property management

beaufoy

I own student apartments which are run by somewhat dodgy people. Said people charge me between 1,700 and 3,200 per apartment dependent on its location. Last year the kitchen ceiling collapsed and the management admitted the collapse was caused by a leak in the roof, which they claimed to have fixed. They admitted the leak in the roof caused the kitchen ceiling to become water logged and collapse, but they stated that i should pay for the repair to the ceiling, because it is internal. After arguments and threats of court action the management agreed to pay for the repair of my ceiling.
This year we have a similar problem. The ceiling fan in the bathroom sometimes drips and sometimes pours out water. I reported the fault and someone came round took some silicon paste into the loft and then came down and said he had fixed the leak. To a certain degree he had fixed the leak because it leaks less, but the ceiling started showing dampness stains near to the fan. I went to the office and told them, and asked what had the repair man done with the silicon paste. I was told he did nothing his report showed it was the fan at fault ie the fan was/is too weak it pulls the steam up a little bit said steam turns into water an returns via the electric fan. I told the office people they were talking rubbish, but they insisted that if I have the fan replaced it will fix the leak.
I paid for a tradesman to come round and examine the problem. He said the fan and surrounding area was flooded with water, and because the fan had been sealed/glued with silicon, and the screws were in operative he had to push the fan out to release water which if left would do further/possibly dangerous damage. He told me apart from the botched job of the fan attachment to the ceiling the fan worked perfectly. He suspected the water was coming from the exhaust on the roof but could not find said leak without climbing on the roof which he was unwilling to do.
I reported the above to the office and they said my tradesman was talking rubbish the fault was and still is the fan. At this point I threatened to cancel my DD payments to the management. Pay a third party to find and repair the leak and then calculate what was left over and pay that to the management company. suddenly management decided they would re-examine the problem. They admitted they were wrong about the fan, but they were unsure where the leak was coming from. They said they would repair the leak but would not repair the damage caused by the leak. This was 3 weeks ago the leak still has not been repaired.
Despite not being repaired there is no leaking water. I asked my tradesman if he thinks by way of accident he might have fixed the leak. He said no the leak has not been repaired, the water instead has probably found another area to rest where it is probably causing damage.


Now to another one of my apartments where students live. The students did not report this problem, instead I saw the damage on one of my inspections. In a bedroom and bathroom there is green mould and they are using damp catchers. There was also a smell problem coming from the toilet/sink in the mouldy bathroom My tenants and me agreed the dampness is being caused by structural/external problems and that there seems to be a problem with the drains so there was nothing i could do. I reported the matter to management, who did not visit. Hence I told the students to report the matter. It seems the management visited the apartment, and told the students the dampness and smell problem was their fault. They told the students to put copious amounts of bleach into the toilet and leave the bathroom fan on constantly. The students told me after following said instructions the smell problem was all but gone. I suggested that the problem/smell is probably coming from blocked dirty drains below their apartment and the bleach is just covering up the smell rather than repairing it. Concerning the dampness the management told the students it was their fault they should heat and ventilate more
I told the students that mould caused by internal dampness is usually black and spread out more, but their mould is local and concentrated. I also asked how much they spent on electric , and they told me more than 20euro for a four/five day week. I was also told by one of the students that when she was in the first year she had a damp problem when she rented directly from management. Management told her to heat and ventilate more and she did so, but it got worse. She called management again and again they told her to heat and ventilate more. She got very sick because of the dampness so she called the management again and at last they investigated. The problem was caused by the heater which the management were telling her to use more.
I have owned my apartments for four years, and the management have done some dodgy dealing during said time. Including charging for work not done, and reducing my income on grounds that one of my apartments was empty, when in fact it was full. They probably did other fiddles which I did not prove were done, but I caught them on the above two and received some compensation. After catching them at least twice I thought they would not dare to do anymore dirty tricks in order to save the embarrassment of being caught again. However, the management are like shop lifters who get caught and even after being caught twice stealing from the same shop go back and steal again