I refer to the article titled 60% Of Lifts In Residential Buildings In Default Of Safety Laws (timesofmalta.com, June 14. I am one those living in such buildings.
This matter has been going on for some eight years now and it concerns the Housing Authority.
I am the administrator of a block of housing apartments in Qawra. We residents have a problem with the lift because, to date, it is still not registered.
The lift was given to us by the Housing Authority in 2004 and the company in question had to register the lift. I have been writing to the Housing Department but never received a decent reply. I always get the same reply: “We are working into the matter”. This reply has remained the same for the past eight years.
Last year, a qualified engineer inspected the lift and, to our surprise, found that items that had to be installed to have the lift up to standard. These items were estimated to cost €400.00.
I informed Housing that we residents were not accepting to pay that amount of money when the items were supposed to have already been there according to the engineer report commissioned by the Housing Authority when the lift was handed over to us in 2004.
Furthermore, the serial number of the lift listed on the contract we signed in 2004 does not match that on the lift itself. Therefore, I believe the contract is void since it contains wrong details.
The lift does not have a CE mark on it and neither a telephone line.
I estimate that over €1,000 would have to be spent to bring it in total conformity with the law.
I also wrote to a number of people, including the director at the Regulatory Affairs Directorate and to Chris Said and Jason Azzopardi but nothing happened. I was always kept in the dark.
A maintenance agreement at least provides for a routine service to ensure our safety but, with all due respect, it is unacceptable that we should go through all this because the lift was handed over to us even if it was not up to the standards required by law.
We residents have to shoulder this burden, imposed on us by the Housing Authority, when the contract we signed stipulates that the Housing Authority should still remain the sole owner of all the common parts.
I have all documents and proof of all the above.