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Elderly residents of an Auckland CBD apartment building are meeting this evening after saying they must use a “urine-saturated” stairwell while waiting for the body corporate to fix an “antiquated” elevator.
The building on Karangahape Rd is home to some cancer patients, people with other chronic lung conditions and the elderly who have been forced to walk up the seven-storey building.
Many of the residents are expected to meet at 6.30pm tonight to discuss the issues and what they claim is a month-long broken elevator.
Resident Paul van Dinther is thankful to be fit, and healthy and only lives halfway up the Kingsbridge apartments on Bordan Ln.
“Many residents are elderly and some are ill. The only way up is through a urine-saturated stairwell,” he said.
“They can walk only one flight of stairs and then they have to stop and you see them leaning over, leaning on their knees and, you know, just having a breath before he continues.”
Paul van Dinther who lives in the Knightsbridge Apartments, he and the other residents say they have been railroaded. Photo / Dean Purcell
He said his landlord has declined to reduce the rent while the vital service is out of action.
“Here I am being nearly 60 years old, in a few months I will be, and I get inspected four times a year by some 30-year-old snot,” van Dinther said.
“I’m interested in getting my value for what I pay for rent when that service reduces to a level that you have to climb up a concrete dungeon every day to get to your apartment it’s not fair.”
He and other residents are gathering at a nearby bar tonight to “identify those residents with an urgent need for support” and to “collect and list grievances that affect multiple residents”.
Kingsbridge building manager Roger Ogilvy said only a handful of the residents rent their apartments while the others own them.
Paul van Dinther who lives in the Knightsbridge Apartments said their only elevator has not been working for a month and the residents are having to use the stairs. Photo / Dean Purcell
The building is controlled by a body corporate that is struggling to find the funds to fix the “antiquated” elevator, he added.
“I mean, when you’re dealing with body corporates, you know, they’re like nonprofits, they’ve only got a certain amount of money to play with and there is some major work that needs to be done to the building, which is what the committee is saving its money for,” Ogilvy said.
The Knightsbridge Apartment doorstep is often the target of those hoping to relieve themselves after partying on Karangahape Rd. Photo / Dean Purcell
He said people often ventured off Karangahape Rd and relieved themselves on the building’s stairwell. He said the stairs are cleaned “as often as they can be”.
Ogilvy also said he has heard “only a few complaints” regarding the elevator, and a lot of people have said they are “grateful for the exercise”.
“[All] I have heard is one woman who can’t carry her golf bag up and down the stairs, seems like first-world problems if you ask me,” Ogilvy said.
Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.
