Today, Tuesday October 20th 2015, the water was supposed to be shut off in the building from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Although the water in the shower, toilet and kitchen sink work, as of this writing (11:30 p.m.), the bathroom sink does not work... there is no water in the bathroom sink. This is unacceptable. The water is being shut of on a regular basis for supposed "emergency work", but it seems more likely that management does not have a proper maintenance plan in place to deal with an old badly designed building. Having the water turned off for an entire day is absolutely unacceptable. And to have this occur on a regular basis is grounds for a rent decrease. I am sure I am not the only tenant who is frustrated with the continuing saga of bad management.
Although the new management have made some positive changes, such as the security cameras, other issues remain outstanding. The elevators remain an unfinished project as it seems only the basic minimum was done using Dollarama quality material to "spruce them up" from the slum state they were in for years, and I won't go into the operational problems which frequently sees us with one or more elevators not working.
Another problem which many face is the condition of the windows. As this building is over 30 years old, the hermetic seals on the windows are (in many apartments) no longer hermetic thus leading to a buildup of minerals inside the double panes as a result of condensation. This makes for dirty and or foggy windows which cannot be cleaned because the dirt and or fogginess is inside the two panes of glass. These will eventually need to be changed.
Then there is the issue of bad ventilation. Not only within the apartments, but also in the halls and main lobby. Many mornings I find myself almost gasping for air in the halls as they are filled with the odor of car fumes from the parking garages. If you are an asthmatic this can be a major problem.
And on some days the main lobby stinks so much of trash I want to vomit, and that is because the trash compactor for the trash shoot is just below the main lobby next to the elevators and is venting putrefying fumes into the main lobby.
If you are not already a tenant and are reading this, I am sure you will now be looking elsewhere.
And while I am venting my frustrations with this building, I would like to bring up another little observation here, and that is that many foreigners and new arrivals to this country are moving in to this building. It is a well known fact in apartment management circles, that foreigners who are new to the country and have little knowledge of their rights, are great tenants. They rarely complain and always accept rent increased, not to mention that often they find themselves in considerably cleaner settings than back home, and as such, while being completely ignorant to our standards. In short, this situation can be a problem for existing tenants because it means that management will slack-off on maintenance.
It may be time to seriously consider putting together a tenants association. A tenants association with the support of a majority of tenants would have enough power to force the building management to act fast and make concrete positive changes. If 100 of the tenants paid their rent for the next 3 months to the rental board instead of to the building, I bet you things would get cleaned up very fast! So, who wants to start a tenants association?
This blog is intended to allow residents to make their opinions known about the upkeep of the building and grounds. The Marina Center is located at 14,255 Gouin West H8Z 3C2, corner of Saint-John's boul. and Gouin boul. West on the West Island of Montreal (borough of Pierrefonds). This ~30 year old, 16 level building, has 16 apartments per floor totaling some 250, including studios, 1 & 2 bedroom.
