Question for the ladies that own condos

For the first time in 7 years, I cleaned our balcony a few days ago. It looked awesome and so we decided to buy a new faux grass carpet and we also bought some furniture for our balcony.

Here is my question - the balcony railing is super rusty and I would love to have it replaced. I called our condo association and the lady told me that they have a bunch of other projects going on right now and will hopefully get to replacing the railing next year. Frankly, I think that s*cks! When she says 'next year' it probably means two years from now and we may not be living here in two years to enjoy this.

The railing is really ugly and rusty and I strongly want it replaced. What do you think? Can I threaten them? Is there an appeals process? Any info you have is greatly appreciated.

It's not a co-op correct so you wouldn't need board approval to make a change? Is it worth it to you to pay for a new railing yourselves, or is it not allowed? (i don't actually live in a condo so I don't know )

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Posted by missliss

It's not a co-op correct so you wouldn't need board approval to make a change? Is it worth it to you to pay for a new railing yourselves, or is it not allowed? (i don't actually live in a condo so I don't know )

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Here is what I know - we own the condo but can't make any changes to the outside of our home that will look different from the rest of our neighboors. I looked into getting a railing on our own but they're about 300+ and I really don't want to spend that much on something they're responsible for. Also, I told the condo board lady that we can replace it ourselves and just be reimbursed for it, but she said that we won't be reimbursed. I don't get it. If we put in a new railing, we're going to save them the trouble of doing it next year.

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Posted by 040508Bride

Can you sand it down and have it painted????? There are a lot of products you can use to DIY it....first you need to get the rust off though because if you don't, the paint will look sh!tty.....

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We thought of that, but it's going to be very messy and time consuming. It's a last resort.

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Posted by 040508Bride

Can you sand it down and have it painted????? There are a lot of products you can use to DIY it....first you need to get the rust off though because if you don't, the paint will look sh!tty.....

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that's what we did. we just put our condo on the market, and the railing itself had some bad patches, so DH just sanded it all down, and painted it, and it looks like new.

ETA, he did it all in about 3-4hours.

Is it rusty to the point that the railing is unsafe, or is it just unsightly ?

If it is unsafe, then you can bring this up with the condo association to replace the railing to make your balcony habitable. It would be the condo association's liability if anything should happen.

If it is just unsightly, then go ahead and paint it, or hire someone to do so. The rust would have to be removed first, not too hard to do, just messy.

PS - I made your BBQ rib recipe the other night, my husband was practically drooling while they were in the oven. Like a kid he kept checking the clock to see when they would be done.
You weren't kidding when you said falling off the bone tender.

Thanks for your replies ladies.

Anyone else?

Does the condo have a board or a home owner's association? If they do it's not really up to that lady to tell you no. It is up to the board to review your request and decide what action they would like to take. You should send a certified letter to their attention if you can include pictures of the damage that is always good. In your letter request to receive a reply in writing stating their decision. From that you can decide where to go.

I doubt you could replace it and ask to be reimbursed. Even though they plan on replacing them in 2 years because when they replace them they will get a huge discount when they buy 100 or so railings as opposed to you buying just 1 and paying full price.

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Posted by MeNBobs

Does the condo have a board or a home owner's association? If they do it's not really up to that lady to tell you no. It is up to the board to review your request and decide what action they would like to take. You should send a certified letter to their attention if you can include pictures of the damage that is always good. In your letter request to receive a reply in writing stating their decision. From that you can decide where to go.

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ITA - write a letter

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Posted by MeNBobs

Does the condo have a board or a home owner's association? If they do it's not really up to that lady to tell you no. It is up to the board to review your request and decide what action they would like to take. You should send a certified letter to their attention if you can include pictures of the damage that is always good. In your letter request to receive a reply in writing stating their decision. From that you can decide where to go.

I doubt you could replace it and ask to be reimbursed. Even though they plan on replacing them in 2 years because when they replace them they will get a huge discount when they buy 100 or so railings as opposed to you buying just 1 and paying full price.

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ITA.

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Posted by EverlovingEv

Thanks for your replies ladies.

Anyone else?

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i would call back and ask to speak to a manager/someone higher up!

I agree with other posters write a letter, send it certified, and also are their other tenants that have rusty ones(i'd asuum its not just yours)? maybe you can get a bunch of mad tenants to write letters, gang up on them if you have to.

if not, and all else fails, replace it and deduct it from your monthly/yearly grounds fee, and save all your proof you tried to get them to replace it but they just wouldn't.

good luck.