Here is their official response with our notes, we advise the jokers at the other companies (SWISH, FAIRCAPE, GRID CO, etc.) to reference this as it's a lesson in client management that Redefine should teach their joint venture partners.
NOTICE TO RESIDENTS
We write in response to a number of complaints received from Upper Eastside residents recently. Upper Eastside management is taking these issues extremely seriously and regrets any inconvenience caused. We held a special meeting last week to discuss the issues raised and have developed a comprehensive action plan to address them swiftly Below is a summary of what was discussed and, where appropriate, an outline of our proposed solutions.
Wow, that's fantastic, they regret any inconvenience, I believe this is perhaps the first and only apology we've gotten from anyone. Thanks for not trying to tell me that your problems are "open for interpretation".
1. Recycling Facilities: - the ‘Refuse Room’ for West Block has just been complete and the City Council has delivered the ‘normal waste bins’ on Friday 30th July. This means that your daily rubbish can be left in the bins from now on.
Our recycling supplier, Waste plan, has not yet delivered the recycling bins for West Tower. They have communicated that this could take a few weeks and we will let you know as soon as they have been delivered. For the time being, please continue to deposit your recyclable waste in the ‘Refuse Room’ of North Block. The refuse room in north tower is situated adjacent to the car park at the Pickwick Street end.
We will keep you updated on an exact delivery date when the recycled bins will be available in the “refuse room at West Block
A UES Help Desk member made the Waste bins appear through the city council which is fine and well, we must work together sometimes because Redefine was not aware of the lack of service from the Body Corporate Managing agency FAIRCAPE. We will get confirmation of the exact route of our recyclable waste tonight at the resident meeting because SWISH PROPERTIES told us all from Day 1 that this was a Green building and there would be recycling.
2. Construction Work: - The construction works adjacent to residential areas has been limited to Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm. No contractor is allowed on site outside these hours, except to complete works on the retail areas. There is a security guard posted at these residential works areas to monitor the situation outside the designated hours and anyone caught there will be dealt with as a trespasser and will immediately be removed from site.
3. Construction Workers: All should be complete by the 1st week in September and all Grido Co contractors are easily identifiable the other smaller sub-contractors e.g. Whiteheads – paint contractor have been removed from using the store room’s on the parking levels and are only allowed to enter the site from the Pickwick Street entrance and are to use the open land opposite the development as their parking area and their ‘break away’ area. Please report any unusual activity / sightings to Mr Allie – Building Manager.
This is great, tonight we will be proposing a name tag system that can be used to identify people during the day as well. Unfortunately the security guards sometime grant the access to residential floors by swiping their card for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. But I have a feeling Redefine won't be letting this happen anymore. Also, it needs to be dealt with that when Mr. Allie decides to take leave that FAIRCAPE actually has someone else there, the building was left completely unmanaged last week when he was gone, shame, no one to post more hate notes from FAIRCAPE.
Residents, you are also advised to continue to report unusual activity to UES Help Desk as well so we can get to the bottom of this and you won't have to face rudeness from GRIDCO whom will probably talk down to you and think they are part of some old boys' network. :::cough cough::: attempted nepotism :::cough cough:::
4. Storm Water: - The storm water pipes that collect the rain water are situated just in front of the North Block refuse room- a 1000 litre tank has been ordered and will be delivered shortly – we will inform you of an exact date once the supplier confirms. We just want eveyone to be clear that it will not be a high pressure
hose area- you will have to wash your vehicle by hand with a bucket. Also an important point to note is that if there is no rain there will be no water. Vehicle cleaning ‘equipment’ will be left with the building manager for your usage.
This is all fine and well, however, please tell SWISH this, as they have agents selling something different to people, the game and bill of goods they sold us would have made us believe you'd have a valet car wash for residents!
5. Cleaning of Windows: - As the developer we are responsible for the cleaning of the windows –but as there is still a few more weeks of construction work we wanted to wait until that was complete we have engaged the services of Window-o-Wash and they will be on site from mid September to carry out a full window clean of both North / West Block. In addition the ‘blue’ band on the North Block r will be repainted.
Again, tell SWISH that, their representative claiming to represent the developer said we'd have our windows washed. They should have also told us that it would be a construction site till 1 September rather than 1 June.
6. Drain Smells: We will be making an appointment to come to each apartment and will be ‘blocking off the outlet that is causing the ‘smell’ with a special attachment. You will be able to connect your washing machine or dishwasher to this attachment.
Also go to Grid co and Swish and Faircape and check their drains too, because they think their s*** don't stink!
