Here is another phenomenon I don’t understand – perhaps someone can explain: If occupants of an apartment building have been plagued by noise and other nuisances from a construction site for years (and in my case the size of my balcony was halved for a couple of years, at the height of the pandemic when it would have been really nice to have the full use of my balcony), then those owners who are renting out their flats while living somewhere else will get compensation, so that they can (choose to) compensate their tenants, but the owners who live in the flats themselves will not be compensated. Is it just me who can’t see the logic in that? Cresco Capital Group
As detailed in this category, the building next door has been under renovation for about seven years which has meant an inferno of noise, and for example, I have not been able to use my balcony for as many summers, for one reason or the other, including this summer, which has perhaps so far been the noisiest of all because they are pretending to be doing some landscape gardening downstairs.
During all this time, our Hausverwaltung has been mostly silent and seemingly more on the side of the investors next door than on ours.
Imagine my surprise, then, when this morning I received a letter (yes – as in snailmail – how absurd and laughable is that in itself?) informing me that the fence downstairs between our plot of land and that of the monstrosity next door will be replaced this week. End of.
Now, when I receive an actual letter, as in by Deutsche Post, I assume it is about something important, and which will have consequences for me and/or require some sort of action from my side. So I opened it.
But that is literally all they write. Not a word about why they are telling us this after basically never having warned us about particularly noisy weeks months and years. Not to mention the scaffolding and debris which prevented me from using my balcony for at least two summers, one of which was at the height of the pandemic when it would have been really nice to have the use of that outdoor space. Especially since I was promised at the beginning that my balcony would not be affected. One of, as it has turned out, many lies told to me since I moved to Berlin.
Seriously? Is that all they wanted to tell us – by LETTER, as if we don’t have eyes in our heads and can see what is happening? WHY BOTHER TO SEND A LETTER about something so unimportant, trivial, and non-conseqential after having ignored all the real problems we have been having basically for the last handful of years????? Who cares that an old FENCE is being removed and replaced by a new one?
I have figured out the division of costs between flat owners and “Hausverwaltung”. In most countries, all outside maintenance and repairs are paid for by “the community” and all inside costs covered by the flat owner.
Not so here. Here, all costs, external and internal, are covered for you if you are ethnic German. If not, you have to pay for everything yourself.
While I am in the process of getting things off my chest: Here, rules are not rules. Everything is debatable. At least in flat-owners meetings (Eigentümerversammlungen).
The first time I came across this phenomenon was when the people who ran the café in the ground floor of my building asked for permission to install a cash withdrawal machine in the café. For some strange reason still incomprehensible to me, that had to be approved in the annual meeting of owners.
In any case, the way these things go is: Year one: a proposal is made and discussed in the annual meeting. Year two: the issue is put to the vote. Year three: the issue is implemented. That is how long things take.
On to the next issue: BBQ-ing, or grilling, on the balconies. The first spring and summer I lived here I could not believe that that was really happening, and to what extent. Of course that only got worse during Covid, the level of home outdoor cooking increased, as did everybody else’s need for spending time on their balconies. For a couple of hours each day, we have to keep doors and windows closed to avoid that stink, which I have always hated, entering our flats and hanging in clothes and furniture.
When I asked our Hausverwaltung (“admin”) – years ago – whether that is really allowed, the answer was vague and wishy-washy – that as long as nobody complains, then yes. Pathetic. And since I am also an immigrant, I knew what the reply would be if I took it up in the owners meeting, so I did not bother.
In the meantime, after last year’s owners meeting, I decided that the atmosphere and tone there is so confrontational, hostile and toxic that I am not going to attend any further meetings. There is especially one person there who for some reason seems to have a lot of power, and each time I dare to open my mouth, immediately contradicts me, like a metaphorical slap in the face, before I even manage to finish one sentence. Being treated like that is a complete waste of time.
Now to the current issue. I have to have a window replaced, and it turns out that that requires a plate on the outside of the building to be removed in order to install the window, and then put back again. An incredibly stupid way of building buldings. Anyway, there is a rule, or so I thought, that basically, indoor repairs are paid by the owner, and anything facade related is paid by admin. So when I asked them who were to pay the cost of renting one of those ladders needed for this operation (between 2000 and 3000 euro) I was told to pay, and then take up the issue of a refund in the next owners meeting.
Will I bother, forget last year’s promise to myself, and give them the pleasure of interrupting me and refusing before I have even had a chance to make my case? Don’t be ridiculous. Not worth ruining an evening for.
In view of the current situation, I was thinking of doing this for the winter anyway, but now I have had to: In order to keep a reasonable temperature in those rooms that I do use, I have closed off my two bedrooms and am only using the living room, and sleeping there, and kitchen.
This is working out fine and I can do that till spring, except I am still only able to reach an indoor temperature of 16 to 17 C. (Once again, Gabi Fastner comes to the rescue in order to keep warm :-)).
I am not sure whom I have to thank for this – Putin? Merkel? Schröder? Or Schön & Sever? In the beginning, I thought it was the same for everybody, but I am not hearing from anybody else that they have the same problems, so I am starting to suspect the latter, i.e. our Hausverwaltung.
The good nesws is that the fact that I don’t have a stinking cold by now, or even a hint of a sore throat, probably means that my immune system is back to normal, if not better than in spring.
But I am searching for another expression to replace the usual: “I am freezing my tits off”…….
A couple of weeks ago, our “Hausverwaltung” – Schön & Sever – forgot to tell us that we would have no water for over half a day, starting in the early morning and lasting till the early afternoon. They did not reply to our questions when we discovered it, nor did they bother to let us know how long it would last. I don’t go in for bottled water normally, so I don’t have a stock in the house, but if I had known, I would have made sure I had some for my dog and myself to drink, to make coffee, and to at least be able to brush my teeth in the morning.
