Flat maintenance a ‘pane-staking’ struggle for Greyville residents

RESIDENTS of Kirkwood Gardens in Greyville are terrified to open their windows as they live in constant fear of glass panes falling out from the rotten window frames.

Chairperson of this low-cost housing complex, Teresa Moriarty has been raising maintenance concerns for months. Despite her efforts to have the rotting wooden window frames replaced, Moriarty said workmen were sent to the complex to paint over the problem.

What’s more, Moriarty said just three flats out of the 72 units at the complex were seen to.

Moriarty said she was baffled by the units chosen for the repair, as other units were in worse condition, needing more urgent attention. The complex houses several blocks of flats with six to seven units in each block.

Also read: ‘Our homes are falling apart,’ say Greyville residents

“I think they put names and flat numbers in a hat and just pulled them out. They have done work on one of the flats on the ground floor and the residents are so disappointed. All they did was sand the rotten wood and paint it, ignoring the chips and chunks missing in the wood. From that flat, they jumped all the way to a top floor flat in another block. The resident said they made such a mess in her home as most of the work was done from inside the flat because workers didn’t have scaffolding or a ladder. They aren’t proper contractors if they don’t even have a ladder,” she said.

Resident, Walter Fortuin who has lived at the complex for 25 years, said despite continual maintenance issues, residents face raised rent tariffs.

Also read: Residents ashamed of living conditions at Marloth Gardens

“We are threatened with letters saying we will be evicted if we don’t pay our rent, when we are not behind with our rent payments. The rent increases every six months, it’s becoming very stressful. They bring in people to do repairs, who are unqualified. We are the ones who are suffering,” he said.

Chipped and broken window frames at the complex adds to a long list of concerns for residents, including dilapidated buildings, leaking roofs and walls, a lack of garden refuse removal and chipping paint.

The eThekwini Municipality and the Department of Human Settlements were not available for comment by the time of going to print.

Do you want to receive alerts regarding this and other Highway community news via Telegram? Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5409. You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts. Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.