| Message: | Forum Index |
How do I motivate my neighbours to do the stairs?
Since moving to my flat 2 years ago I have been the only one who has bothered to sweep and wash our close stairs. Our factors don't manage the cleaning. My neighbours are generally a decent bunch and I don't want to fall out with them about this issue, but not sure how best to approach it, without getting their backs up. I'm fed up doing it but if I don't then the place looks a right midden. Anybody got any suggestions?
PMC - 7/02/2010 4:53:35 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
| Replies: |
Reply to Message |
Post new Message |
I had the same problem a couple of years ago - mainly because of inconsiderate tenants who treated the close like a dustbin.
Our factors contacted a company called Clean Scene who do the close every two weeks. Everyone gets a letter saying someone has asked for regular cleaning and do they have any objections. It really doesn't cost much and I'm sure your neighbours would appreciate the difference - if they don't want to pay, surely they could take a turn themselves?
Suz - 7/02/2010 8:34:22 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
I also have this problem and have now given it up as a lost cause, if people don't have enough pride in where they live to clean the stairway basicly there is nothing you can do. I take my turn once a fortnight and that keeps it clean but my neighbour never bothers to do it, it is a private let so I don't have a leg to stand on, it is frustrating but as I said before it's about pride.
Clairey - 7/02/2010 11:03:12 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
I have found that owners tend to be more concerned with the close than private lets who are generally only there for 6 months and couldn't care less about the mess they leave behind them.
I would ask your factor to employ a company to come and do them once a week/fortnight.
Jemma - 8/02/2010 10:05:00 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
Sorry folks, really don't want to cause a disagreement but I have taken offence at the comments about private tennents generally staying for 6 months etc etc. I am a private tennent- too poor to buy and too wealthy to be a council tennent (or at least that is how my circumstances leave me). I am a considerate neighbour who agrees with many of the posts on the forum. Please be careful with generalisations as they can offend and I already feel pretty bad about the property limbo I'm in, without being ostricised because of my living situation :(
Anyhoo, could I suggest getting in contact with the letting agents who manage your neighbours property? I'm sure if my neighbours had any queries about my responsibilities, my letting agent would correspond with me promptly. There is often terms in the contract about maintaining public areas so this may be an avenue to explore.
I hope my comments are welcomed in the spirit that they were intended.
:)
Sword Street - 10/02/2010 10:26:57 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
I did not mean to cause any offence by my comment. I have been in contact with my neighbours landlords and they in turn say that they have sent out a letter asking the tenant to comply, but really I get the impression as long as landlords are getting their monthly rent on time they don't really care about this issue as I keep the close clean, they have as much as said that I should be grateful for having a quiet neighbour who does not cause me any greater bother than this issue. I feel that my only course of action would be to stop washing the close myself, however that goes against my principles.
They better watch out if that tenant leaves and they are showing it off to prospective new tenants as feel like tipping my weekly rubbish out all over the close and see who wants to live there then.
Clairey - 10/02/2010 11:25:28 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
To be honest, they don't really sound like a decent bunch if that is their attitude. You should be grateful? Well, actually I'm pretty sure you have a legal entitlement to live in relative peace and quiet! My neighbour is inconsiderate in this manner as well- he often leaves a bag of rubbish at his door until his next trip downstairs. I try to be tolerant about this as there is alot of stairs etc but sometimes it sits there so long it starts to smell. Yuk.
I think they have a poor attitude about this issue. If it were me, I'd just make a nuisance of myself- continuously contacting the landlord and building factor. But that's just because people like that get on my nerves! I can understand not wanting to rock the boat though, my aforementioned neighbour drunkenly shouts in the middle of the night quite often; it drives me up the wall but I don't really want to complain as I don't want to start a feud with him. It is a tricky one.
Sword Street - 11/02/2010 11:33:42 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
Sorry Clairey just noticed- it was actually Jemmas post/ comments which caused offence about how private tennents are transients who stay for 6 months, wreck the place then move on.
Completely inaccurate. In fact my aforementioned neighbour has lived here for many more years than myself; I get the impression that, if he had his way, his cat and dog would poo in the close and the binmen would collect his rubbish from his door. And that is a long term resident.
Sword Street - 11/02/2010 11:35:45 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
With regards to the person who felt offended at tenants being generalised, I feel that most people only generalise through negative experience. I too was a tenant for 2 years and I treated the place like my own. Unfortunately as a homeowner now I have been on the receiving end of selfish landlords. Their negligence has caused property damage to my flat (through failing to maintain boiler and plumbing above me despite reasonable requests) and has allowed scumbags to move into a flat that they couldn't let out to anyone else I can only assume because of the poor state of it. This now means the close wall gets written on and people spit on the stairs. Owners tend not to do that to their own property so I'm afraid there is a great deal of validity in the generalisation - I'm sure others have had a similar experience. You are just one of the good ones - move into my close!
anon - 11/02/2010 11:38:20 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
I am only speaking from experience and I shouldn't lump all private tenants into the same category. However, we have three flats let out in this close and I have only seen one tenant bother to do the stairs in the last 3 years. As a rule they are gone in 6 months, dumping their unwanted stuff into the back court to be left for someone else to clean up. At the moment we have an alcoholic living in the ground floor flat, who thinks the entire back court is a bin and just lobs his empties out. He has already set fire to the flat.
I would love to have a decent neighbour like you Sword Street ... fancing moving to Hillfoot Street?
Jemma - 11/02/2010 11:52:21 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
To be honest, some people will live in any old mess. The inside of their houses are dreadful, so why would they bother about the outside. When you see the amount of dog dirt on the streets of Dennistoun, you'd want to keep the close clean.
