Life in a leaky condo
You’ve seen them all over Vancouver, from green mesh covered buildings in fairview to plastic shrouded condo towers downtown. But what’s it like to actually live in leaky condo thats being repaired?
A renter in Yaletown has started blogging about life in the green mesh: The Leaky Condo Chronicles is an interesting read about the inconvenience and frustration of living in an active repair zone:
Buzzing, vibrating, grinding noise jolted me awake at 8 AM. It’s really too bad that earplugs can’t block out the vibrations — they’re worse than the noise…
I think today is worse than ever before. They’re grinding down the concrete of the balcony right next door to us.
Mondays tend to be particularly bad anyway, probably because weekends are so nice and quiet, but I do think it’s true — it can’t get any worse than this — can it? Can it?
I need to run away.
You can find more misery at leakycondolife.blogspot.com
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September 10th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
September 10th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
And the owner had to pay at least $118,000 for repairs? That sucks. It’s going to take a while to recoup that in rent.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Oh oh! I know! I know! completely awful.
Do I win a prize?
September 10th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
But me, I would just take my lumps and get out of their with my sanity; thanking heavens that I’ll I’m losing is my security deposit and not 118K for repairs.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
An increase of 182! We haven’t seen days like that since July. If this keeps up we’ll rocket past the 20,000 ceiling in no time!
For those who don’t know I’m talking about Paul’s numbers.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Only crying bear can buy those fake numbers.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
More like never, if the owner had purchased the condo new (1994, near the top of the market), or at any time since 2003 or so.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
“your property is worth what your neighbour sold for…not what it used to be worth or what you think its worth.”
Imagine a seller donate his property for free or for $5.00 may be looks funny but learn some math buddy first you had compare rent for condo to a house now you are making a fall because a neighbour decide to sell his property on low prices a “smart buyer” will be partying whole year,it does not bring the market price down unless multiple unit in that area get sold for low prices.
Go buy leaky condo and become rich because if you can manage your girl friend it’s easy to manage leaky condo,most of condo leak once or twice per their life term.“If you had miss the boat then buy leaky condo and enjoy your life.”-Canadian Idle.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
September 10th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
September 10th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Most the people I meet that live in condos have been through some sort of issue/assessment. All of them are very irritable, angry and frustrated. I don’t know how people do it. How they pay hundreds in strata fees per month just to deal with useless strata councils every day and still maintain their sanity? Vansanity, indeed.
September 10th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I think the tenant DOES have the right to break the lease.
All tenants have the right to peaceful enjoyment of the premises.
The daily construction noise and not to mention the construction workers actually coming into the suite.
These already violate a tenant’s rights.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Just not feeling his pain here.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Now my rental building is discussing some maintenance issues, more on the preventative side, and we are having a tough time getting it passed, because extra fees require a 75% vote from the owners. Some people need a serious education on what can happen if we don’t handle this problem early.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Just not feeling his pain here.
Maybe he/she works for a living, and in case you weren’t aware many people work non standard hours.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:02 am
September 11th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I’ve lived in a downtown condo when another was being built across the street. The noise was 6am to 6pm, 6 days a week. Not the same as somebody working on your neighbour’s balcony, but still enough to wake you up.
Although there is inconvenience, this guy comes across as a bit of a whiner.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:49 am
September 11th, 2008 at 11:27 am
September 11th, 2008 at 11:40 am
“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”
Ben Franklin
September 11th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I agree though, at least they don’t owe an extra $100k!
September 11th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
September 11th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
One guy has looks like he’s lost 20 lbs over the summer due to worry.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
This will be th winter of RE discontent.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Breaking a lease
If you need to break a lease, be aware that you may have to pay rent until your landlord rents the place out to someone else or until the term of your lease is over. This is what a lease means whether it is stated explicitly in the agreement or not.
http://www.tenants.bc.ca/facts.....htm#before
My experience with breaking a lease is that I had a fee (about $200 - 6 years ago) deducted from my damage deposit and the balance returned. I contacted the Tenants Resource Centre and they told me that the fee is supposed to cover the costs to the landlord of finding new tenants (ie. putting ads in the paper). I was advised by the Tenant Resource centre that in practice this should be no more that $200 - 300 or I would have ample grounds for pursuing the balance in arbitration.
