My bike is parked in a secure garage. I am paying a lot of money for it to management company, which they justified the price because of the high security devices installed in the apartments and garage.
My bike was (broken fairing, headlights, levers, etc…) damaged in the garage last year and (after reporting to the police) the management company failed to give me the tape/video.
In the last three days someone is interfering with my motorbike (and yesterday someone removed the cover of the bike. my worried is that someone is trying to steal it or damage again).
What do you advice me to do? May I sue the management company for not providing the video (which I am paying for). Any previous attempt to contact the management company failed (they subcontract the management of the CCTV to another company, and this to another again, so for me its impossible to trace them). Should I stop to pay and see if someone will me give me a call (but in this case I will be in trouble for not paying).
Find a lawyer,
Have a consultation
Find out what your rights are
Work out varying plans of action - eg official letter writing, threats to go to court, or possibility of small claims court…
Work out the costs (lawyers/time/effort)
Determine whether you are prepared to take go through with it.
Big company’s generally work on the principal that they have more money/lawyers/time than you so you are more likely to “not bother”, however, if its serious and the lawyer reckons you have a case, take them for everything they’re worth…
It all really depends on the agreement you made when you paid for their services in the first place… was there a contract? Or are your beliefs of what you are paying for not the same as their beliefs… that’s the big crux really…
good luck and don’t be intimidated by lawyer speak, the whole point about lawyers is they don’t like doing hard work any more than you do, so they talk aggressive and mean to try and scare you so they get paid for the least effort possible… put emotions to the side, get legal advise, and tear them apart if legal advise says you are in a position to do so.
I would also seek the advice of a brief, I seem to permanently employ one these days, but they are never cheap from about £200 an hour. If the property company don’t back down at an early stage be prepared to have to fork out for a barrister as well. Careful though as some layers will always tell you that you have a case which you can win even if you don’t have a snowballs chance. Might be worth a trip to your local Citizens advice bureau first and see if you can use the small claims court first, it’s cheap and easy.
A mate of mine used to run a property management company, it’s standard practice to ignore the first letter of complaint. This is because they know most people give up quickly. Property management always use the services of good layers who are not unrelated to sharks. So standard form is to first ignore you, then keep you waiting for answers and generally try to ware you down.
If it were me I would keep paying the rent for now as you will want to be Snow White so don’t give them ammunition and try to keep records of every communication and be civil.