7. Hot Water: - The West Block has been fitted with a central hot water system that services the hotel and residential side of the development. The developer opted to go this route as they felt it was an eco conscious decision. The fact that we have eliminated 90 geysers from the development means that the peak demand load on Eskom has been considerably reduced. In addition, a normal geyser turns itself on
and off, a few hours a day and this uses unnecessary energy, whereas the central heating system is more energy efficient. With residents taking occupation, the system has been put through its paces and there are problems, which we are acutely aware of and have been working to sort out. The first plan to resolve this has already been actioned. The hot water in the system is circulated via a pump that was servicing the entire development. An additional pump has been now been installed in order to have dedicated hot water circulation to the residential block only. This was activated on Wednesday evening, but has not totally resolved the problem. Additional works will need to be undertaken on the system and this is scheduled for Tuesday the
3rd between 9am and 4pm This mean‘s that there will be no water in your apartment during this time. We would appreciate your feedback after this has been done to see if the corrective measures are effective.
FINALLY!! We think your hot water has been sorted, come tonight to give your feedback, because we need to get to the bottom of this. It should have been handled before any of us took occupation but let's get it sorted now and we will also be asking about water bills being subsidized by whoever's fault this was.
8. Security: - You may or may not be aware of the burglary incident which occurred on the weekend of the 16th – 18th July. We are still awaiting the complete police report but the outline of the case is as follows. The suspect found a lost bunch of keys, including branded Upper Eastside access card, a post box key and front door key, and used this to gain access to the apartment in North Tower. The apartments that were broken into have had their locks changed and all resident access cards have been re-programmed. The Upper Eastside trustees / body corporate and security company are reviewing the current security procedure and a new set of guidelines will be issued this week (August 2 – 6).
Finally, someone involved admitting what's been going on. SWISH and FAIRCAPE tried to deny it and remove our resident notices which advised residents of a break in security, they prefer their clients to be left taking a cold shower in the dark, but Redefine is actually stating what's been going on as to keep their residents aware of the crime element that can occur so we can be more alert and safe. Thank you, Redefine!
9. Intercom: - In order to activate the free intercom system, VGS will be required to install a router device at your telephone/data point. This module will allocate your unit onto the system and allow the free calls between units and security and also enable you to sign up with the other VGS services offered as per attached brochure. The consultants are Tanya Elario or Bernice Santos 021 5287542 the call centre is open until 21:00 during the week and service technicians are available until 19:00 during the week to do these activations. On Saturday technicians are available from 9:00 until 15:00
10. Lift’s – West Tower – the 2nd lift has been out of order since Sunday. Schindler we’re waiting for replacement parts which arrived today – Monday and the lift should be fully operational.
Yes the lift was out from Sunday 25 July and came back to life last night, no doubt because of our frustrations relayed to Redefine whom have gotten it sorted. We believe it was either FAIRCAPE or SWISH whom posted those lies of "Routine Maintenance", liar, liar pants on fire, hanging from your broken lift wires!
11. The Retail: - The following retail tenants will be moving to Upper East Side.
a. Vida e Caffe- shop fitting commenced -2nd august. They are going to work very hard to be up and running by the end of August
b. Scar Hair Salon- They will commence their shop fit out week starting 9th August and should be complete by the end of August
c. Galley – “wood for the trees - - the shop fitting for the gallery has also commenced and again the galley should be complete by the end of August.
d. “Healing Hands”- express massage etc- shop fitting has commenced and again should be ready for business at the end of August. We are in negotiation with other retailers and will notify all residents once we have them confirmed.
Faircape are our property management company and all communication etc should be directed to to
melissam@faircape.co.za./ your query will then be directed the relevant person(s). Allie Moos (Building
Manager) can be contacted at ues@isgs.co.za.
This is actually the first time we've been given permission to post their contact details, previously the individual from FAIRCAPE made it clear to not dare post her contact details because she did not want to be contacted, ironic, huh.
Also, this is still problematic because you have SWISH agents still going around town telling people there is CURRENTLY retail in the building, lies, and SWISH agents also told us ALL RETAIL WOULD BE UP BY JULY 1st, there is a huge different between being open on 1 July and starting construction on 2nd August, get with your false advertisers at SWISH asap, they are going to keep getting you nailed up against the wall.
So all, Progress is being made. I know many of you are still angry, I am as well. I'm tired of the lies, the blame shifting, the empty promises, etc. I'm even tired of having to do this myself as a tenant, but I digress. This is a lesson. A lesson to SWISH PROPERTIES, FAIRCAPE, and GRID CO that we live in the new South Africa and there is such a thing as accountability. I'm just sorry that Redefine gets caught in the crossfire because they have been a god-send so far in all of this. Will they also be showing you how to wipe your... you get it.
RESIDENT ACTION = RESIDENT RESULTS
Therefore RESIDENCY REDEFINED!
See you all at the meeting! Don't forget to sign in so we can assist those that are involved!