The Mentalist - 11/02/2010 11:54:21 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
Taking your comments on board I can see your point now. I think maybe it is just one of the hazards of living in a tenement. It could almost be compared to flat-sharing; you have to put up with your flatmates bad habits because you share a common space (thank god I no longer have to do that!). It's funny though, my building is all council owned flats with mine being a private let and one other which is currently up for sale. I don't like their chances of selling based on these common spaces; the back door is left open (which led to the massive graffitti inside the otherwise lovely close), there has been an olk-skool telly "waiting for collection" since about November and, the building comes with it's very own anti-social alkie resident!
I think it is just a never-ending saga to be honest. As for the offers- I'd love to buy a flat off of one of these scabby landlords! It bugs me to see irresponsible landlords as well, sometimes they offer horrible accomodation at extortionate prices. So unfair.
Sword St - 12/02/2010 9:15:26 AM
(IP: Logged)
|
Hi guys and gals,
I just wanted to say that theres hope. Myself and my other half bought a place in the drives last year and its been nothing but great ever since.
The close we moved into is great, we all look after our own landings, theres a family above and below us so the only noise we get is footsteps, occasional normal family bickering and the very rare parties when the parents are on holiday.
Everyones been so welcoming, and when we moved in I put a wee card in each door doing a really brief introduction of us and saying to let us know if were ever too noisey or if they needed to speak to us about anything. This should then open folk up to hopefully feel they can knock the door before police are called or it esculates (not that id think we'd ever make enough noise to do so but then, no -one ever does..), we say hello to each other in the close and it works both ways. We know all our neighbours by face, i think we've all taken in post or parcels for each other, i think a lot of us check in on the old lady who has mobility problems and she has our number if she needs us and we'd go to their doors if we needed anything.
It does get noisey outside on the street at a certain times but nothing that cant be ignored. if anything ever gets rowdy, you want to see those curtains twitch! contrary to other comments about the drives and the likes, i feel fine at night. Put it this way, theres hundreds of witnesses on hand if i need them :)
In short, Theres hope! our close is lovely, we all look after each other and as far as i know, everyones happy :)
Just my 2pence worth, cheers!
Elbow - 10/03/2010 12:38:12 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
Elbow: My close USED to be like that, everyone that owned their flat lived in it and then three people decided to sell up and move (for various reasons) and suddenly we have 3 properties with tenants changing every six months, one empty and another one completely derelict. The place has gone to hell because there are only two owners who live here and actually care about the environment we live in. It only takes one bad neighbour to ruin things for everyone
Jemma - 11/03/2010 9:40:23 AM
(IP: Logged)
|
Bad neighbours + greedy Lanlords.
Clairey - 11/03/2010 9:04:55 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
I rent out my two bed flat in Dennistoun, although I did once live in the flat myself so maybe my situation is different but I have always maintained good relations with all the other owner occupiers in the close my old next door neighbour has a key to my flat and all the emergency contact numbers I have been lucky and have never had any problems with the tenants as I took the time and care to choose respectable people that I knew would fit in with the rest of my neigbours in the close, some of whom are elderly. If there ever was a problem I would be happy to intervene to sort it out and take responsibility for the tenants renting my property.
Mungo - 13/03/2010 10:29:04 AM
(IP: Logged)
|
In my opinion, you cannot train lazy owners to take a turn cleaning the stairs so you'd best instruct the Factor to arrange fortnightly stair cleaning and let them gain the consent. Your neighbours are not a decent bunch if they were willing to exploit you for 2 years and haven't reciprocated.
As far as the discussion goes with the difference in attitude to cleanliness and anti social behaviour between owners and tenants, I live in a tenement of 8 flats and Landlords are a complete pain.
The two flats that are let out by landlords (previously they were owner occupiers but have moved out and now rent their properties) are the only ones that cause problems so have a disproportionate impact - most problems relate directly back to them, the majority suffer.
The other flat owners have had to take action against both landlords and a succession of their tenants for their failure to pay towards common repairs, their failure to register as landlords on the Scottish Landlord Registration Scheme, noisy tenants playing loud music and having parties, poor disposal of rubbish in the backcourt which led to rats, not having buildings insurance, not attending to leaking bathroom that flood the property below despite numerous requests.
We even lost the water supply in the building for a few days and had to get the factor to arrange for plumbers to break into one of their empty properties because they'd stingily left the heating off during the cold snap and the pipes had burst.
But what goes round, comes round. One previously abusive landlord has had the property repossessed and it has a notice of liability on it for the money owed for repairs. His property is half destroyed anyway from that burst pipe, plus the fact the other landlord's property is above his and made the ceiling collapse below by not getting his bathroom leak fixed, despite it being reported to him repeatedly for years by the previous owner.
The landlord who part destroyed the other landlord's flat can't get his empty property rented out anyhow because its so grotty and there are much better, much cheaper properties on the market now. Hopefully his property will also get repossessed, too, as just desserts for ruining the peace and enjoyment of the tenement for everyone else.
Bluey - 20/03/2010 5:41:03 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
About ten years ago we had an abatement notice served on our property all because of a top floor absentee landlord flat which had got into such a state of disrepair that it had affected the rest of the building for 2 years previous to this we had all struggled to get the absentee landlord to pay his share of the repairs and ground fees etc, we eventually had to take him to court as an abatement notice meant that none of us could sell our properties as no one would have been able to get a mortgage on it. It makes me mad to think some of these jokers don't even have buildings insurance i mean you shouldn't be allowed to own a property without the proper insurance you have to insure a car but you can let buildings insurance slide its not good enough it is time there was some new laws passed in parliament to stop these charlatans some of the present laws are archaic.
Clairey - 20/03/2010 7:11:49 PM
(IP: Logged)
|
| Reply: |
|
|
