Tuesday 30 October 2018

CCOC's Tale of Woe

"Warning: Do not choose CCOC as your landlord!"


Your stars of the show:

CCOC - Centretown Citizens (Ottawa) Corporation.
A construction company to be named.


CCOC is my landlord. Has been for going on to 30 years.

A couple years ago, it was announced that the balconies on all the buildings were to be rebuilt. They issued a schedule. Last year, it was the block across the way from us. I laughed as the small construction crew fell far behind, shut down for the winter, and finished up this past spring.

Now, the balcony is a popular thing in our household. In normal years, we're out there every spare moment, Our sphynx cat, hairless and unable to be an outdoor cat, also gets out there every spare moment. We barbecue; I do astronomy. My weather sensors are (usually) out there. Occasionally, I'll sit out in the summer with my laptop or a tablet, and work. In other words, we value our balcony as much as any room in this house.

This year, it was our turn. No problem says CCOC; we have a new contractor, and we're going to be keeping a closer eye on things, to make sure the schedule doesn't slip.

The project was given a ten-week schedule.

Construction started May 22. It only took a few days to tear the balconies down, and the new one was being rebuilt just as fast. In mid-July, they were better than half done.

Then it all went to hell. The workers suddenly stopped all work on the balconies, moving on to siding and some work on the roof. The schedule began slipping.

Fast forward to today. In the interim, the workers have installed siding on the building, and replaced doors and windows. The balcony is just as it was in mid-July, save for one end divider they worked on in September.

For the past few days, the contractors have been absent. It is very clear that they've abandoned the site for the winter, now that the snow is flying.

In the beginning, we were receiving weekly updates on progress. Those have slowly petered out and are now arriving at the rate of about one every three weeks.  In early October, they predicted that the balconies would be done Oct. 22. 

Now, Oct. 22 is a curious date. It marks exactly five months of construction, or twice the anticipated length of time. There are still weeks of work to go. They still have to build dividers between all the units, install eavestroughing, and then paint the thing--definitely not a cold-wet-weather task. That's not going to happen until spring.

On Oct. 19, we received another update again predicted the balconies would be complete by Oct. 22. It was at that point, with the workers inexplicably moving on and tearing down the balconies on another block, that I realized that CCOC had no idea what was going on down at the site.

Now, everybody with two brain cells knows that you don't leave construction workers to their own devices; it's like leaving pirates to guard gold. You've got to have constant communication with them, both to receive updates, and to provide guidance about what to do next. It's very clear that CCOC has been absentee on this project; they're simply taking the workers' reports, verbatim.

We're talking, all in all, about a ten-week project that's going to end up taking ten or eleven months to complete. You can build an entire new building in that amount of time!

I emailed CCOC about this on October 22. I received on brush-off reply and a promise of something more substantial in the future. Well, it's the future, and I'm still waiting.

In the middle of this, CCOC needed access to our apartment for something. I came home that day to find my door unlocked. Another ball dropped. Lord knows, we get enough Notices of Entry; about 15 per year. They actually come on the appointed date about 60 percent of the time; for the other 40 percent, either they don't show and are eventually rescheduled, or they arrive unaccompanied, later, taking their chances that people will be home. If you contact them about a problem, it's about a fifty-fifty chance that they will actually show up. If they show up, it's a song-and-dance about how challenging the repair will be; and if it requires consultation with the head office, well, you're screwed. We have a bathroom sink, original equipment, that's well beyond the end of its serviceable lifetime. I called about it two years ago, and a gent came to look at it and said, yes, we could get a new bathroom sink; it was only a question of whether it was maintenance or remodelling. He left and promptly forgot all about it. Twenty years ago, I called them about a leak in our eavestroughing. they responded, and, gosh, they've have to get the ladders up, and really, we were just talking about a few drops. Twenty years later, they've had to rebuild the balconies due to water damage. Smart decision, CCOC!!

To top it all off, this week we received a Notice of Rent Increase. I think we'll be talking to them instead about a rent decrease, as compensation for all the moths we'be been denied a balcony. I was willing to forget about ten weeks; I'm not willing to forgive ten months.

Warning: Do not choose CCOC as your landlord!

Folks, I hate to say it, but do not choose CCOC as your landlord. They're having problems right now. They can't quarterback a simple renovations project, and their maintenance department is getting sloppy. I've seen this happen before; and, inevitably, things continue to deteriorate until there are tenants' uprisings, charges from the City, and ultimately the landlord goes belly-up.

It's sad to see this happening. It's sad to see the depths to which CCOC has sunk. It's sad to realize that this is happening to us. We've got to get out of here before the whole place goes under!

I didn't want to have to say all of this, but time's a-wastin'. I've already waited over a week for a reply to a simple question: when will this project end; and why did the workers suddenly divert their efforts to tearing down the balconies on the adjoining block, knowing that it would delay everything. They can't even answer that question, which shows you how hopelessly out of touch they are.

Enough said.

-Bill