THE exploitation of state pensioners living in Melbourne Court Umbilo is being investigated by the Poor Flat Dwellers’Association (PFDA) after it was made aware of the dismal living conditions of the residents who are largely ignorant of their human rights and sectional title legislation.
According to a representative from the PFDA, elderly residents in Melbourne Court are forced to haul buckets of water from a single standpipe up seven flights of stairs after the city cut the water supply because the water bill was in arrears. The stairways are unlit and the inside corridors are filthy. An added burden to the severely cash-strapped residents, who only receive a state grant of R1260 per month, is that some are being charged levies of as much as R3500 per month. Ten years after purchasing their units, some owners are still waiting to receive the title deeds to their flats.
There’s a lot, says the PFDA, that doesn’t add up at Melbourne Court. One of the burning questions that needs to be answered is what happened to the original budget granted by eThekwini Municipality for vital structural renovations at the time when the city was encouraging residents to purchase their own flats. Then there is the question of billing, with some flat owners being charged rental as well as levies. An additional financial burden for residents is the cost of pipe repairs. The pipes were allegedly damaged by whoonga addicts and instead of the cost of repairs being covered by the building’s insurance, the cost was passed on to homeowners.
The motor to the lift that services the building was stolen shortly after electricity to the building was cut, but the municipality has never provided the body corporate with a full financial report, said the representative.
But there are other issues that residents want addressed. Some flats it appears are overcrowded, and this is a contributing factor to the enormous water debt residents are faced with. The flats do not have individual water meters, with the result that poor state pensioners living on their own are being forced to cross-subsidise the water costs of crowded flats. An absence of Rules of Conduct for the building and general ignorance of sectional title ownership which was never explained to residents who were about to make the biggest investment of their lives, has resulted in those investments becoming a yoke around their necks.
“These questions are nothing new for thousands of other poor flat owners living in nearly 200 buildings across Durban who face similar daily struggles against accumulating debt they did not incur, have no hope of repaying, and threats of attachments and evictions. The queues at the downstairs standpipe (one tap to service nearly 70 flats), the stinky corridors and stairwells, the broken lifts, the rampant crime, the escalating health risks as buildings slide into collapse are becoming depressingly familiar conditions for residents in most former municipal buildings in Durban – buildings intended to provide affordable accommodation for those receiving state grants or the poor and vulnerable,” said the representative.
The PFDA met with a large group of Melbourne Court residents on Tuesday night to discuss flat owners’ concerns and inspect the building’s conditions. “It is clear flat owners have to date been kept wilfully ignorant while divisive tactics have been employed to ensure their complicity in their own exploitation. The PFDA is attempting to address these widespread problems and is urging all flat dwellers experiencing similar issues to attend a free education workshop,” said the representative.
The workshop will be held at Lecture Hall L1, MTB Tower, UKZN, on Saturday 24 August from 9am to 3pm and topics will include legal and human rights, building conduct rules, sectional title legislation, building upliftment strategies and other useful information. Transport will be provided. To book contact Des on 083 982 6939 or desmond@sdceango.co.za, Maureen on 073 727 5209 or maureen@bencorrum@gmail.com or Vanessa on 082 847 7766 or umbiloactiongroup@gmail.com
