Tenants Struggle To Keep Cool

Tenants in a four storey building in Mussafah have been living without air conditioning for two months. Most or all of the tenants have tried to contact the Abu Dhabi Commercial Properties (ADCP) who manage the building to find a solution, either via e-mail or phone, however no action was taken until recently, and even then only two out of four compressors are working, the building's watchman told Gulf News. The building has mainly families. Gulf News spoke to one of the tenants working in an insurance company - A.K's wife has been having problems breathing and has experienced the feeling of suffocation since this has happened, which forced him to buy three fans, and even that's not enough for his family. Their neighbour's child has also been hospitalised after developing a skin rash. "I have contacted ADCP more than five times and each time the customer service officer would refuse to give me the contact numbers for the management concerned," said A.K, who finally sent more than five e-mails to the ADCP maintenance manager, one of which said: "We would like to bring to your attention that the situation inside the apartment is too worst [sic] and children are getting sick.

" The one and only response received from ADCP on July 6 read: "Contractor is working in your building, and will finalise this issue today." Most families have been forced to stay in one bedroom in front of a fan and eat out. Tenant Ajith and his wife returned from vacation to find that nothing much has changed in the building. "With only two fans at home in a two-bedroom flat with one hall, I find it almost impossible to cook properly," said Ajith's wife. Ajith has also tried to contact ADCP on several occasions and had an argument with the watchman due to the lack of response. "The watchman is helpless and there's little he can do but the situation is frustrating! Our next door neighbour fell very sick and most of the children in the building have developed a fever." An engineer, Sankar D. and his wife and two-year old child are all in one room. "We purchased a fan, but that isn't enough." N.K. an engineer, said that ADCP has repaired 30 per cent of the air conditioner. "My family went back to India, and I have no choice but to stay back. Every time I would think of purchasing fans, ADCP would promise things would get fixed, and for the past two months I have been unable to sleep and try to spend most of my days outside the apartment." Abu Dhabi A response from the ADCP Management Team reads: "The building is 5578 in Sector 96 in Mussafah.

"To clarify, the original maintenance request was actually logged by our Helpdesk as per our call software system on 30/06/09. Naturally with the warm summer months our focus is upon addressing A/C issues as a high priority and we take all maintenance issue seriously. "The ADCP maintenance team through our modern helpdesk facility logged the A/C issue and worked to resolve quickly. The works were completed yesterday after a prior technical assessment was completed, a report was submitted and the costs of works were approved. "Recently we contacted tenants in flats 101 and 104, both tenants confirmed that cooling in the building was restored. "ADCP have taken an active role in the management of maintenance operations in our buildings and we are working to improve response times from all our contractors providing maintenance services& In this regard, ADCP recently obtained ISO-9001 for our property management systems and operations. ADCP management team are focused on implementing best in industry property management practice." The response goes on to say the firm has an open-door policy with tenants.