Hi there

Just thought i'd share with all of you my amusement with the building work going on in my apartment building. Basically when i moved in a year ago my apartment and 2 more out of the 6 had been newly renovated. This month they decided to work on the final three and these tenants had to relocate for a month.
As i'm on the ground floor some work has to be done in my apartment to send pipes up through my ceiling (to the two apartments above) and through my floor to the basement for new heating systems. This means in my bedroom i have two huge holes where i can see up two floors and down underground. in my kitchen they've removed half the cabinets and done the same thing running pipes upwards this time. the sitting room and bathroom are also the same.
now i can handle the dust, noise and floor padding for a few days and its all for the common good. what i don't like is having my girlfriend calling me out of the shower this morning saying my clothes are on fire!! the builders above had been using a welder or angle grinder and the sparks coming down from the hole in the ceiling had set my socks on fire!!! not only that but it also burned a nice hole through my 1 month old 200 franc badminton racquet
Thats the latest thing to happen and still i got to smile cos i know i'll be reimbursed. the other things are
1.coming home drunk from the pub around midnight and absolutely craving some cold swiss water only to find they never turned it back on in the evening, result = a more intensified than normal hangover!!
2.getting woken up by two builders at 7.15 knocking (loudly) on my door and getting seriously evil looks when i said you can come back at 8.30 when i've had my shower etc. (my girlfriend is staying over for two weeks until her apartment is ready and i don't want her feeling uncomfortable getting ready for work in the morning).
3.leaving for work early the next morning and telling the builders my girlfriend needs hot water until 8.30 which i'd already told the baumeister and architect a month earlier would be an agreed time for working in my building. she went for her shower and found only scalding hot water was available. Well maybe they took me literally on that one

Anyways all in all my apartment now has a really creepy feeling. I forget the name of that movie where the landlord set hidden cameras up over his tenants apartment but thats how all those holes in my floor and ceiling make me feel like!!!

Maybe some of you might think i'm being a bit harsh or something and they are only doing there job (which i know and like i said its definitely all for the best) but its good to moan and trust me you do not want to be on the wrong side of a south african girl at 8am when you have to explain she must put her make up on in the bathroom where two builders are currently ripping out presses!!!

Anyways does anyone else have similiar funny stories like this etc???

Oh yes and they broke my toilet seat!!!

Brian

Ps this all happend from monday morning this week!

You mean they are ripping apart your apartment just after renovating it to perform the same work on the others ? Sounds a bizarre way to proceed. I'd push for a rent reduction.

dave

That would be wishful thinking Dave
Apparently it will look the same when they are finished but we will all have better heating (even though mine was never a problem) and finally they will install cablecom...........although the recent posts on this forum haven't made me as happy as i was on this thought

You are entitled to a rent reduction during building works or if the inconvienience is too much to be relocated to alternative accomodation. Mind you in your situation I'd rather be there to keep an eye on what is going on!

And a rent increase after the work is done to pay for it and the new heating and the unmentionable cable system...

Once, in another rented apartment, the verwaltung (renting company) arranged for the carpets to be changed to wooden panels.
I was delighted. No cost to me.

One day before the date, the floor company came, and installed the new floor for another neighbour. I asked them (with my poor German) if I could leave some furniture in the room (1 master bed king size and 2 ikea empty wardrobes, quite lightweight), they said sure, no problem. One guy in English even told me, it is normal and I should not worry.

They came, installed and went. Later I received a bill for $450 for 3 hours extra, for having my furniture in the room. The argument they presented was, if the furniture was not there, they would have finished the job 3 hr s earlier (1 apartment 1 day, as if they will finish by 2pm?)

I challenged them, the floor company turned nasty, threatened in a gangsterly manner over the phone (although I did not sign any contract and they cannot legally make me pay), I eventually offered them 1hr or $150 chf, and they accepted it.

I am sure they are still cursing me, the lousy foreigner.

HAT

The movie was called Sliver with Sharon Stone.