No two days are the same at ACE Property Management, this is
an aspect of my job that I particularly enjoy. You never know what is going to
come through the office door or who may call, the only thing I can guarantee is
that things do go wrong and our 24-7 repairs team can be kept busy. As a landlord myself I regularly come across
tenant complaints or repair issues that not only make me laugh but they make me
wonder how these people make it through day to day life unscathed.
It is not my intention to annoy, anger or embarrass anyone
but if you can relate to any one of the following scenarios you should probably
be wearing a helmet to bed!
Light Bulbs
Now, when I was growing up I was taught from an early age
how to change a light bulb. I used to love being allowed to get the big ladders
out the cupboard and set about replacing a light bulb without trying to
electrocute myself, under the watchful eye of dad. This sort of life training
was clearly not a right of passage in a lot of family homes.
In comes the call;
“My bedroom lights not working, can you send somebody to fix
it please?!”
“Ok, have you changed the bulb or checked that none of the
fuses have tripped?”
Silence...now don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of
tenants are on the ball and wouldn’t bother with such a call. However, there
are a few simple creatures out there that don’t have a clue. After a tenant
passes the change the bulb and fuses questions we will usually send out an
electrician to check the problem. Now Davie the spark knows the score. If the
call out was a waste of time, i.e. the tenant could have fixed the issue
themselves, Davie will decide whether to
charge the tenant for time wasting or leave with a stern word, lesson learnt. I
have had reports of a screw bulb jammed into a bayonet fitting and the tenant
showing Davie that the bulb won’t work when they flip the switch. True story!
Mice
“Hi, is that ACE Property? There was a mouse in my flat last
night. Can you send someone to remove it?” I have to fight the urge to ask them
if the mouse is paying rent and has it signed the lease?
Tenament living in Edinburgh can sometimes have its
downfalls from noisy neighbours to broken entry phone systems. Most tenants understand
that some problems may take a while to fix and are happy to hold out. However,
when danger mouse turns up (minus the eye patch and red jumper) it is a different story altogether. Mice
unfortunately are quite common in tenement buildings and most landlords are
willing to instruct Davie from pest control to rectify the problem so long as
the property is clean and tidy and the tenants are not contributing to the
problem. Some tenants think that the world is going to end if a pest control
man is not in their flat, dressed in full camouflage gear with a flame thrower
5 minutes after their call. You’d be amazed how many properties I inspect with
a reported mice problem and the property looks like Slimer from Ghostbusters
has had his lunch in every room. Some people don’t understand that they are the
reason mice pay them a visit and that leaving food on kitchen counters and
floors is basically inviting them in. Believe me, tenants do not like being
told they are the cause of the problem!
I have pulled a dead
rat out of a toilet by the tail before. The tenant called to say that the
toilet was blocked by a massive rat. I had to see this for myself, so I popped
round. Turns out the tenants pet rat had died and she tried to flush it. She,
naturally denied this but had stupidly put the old cage out by the wheelie bin
where poor Roland was laid to rest. To this day she insists it had crawled up
the toilet and drowned, wow.
Buzzers
A call came in once that a tenant had someone at the door continually
pressing the buzzer and they wouldn’t leave. The flat was a short walk from the
office so I wandered round to see who was at the door and what was going on. It
turns out that someone had hit the buzzer and the button was now stuck. Hardly
a nutcase at the door, simply a lazy tenant not willing to walk downstairs and
check what was going on. I released the button and returned to the office to
find the tenant had called to say the buzzer had stopped and the person had
gone away.
I have many more stories including a Chinese lady running a
fast food business from her flat in Western Harbour. That was an interesting
inspection!
There was also a late night call out from a tenant with
smoke alarms going off. I arrived at the property and the tenant is puffing away
on a cigarette in front of me wondering why the alarm is sounding. “I thought
it was just for fires!” Unbelieveable!
It's 22:50 on Sunday and I’m calling it a night. Spain have
just destroyed Italy in the Euro Final and I’m looking forward to hearing in
the news tomorrow about what kind of firework display Balotelli puts on in his
hotel room tonight..
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