I don’t know what would have happened if the landlord would have been unable to find new tenants - which appears to be the most likely scenario in this case. I would recommend contacting the Tenants Resource Centre with any specific questions - I have found them to be quite helpful in the past.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I know a similar realtor He/SHE medallion club….can’t sell the spec property…000’s of mtg payments per month but no income….
Sad state of affairs.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
September 11th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
The funniest thing about living there was the random construction workers I would wake up to looking in my window. I’m not very shy so I’d wave to them as I got up, ask how there day was etc (regardless of what I was wearing). What makes it funny is when I would have gf’s stay over and watching them freak out in the morning as the construction guys were looking in - I’d get up (sometimes in the buff) say hello, and then close the blinds so she could get up in privacy. The construction guys loved it (it gave them a laugh), particularly when I dated this one girl that was a bit of an exhibitionist!!!
Ahhh, the good ol’ leaky condo. Would I do it again? I would; the long-term gf refuses…
September 11th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I live in the West End and it really sucks. None of the old buildings are leaking so I never get to hear grinding and banging. It’s so quiet and peaceful, I think I am really missing out on the fun.
September 11th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Prices will increase single digit this year, and next, and as we get closer to the olympics, there will be a spurt of bidding wars.
Just kidding
I’ve posted this on Chipman’s blog and he has banned the comment, has anyone else been banned?
September 11th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
just lie down until the feeling goes away…..
September 11th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
With apologies to Split Enz.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I drove by the Rupert property listed by, retarded Aaron, of Chipman fame, and I noticed the” gorgeous Italian” house had a “new price”, sticker.
I ‘m banned from the Chipman blog, so could you ask him if the price change is for a price increase or decrease?
I would imagine that with the Olympic fever heading for a crescendo, and the fact this is the best place on earth, and we are running out of land, the price of that fine piece of architecture must have gone up.
What a stylish beauty !!!
September 11th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Thanks
September 11th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I’ve written several comments about the journlistic integrity of this article and none of them have been posted, yet some moron calling himself Krissh (comment 7) said incomes have tripled in ten years and you’ll publish that? [Moderator's note: The rules of this forum are simple - don't curse, don't be racist, don't be sexist, and don't say anything about anyone that could be considered libelous - including employees of the newspaper. By all means, disagree with what's in the piece, but as is said over the comment posting box above... 'keep it clean.']
September 11th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Oh how times have changed.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
September 11th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
September 11th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
shhh, don’t put ideas in peoples heads:
“The easiest “vengeance” is typical: Whenever visiting the library, friends or office depot, log into the website and post venom. This causes many sites to close posting from anons, and then they lose popularity. It is a lose-lose situation for the blog owner.”
Of course if you have a wireless laptop you can log on from all over the neighbourhood or if you live in a high rise you can log on under so many names, as well.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
“I’ve posted this on Chipman’s blog and he has banned the comment, has anyone else been banned?”
Oh yeah, he really does not want to hear the other side of the story. He wasn’t too bad when he could still pretend there wasn’t going to be a serious crash, but now he’s unbearable (Oh god I’m funny, aren’t I funny?).
September 12th, 2008 at 1:43 am
The first six months there were construction free, and great. The next year and a half… less so. Banging from 7-5 every day, six days a week. One time I was woken up with drywall dropping on my face from the hammering that was taking place on the wall directly outside.
I woke up several times with a construction worker heaving out my bedroom window and stepping inside to work on the frame. (I was told they would have to get permission in advance to enter the place, but that didn’t seem to apply if they were coming through the windows.) Why they had to remove and replace each window umpteen times, I’ll never know, but I get a chuckle every time I remember the foreman looking at this same window that had been in and out several times: “Who does work like this?!”
I’d never do it again.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Obviously you guys didn’t bother reading his blog.