

Jehuty42 wrote: »

That sounds pretty amazing, really, where was this that you had such a great managing company?

Bridgewater Quay at Islandbridge. As far as I know the management company is run by the owners of the apartments themselves (having got rid of the builders as the management company). As there's a fair number of owner occupiers things tend to get done a bit more quickly I guess because those in charge are also effected by any problems there.
The place is mostly duplex apartments so you don't get a lot of the issues associated with high density living but access to the car park is only gate controlled at night so there were issues with non resident parking and even people abandoning cars there and dumping rubbish in our bins. At first a security guard was hired from a security firm to deter break-ins and illegal dumping but that was just a short term thing. Eventually monitored CCTV was put in place at several points in the complex. The best deterrent however is actually the gardener that works there a couple of days a week! That bloke sees everything that’s going on and reports on it, there’s just no substitute for a guy like that around the place all day. The management committee also have a good relationship with the local police who do the occasional drive through at night. That said, the place is not without it’s problems, but most of those are associated with tenants, if gangs of kids started hanging out there they would get moved on pretty quickly.
I’d suggest that the OP, who is clearly an owner needs to raise the issue at an AGM for the management company to address the problem. If you had security on the door, doing regular sweeps and questioning folks loitering about I reckon that the anti social element would soon move on. It might also help to contact the people that run the football field and the counsel and request that they ask the kids not hang out in the building and suggest perhaps that a clubhouse needs to be constructed on the grounds to give kids going there somewhere to shelter.

snickerpuss

irlrobins wrote: »

Maybe installing a few Mosquito's will work?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

OP, please don't even consider this. I'm 25, live in apartment block and can hear these horrible things perfectly. Irritating other people who live there with new sounds hardly helps. I agree with calling the Gardai as they are technically trespassing. Keep pressing the management company too. I sympathise, it's a terrible situation.

djimi

My old apartment building used to have this problem a lot with kids coming into the building and wrecking the place. One night they set off all the fire extinguishers in the building in an elevator so the guards were called and from then on any time kids were seen in the building the guards kept getting phone call. They are breaking the law by tresspassing.

Tbh our problem was with the management company; there was a problem with the front door that meant they could get in a lot of the time by just messing with the lock. They were less than useless in trying to fix the problem and really didnt care when we told them about what had been going on. I moved out of the place before it got sorted but I gather the problem went away when a proper management company took over, fixed the door and increased security on the building.