Storm leaves residents roofless

Residents of Die Eike, a block of flats situated in Von Brandis Street, have been left homeless after a huge thunderstorm on February 18 swept away most of the roof.

Strong winds ripped the roof off one of the two buildings that make up this housing complex. Large sections of the roof ended up on the lawn, on top of the adjacent building, in neighbouring yards, and even on top of the roof of a house next door. Fortunately, no one was injured in this incident.

Heavy rains and hail fell during the afternoon and into the early evening, causing extensive damage to most of the rental units on the top floor that are now exposed to the elements. Most of the tenants suffered extensive damage to their furniture and other belongings. Tenants on the floor below also suffered damage, as water seeped through from the top into their units.

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This is the second incident of this sort in recent months. The Roodepoort Record has since established that, while the body corporate of this sectional title development carries insurance, the insurance company informed them shortly after the first incident that the roof would not be covered due to their failure to perform reasonable maintenance.

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The body corporate trustee Michelle Oztas, explained that the entity is fully paid up concerning their insurance policy, but serious financial constraints have meant that money could, over the years, not be allocated to most maintenance projects.

“We are facing a massive shortfall in terms of levies,” said Oztas. “As the trustees, and with the assistance of our managing agent, we are doing everything in our power – including taking legal action where we can – to collect the very large outstanding amount.

“The reality is that there have been times in recent years that we’ve had to make some hard decisions, including whether to allocate money to crucial maintenance work, or to pay our municipal account, since it was impossible to do both.”

According to Oztas, the non-payment of levies by some of the owners of units has placed the trustees and managing agent in a near-impossible situation. “We are forced to turn every cent over twice,” she said.

Meanwhile, those living on the top floor of Block A, have lost everything.

“We are exploring every avenue available to us to have the roof repaired, have maintenance carried out on the roof of Block B, and to try and help those tenants that were affected by this tragedy,” she said, adding that they are even considering starting a go-fund-me initiative.

“The affected tenants are our neighbours and friends and it is heart-wrenching to see the suffering that these people are enduring. One of our residents’ vehicles was also damaged in the incident, which is affecting his ability to do his work. We will do everything in our power to resolve this issue as soon as possible.”