Dubai A senior diplomat who leased out a penthouse at a 45-storey tower in Dubai Marina has lashed out against poor maintenance and non-availability of facilities in the posh residential building.
He was responding to a report in XPRESS last week about homeowners of the Trident Grand Residence planning legal action against the developer Trident International Holdings (TIH) over a series of violations, including unfulfilled promises. "I can confirm all of the complaints against the developer mentioned — and some more," said Klaus D. Ranner, Consul General of Germany.
He said he had rented the penthouse on the 44th floor as the official residence of the Consul General of Germany in November 2010. "We loved the apartment because it was bright, airy and spacious with an excellent layout and stunning views of the sea, The Palm and The Marina."
However, he has faced problems since he moved in. "We have had three water leakages, with the last one being as recent as last week when water just streamed down the ceiling of the living room, damaging one of our lamps."
Among his other complaints were "poor installations, non-activation of panels for control and communication, non-activation of an escalator to basement 1, non-replacement of broken bulbs, no window cleaning, stoppages of elevators, poor air-conditioning in the community areas, defective main entrance door, unsafe installations at the pool level, no replacement of dead plants and non-operation of the decorative fountain in the main lobby".
The Consul General said he had nothing against his flat owner. "I am not complaining against the owner of the apartment. In fact, I sympathise with him. I will be moving out once my lease expires next year, but he will still have to deal with these problems."
The diplomat said the management of TIH could not be reached as they "allegedly have left the UAE". "As a consequence, not only have the works at Trident's construction sites like the so-called Pentominium come to a complete stop, but also the maintenance, service and administration of Trident Grand Residence, which had been in the hands of a subsidiary of TIH, have been taken over by Emrill, a subsidiary of Emaar. The quality of the services is slowly improving, but still leaves a lot of questions," he said.
