White Boy/White Dog Move To Skid Row

Certified Beach Dude Moves To Downtown Los Angeles

Since January 17th I have been without heat (well, and a/c too since they are both produced by same unit). The building has an integrated heating/cooling system, but each unit has a circuit board thermostat, and coils, filters etc. The word was that when management did an emergency generator test on January 17th, turning off the main power to the building, that a giant surge fried many circuit boards when the power came back on. The HOA had been working with the insurance company to cover the bill for the owners of units with problems, and finally yesterday a contractor arrived at my unit to fix it.

These guys knew what they were doing, and within 15 minutes were up in the false ceiling in my bathroom, unscrewing pipes and backwashing the system. It’s a complex system that I don’t fully understand, but basically there was a ton of gunk in the pipes that was actually causing the problem. I guess when the central heat came back on there was a lot of sludge in system that got distributed to the various units (this happens with my water too- tons of sludge in the pipes and very undrinkable at the tap; when the water goes off and comes on again, many times it clogs the filter cartridge in my shower and the shower head, requiring replacement).

They also showed me the filter to my unit- it turns out this filter needs to be replaced every 3 months to maintain optimal heating/cooling and clean air. The filter is way up in ceiling and not very accessible, although it’s supposed to by user-changable. The contractors normally charge $105 to replace it but did it for $59 yesterday as they were already up in ceiling- good value, but I’m going to pass this along to landlord, as the HOA President said it was his responsiblity according to the CC&$s.

I actually turned on the a/c yesterday and was very comfortable- my unit gets extremely hot around 4pm with 6 large west-facing windows and no drapes. It only took 11 weeks to get it fixed… and some units have been waiting longer, as there was a problem in November that affected some units. When I sent my e-mail “thanks” and update to the Higgins mailing list, one owner posted this out of frustration (I was in same position as he is but I became the “squeaky wheel” and got put at the top of the list):

Can someone please explain what the hell is going on? I am not aware of any notice to leave keys today for West Coast to enter and work / evaluate our HVAC unit. I had filled out a request form the very first day and have not heard a word until this morning. We have not had heat since Thanksgiving. … Yes that is correct , Thanksgiving. We have written several email post’s on the subject and have received little to no feedback on this matter and now things are finally moving forward in the right direction and we do not even know about it. We are on every list that has been created pertaining to units that DO NOT have heat, have made several calls to obtain updates…. And have never received info to leave a key TODAY for West Coast to enter our unit. Why ? We have also let management know that we would not be paying our HOA fee for this month due to the increase in our DWP bill over the last four months due to having only our stove as our main and only heat source ( an increase amount of $75.00 to $100.00 a month compared to the prior years bill’s when we DID have heat in our unit ) This issue has also not seen any form of a reply/info as well. So can someone PLEASE let me know if I leave work and return home to drop off a key can West Coast repair our HVAC Unit ( and replace the filter etc , as we have previously requested ) TODAY ? We would truly love nothing more at this point than to have a good experience with our heater , the board, and with Action as well …. As we feel the ball has been dropped and even kicked over to the next court on servicing the residents of this building with this issue.

I feel lucky that I got my unit serviced finally- it pays to be a loud pain-in-the-ass sometimes…