Apartment Management and Electrical Maintenance

LearnerMan1

 

Hi there, some advice would be greatly appreciated regarding how to deal with a few electrical issues that I have in my apartment building.

Firstly, its a relatively new build (+1 year). I own my apartment with fellow co-owners in the other apartments. my intercom buzzer no longer opens the front door down stairs. How can I get this repaired? Is this the builders responsibility or it is the management company? The wiring in the main door has coloured cables coming out and it looks a bit rushed and cable is coming out form the wall.

Secondly, the main issue. Each apartment owner pays quite a hefty annual management fee. The charge for the hallway lighting is quite a lot collectively considering its a few lights that come on for a few seconds when anyway enters and leaves. Originally the cable for the lights was in one of the other apartment meters and they were paying for it. The management company sorted that by pulling the cable out and putting some kind of attachment on it and wrapping the wires in black tape. It doesn't look very secure to me. Also, its not attached to a meter. The management company are simply giving us a “Guesstimate”.I think there should be a meter for the hall lighting it seems logical and standard and also it would give the exact amount of electric used in my opinion.

How can I get them to put a meter box in please?

Is the management company responsible? Or is it the builder?

Hope you can advise

Thanks

liamster

Your block should have a meter for each apartment and a separate  meter for the Landlord, this covers  the likes of hall lighting, any security lighting outside,  emergency lighting, heating etc and produces a separate electricity bill for the landlord however as long as all meters are read and all bills are paid the supplier doe'snt care who pays. re the black tape issue if it doesnt look safe then the management company should be informed and if you think the lighting is not metered then you can report this to NIE as it may be bypassing the meter.
Finally the contract you have on the property should tell you who is responsible for maintainance and who has to pay for what but sometimes you can report problems to these management company's until you are blue in the face and they do nothing.
If they ignore you completely, report them to the local council as landlords have legal responsibilities.
good luck

LearnerMan1

Thank you for all this. I don't have a landlord I have a mortgage and the management company is responsible for maintenance of shared hallway we pay them an annual fee. They sent their electrican to jimmy the meter box you have a fair point, who is paying the electric for the shared lighting if there is no meter? I will email them for some answers.
Thank you 

liamster

You took me up wrong there, The  ( Landlord ) is just the name given to whoever is responsible for the bills for shared areas etc.If you have an apartment block with say six apartments you should have six meters for the apartments and one Landlords supply meter
cheers

LearnerMan1

Yes it makes total sense for there to be a meter for the hall. Thanks for all this much appreciated.

LearnerMan1

06/06/2021 Update

Still no electric meter in the common area! Yet all the flat owners pay the management compnay fees for the common lights year in year out....when I phoned NIE they told me there was an account for the shared area but becuase if wasnt in my name they were'nt able to dicusss. All very strange! Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

liamster

The only way the supplier can charge for the amount of electricity used in the  common areas is if there is a reading ( if it is NIE or another supplier ) it is very unlikely that they are just constantly sending out estimated bills, these bills could be way over the top or the opposite so there has to be a meter somewhere that would give an accurate read.
you say one apartment had a meter for that apartment plus the shared area how do you know it was disconnected, has it been reconnected to another apartment and do you know for sure that there is'nt a meter for each apartment and one for the landlord, haw many apartments are there, have you been in the switchroom and saw tall the meters, im just curious about the set up as if the block is only recently built is would be very unusual to have the common area meter attached to an apartment

missile

Your management contractor is obligated to supply an invoice for any service they provide - on request. If they refuse to provide a copy of the bill from their electricity supplier you can:

• refuse to pay their bill untill they do
• report them to first tier tribunal First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There are different ways to apply in Wales, apply in Scotland and apply in Northern Ireland.