Today, our lift will be out of order till about noon tomorrow. This is not due to an emergency but part of a major overhaul which has been in the planning for a while. The people who have arrived to do the work told me that. Not Schön & Sever. Admittedly, it will do both Max and me good to walk up and down the stairs the five to seven times it will be necessary over the next 30 hours. But if I had known that, I would not have set aside part of today to do my weekly supermarket round, and I would not have booked the mobile vet for noon today if I had known they would have to schlepp themselves and their gear up the stairs to the sixth floor. Not to mention my trusty cleaning help who always brings much of his own gear in a trolley. The janitor was here yesterday. Would it have killed them to make sure he put up a note about this then?
When I moved into this building, there was a café in the ground floor which I soon came to greatly appreciate. Friendly staff, good coffee, freshly baked croissants, freshly pressed orange juice, light meals cooked on the spot for lunch, and free wifi (of which I made much use in the beginning before it was available in my flat upstairs). It was run by a lady with the help of her sons and a friend of hers. I was always made to feel more than welcome.
At the time, they closed around 18.00 which I always found a shame since I found it quite cosy that there was always somebody there. It is not a big place – at the time, it accommodated two or three tables inside, and the same number outside on the pavement.
Later, they asked permission to stay open till about 21.00, and during UEFA 2016, they – like all other cafés, restaurants, kiosks etc. in Berlin – showed the games on a big screen just outside the café. During the games, mostly coffee and alcohol-free beer was consumed, and once a game was over, everybody went home.
I dread to think what it would have been like if most guests had been Danish, British and Irish in terms of alcohol consumed, the mess left behind, and noise made – all through the rest of the night. But – as in so many cases – hypocrisy ruled then and still does, and soon came the beginning of the end for the café.
Two of the other flat owners started harassing the people running the café. First, there was allegedly too much noise coming from the café in the evenings. This was complete nonsense. First of all, it was only until 21.00 hrs, and secondly, it could not be heard above the traffic noise at all.
Later, the same owner started claiming that drugs were being dealt in the café. This was such a blatantly vicious lie that there ought to be a law against spreading such totally unfounded despicable garbage. But here it is again: the word lie and the concept of lying seems to have a different meaning and level of acceptability in Germany from most other countries in the world. I have a feeling I was the only person in the building who tried to object, among other things in the form of a letter to our – so-called – Hausverwaltung, a letter which was completely ignored.
On top of the above complaints, the lady running the café told me about several incidents of more direct harassment in the form of threats to collect signatures against them etc. Furthermore, her application to install a cash withdrawal machine on the premises was denied. For some strange reason, we had to vote on that in an annual meeting of owners. Don’t ask me why we were even asked. I was the only one who voted for it. I simply could not see how it could be any of my business at all, and anything to attract guests in a very boring and unattractive street, with just a trickle of tourists ambling by on their way to and from the Jewish Museum, could only be an advantage.
Oh, did I forget to mention she and her family were Turkish? So it was all pure bloody-minded, evil, xenophobic discrimination. I see no other motivation at all. A big disappointment and something I had not expected from Berlin.
In any case, in about March 2019, the lady gave up and terminated the lease. To this day, I am still missing that café, and not only because it has become such an eyesore. I thoroughly enjoyed it while it was there. The rooms have been empty since then and for about a year now, it has looked like in the photo above.
So bikes parked in the courtyard are considered unaesthetic. This mess in the ground floor facing the street apparently not. They sure do have weird tastes in this country.
The work on the wall is finished and the mats were finally removed.
I – yet again – spent about half a day trying to clean up after the most recent work. Specks of white pain all over the balcony, including on the furniture, relatively easy to remove, but time consuming.
The glue from the tape with which they fastened the mats can probably be removed, but I don’t know how.
I have also started removing splashes of cement from a while ago now that I know that Cresco never had any intention of removing them. They are harder to remove, but with time, I guess I just have to get it done.
One type of stain will never go away. They are on the wall as well as on the floor and seem to have somehow seeped into the surfaces.
I would like to add that the floor of my balcony, as well and parts of the wall, for example as seen in photo number 3, had been freshly coated just before this whole thing started.
The – for us – most claustrophobic part of the scaffolding is still there, despite the fact that it no longer seems to be needed. It was added independently of the main scaffolding, and could therefore be removed independently of the main scaffolding so as not to ruin more of the summer for us than necessary.
(Continuation of the saga about the balcony “that would not be affected”, and the biggest lie ever told to me).
That part of the scaffolding (which is separate from the rest of the scaffolding as it was built much later) has now been there for two years, and those disgusting mats have been there for three months, for no apparent reason other than restricting my use of the balcony even further.
My question is now (yeah right, as if I ever receive any replies to my questions on this matter) – will this be the third whole summer season that I am unable to use my balcony fully? And the second whole summer season that I can’t invite visitors (2019 and 2021 – luckily for them there were other reasons why I could not invite people over during 2020 ……).
Superduper. When this happened two days ago, it gave me hope – not only that they would remove the netting – but that perhaps they were finally going to remove that part of the scaffolding, which has not been used for anything for about a year but has caused such great nuisance.
But since 1 July, all that has happened is that I had to get my ladder and a hefty pair of scissors out to get rid of most of that netting myself.
No sign of them today either.
Both our Hausverwaltung Schön & Sever and the entrepreneur Cresco Capital Group or Cresco Real Estate or whatever they are called are still refusing to answer questions about the scaffolding, which should have been removed end winter/early spring, as described earlier. My latest e-mail was sent 7 April and re-sent a couple of weeks later. You would think they had had time to respond. But obviously not the will.
In this of all years where some of us spend much more time at home than normally. And I, for one, would have liked to be able to enjoy spending some of that time on my balcony.
