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I live in an old, thin, rickety apartment building. There is a large breaker box/cabinet outside and directly underneath my living room window. I sleep in the living room and I work just a few feet away, next to the window.
Over the years, the handles or whatever kept the doors to the box closed have been removed or have come loose. The doors on the box now pop open on their own and constantly swing back and forth into each other, crashing into the box, rattling my windows and wall, and scaring me half to death every time they crash. They even crash at night and wake me up.
The most recent management couple (who just moved out) did not seem to care that I was being disturbed. I spoke to them in person, and I even typed up a letter that they ignored. I asked them if they could install new handles or some sort of latch on the doors. They ignored me. I have no clue if they ever spoke to their PM company about it. So I would go out every night and shove something in the doors -- like a folded up paper towel dispenser -- to keep the doors in place so I could sleep through the night.
A new onsite manager just moved in a week or two ago, and she works for the same PM company that the most recent managers worked for. When a maintenance worker of some sort was on the property the other day, he removed the contraption I had in place to keep the doors shut (I don't think he realized why it was there), and now they are swinging back and forth and crashing again. I can't take it -- and I don't know who else would be able to. No tenants would like this noise.
It seems like such an easy thing to fix, and yet the last managers did nothing. Is that something that building managers or PM companies should fix?
Keep calling and pestering them. If they ignore you send a letter through registered mail explaining the problem and outline a deadline and if the issue isn't fixed that you're going to vacate the property.
I live in an old, thin, rickety apartment building. There is a large breaker box/cabinet outside and directly underneath my living room window. I sleep in the living room and i work just a few feet away, next to the window.
Over the years, the handles or whatever kept the doors to the box closed have been removed or have come loose. The doors on the box now pop open on their own and constantly swing back and forth into each other, crashing into the box, rattling my windows and wall, and scaring me half to death every time they crash. They even crash at night and wake me up.
The most recent management couple (who just moved out) did not seem to care that i was being disturbed. I spoke to them in person, and i even typed up a letter that they ignored. I asked them if they could install new handles or some sort of latch on the doors. They ignored me. I have no clue if they ever spoke to their pm company about it. So i would go out every night and shove something in the doors -- like a folded up paper towel dispenser -- to keep the doors in place so i could sleep through the night.
A new onsite manager just moved in a week or two ago, and she works for the same pm company that the most recent managers worked for. When a maintenance worker of some sort was on the property the other day, he removed the contraption i had in place to keep the doors shut (i don't think he realized why it was there), and now they are swinging back and forth and crashing again. I can't take it -- and i don't know who else would be able to. No tenants would like this noise.
It seems like such an easy thing to fix, and yet the last managers did nothing. Is that something that building managers or pm companies should fix?
Exactly what is this "breaker box" you are talking about? How big is it exactly and what is inside the cabinet/box?
I don't look in the box. I haven't measured the box. It's big. It's an old box/cabinet, made out of wood, I think -- and there is a box on each side of the building, but the one outside my window is the one with the doors that won't stay shut. The previous managers -- not the ones who just moved out last month, but the ones prior to them -- referred to the box as a breaker box. It has something like 4 or 5 doors on it, but 2 of them are the ones with the broken off handles or no locks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ddrhazy
Keep calling and pestering them. If they ignore you send a letter through registered mail explaining the problem and outline a deadline and if the issue isn't fixed that you're going to vacate the property.
I never called. The onsite managers (all of them who have been here since I moved in almost 20 years ago) live on the property, so I just talked to them in person or left them letters or notes. The first 2 sets of managers always made sure to keep the doors on the box closed -- I didn't even have to ask twice -- and, in fact, I think that one of them even put a lock and a handle/latch on one of the doors, which then later broke off over the years.
The most recent managers (couple #3, who just left) worked for a property management company, so there was always a lot of uncertainty about whether or not certain things were not being fixed due to the final word from the PM company, or due to the managers themselves. I not only spoke to them in person multiple times about the swinging doors, but I also typed up a detailed letter, explaining again exactly what was happening and asking for them to screw on a simple handle or latch to keep the doors in place. They totally ignored the letter, which is when I decided that I was just going to keep going outside every night and making sure the doors stayed closed.
The current manager (who works for the same PM company) just got here about one or two weeks ago, and I think is still getting settled in. I have not yet talked to her. It was a couple of days ago that a maintenance person removed the little gizmo that I had in place to hold one of the doors shut, but I don't think he realized why it was there and I didn't know that he had removed it until later that night when I went down there to close the doors again.
I am in no position to vacate the property. I cannot move. So I wouldn't threaten that. I'm a month-to-month tenant (I've lived here almost 20 years) and, because of it, I don't want to do anything to be a problem tenant. I just need to know if someone is going to attach simple handles on the doors, or if I am going to have to keep going downstairs to shove folded up paper towel rolls in the doors to hold them shut overnight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katie1
IF its Electrical Call the Electric Co
From what I understand -- and I have not looked inside the box/cabinet -- one part of it, at the very end, is the section that the electric company has to access to read the meter (or whatever they do) every other month. The rest of the box is not supposed to be anything that the electric company needs, and it is rarely ever intentionally opened. So it is the door to that part of the cabinet that comes loose, as well as the door next to it -- in a part of the cabinet they don't use -- that comes loose.
The previous managers (who just left) went so far as to even paint this box/cabinet, so I am inclined to think that they could have installed a simple handle to keep it shut without locking it if they wanted to.
Another point of interest is that, in 2010 and 2011, I found random guys outside my window at night, trying to get into whatever was in the box (the section of it that the electric company accesses). There had been a wave of car thefts and break-ins in security apartment buildings in the neighborhood at that time, and my hunch is that the guys I saw were trying to somehow figure out how to disarm the garage door, or somehow get into the building, or do something nefarious. I was very startled and uneasy after seeing people outside my window at at all hours of the night, and so the managers who were here at that time told the building owner about it and it was agreed and reiterated by all that the doors on this box had to stay shut.
So, not only is the noise bothering me when the doors keep slamming shut, but when the doors are wide open it seems like an open invitation for anyone passing by to walk up and try to break into something or cause trouble.
Lol. I kinda thought so! I don't know much about the ins and outs of what apartment managers and PM companies are supposed to fix, but I know that the managers who used to be here -- the ones who were not working for a PM company -- were much more concerned about fixing certain things and making sure the tenants were content. The managers that later came along with the PM company were not the same. Now they, too, are gone and I have yet to really talk to the brand new manager onsite.
I would get duct tape and take it shut if I were you. It isn't likely something that you can force them to fix but you can mention it again and see what happens.
Or you could tell them you're afraid of rain getting into the electrical box, if that's true - that may get them to fix it.
But, really, it sounds like it would be simplest for you to just screw on some kind of latch.
My apartment door rattles terribly when the weather outside is windy. The wind comes down the hall outside my apartment. Rather than complain, I just wedge a door stopper in my door jam.
Sometimes it's just easier to fix things yourself, if it's something simple.
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