We purchased a 3bedroom/2bath unit in Windsor Place Condos a little over 3 years ago. We learned quickly that not only was our unit suffering from severely deferred maintenance, but the entire complex had problems. Severe and EXPENSIVE problems to repair. WATCH OUT FOR BIG and ONGOING Special ASSESSMENTS to cover repairs. All on top of the $350 to $700 monthly HOA FEES of course!
One of our neighbors suffered major water damage inside his/her apartment from a roof in desperate need of replacement but of course, that would mean re-roofing the entire building & doing so has been deferred for far longer than is prudent or safe, IMHO. The wiring for telephone service in the building was 'given' to the building following the break-up of AT&T/Mountain Bell years ago. The wiring for phone or DSL service into many of the units is broken, vandalized, or even non-existent! For INTERNET and PHONE you are stuck with mainly one provider - IE Cox Communications. Century Link cannot get Phone/DSL service to many of the units. The 'management' is responsible for the interior wiring of the building, including telephone cabling within the buildings, and of course they've ignored the need to update/replace it for many many years. Trash Rooms on each floor (where residents brought their trash in bags) were overrun with RATS!! The rats eventually spread to most of the apartments. Fortunately we owned two indoor cats, which made short work of the rodents entering our unit. Instead of an exterminator, the board closed the trash rooms - forcing resident to take their trash to the bins a few hundred yard distant. Hard to do in 114 degree heat when you're past 60! The elevators went out with amazing regularity. Not a problem if you lived on the first or even 2nd floor. But for those on 4 and 5 -especially for handicapped/elderly residents- elevator being out meant they were trapped in their units until elevators were repaired - this could take days on some occasions. Although the elevators had been 'rebuilt', they were and are circa 1960 hydraulic elevators, slow, touchy, and fail repeatedly.
One of our neighbors discover a collapsed sewer line running under his first floor apartment and out to the street. This line served the entire 'stack' of units from 1st floor to the 5th floor. Sewer water had been leaking into the ground under his apartment for months or years before he hired a plumber at great expense to finally diagnose the problem! The collapsed sewer line has not been repaired since he learned of the real issue, approximately one year ago. (NB: to repair it safely, the entire foundation under his should be opened, the plumbing /sewer line replaced and the very earth itself may have to be dug out, replaced, and compacted before a new foundation can be poured. Total cost, not including moving them out and storing furniture, etc., while out, is estimated to run over $100,000.
The AC and HEATING are powered by a boiler and chiller in the building that contains the boiler/chiller/storage, and laundry rooms. The hot and cold water feeds from the boiler/chiller room to the buildings & various floors/apartments was originally underground in tunnels. When it needed replacement the then 'board' got cheap and re-routed those huge pipes (some 10" in circumference plus insulation around them, or more) above ground! They are painted to match the walls and areas they travel across, but they're ugly as hell, and of course degrade the efficiency of the chilled water that's distributed to each apartment's air handlers. (This is standard type of AC used in larger commercial buildings because it's cheaper to chill water than to chill air). These water-powered air-handlers can and do chill the units down nicely, but they are prone to leaking, condensate spilling into the area above the ceilings, and all kinds of expensive-to-repair problems. The real kicker is that the Condo Rules and Regulations hold the Building & Board of Directors responsible for maintaining the main chiller and boiler, and the cost of running them is included in the HOA Fees collected monthly. HOWEVER, the individual AIR HANDLERS in the APARTMENTS, including their leaking coils and water pans, is held to be the responsibility of the individual owners. These things are often inside the drywall ceilings without any access hatch installed. So service for them begins with cutting open the drywall get to the units, and then the HVAC guys can begin to diagnose/repair the problems. Many of these units are the original air handlers installed in 1960 when the building was first completed! Cost of replacement runs between 3500 and 4500 per air handler, some of the larger units have two of them! This isn't in the listing info of course. New owners usually find out about this issue when they notice water pouring down from their ceilings. We're glad we sold it! Very glad! read more
