The Singapore Forum

Remember how we were known in Singapore for our leaky house? Remember how something always fell apart just before we went away? Remember how, just as I was packing to go one time (and I think Neo was away), the sky fell in right above my head/bed?

Didn't think it would happen in an apartment.

Sitting here with a shower curtain over the bed and 4 bowls on it, catching water from an ever increasing L-shaped leak in the ceiling, keeping an eye on it whilst Neo tries to find an emergency contact.

Le sigh.

Oh no! Hope it gets resolved quickly.

One consolation, at least it happened when you were there and not away...

I bet it's not raining in Melbourne

Sydney gets more average rainfall than Melbourne. And the buildings are built better.

That I know - well, the first part at least. It's a reference to the fact that, a week ago, Melbourne was looking like our next move, and a pretty rapid one at that.

Best place to live in Australia.

It never rains, it pours.

What's with your condo building and water K?! Hope you've dried out now

Nope. Ceiling over the bed - where you slept - will probably be coming down, with or without assistance. The plumber that came out about 8am said, if it was dripping through at 6am, it was probably pooling there from about midnight. (We had some scary weather overnight; the Shire has some serious floods.)

Strange thing is, we're not on the top floor but it's thought to be a flat roof problem - not the first one in the block.

Only just caught back up on this (been enjoying the marvellous Melbourne autumn weather which is bound to disappear before next weekend for the GP....damn it!!!) and realised that it is because of rainwater. I thought it must have been a plumbing disaster or whatever from the apartment above or something.

So hopefully it will all be fixed without any cost to you K?

No cost, will be an insurance job, just major inconvenience. I'm stuck into a big project at work, Neo has an exam on Wednesday, Neo is trying to sell sell sell before the end of his FY, and we go away on Friday.

Slept on the mattress on the floor last night so could keep an eye on the ceiling if it rained. Feeling grrrrreat

Update: the ceiling is still up but not yet fixed, and will have to be partially removed - as we thought. Engineer finally came out earlier in the week to look at it, and he and Neo went up to the penthouse (which is tenanted, so getting access has been a pain) to confirm that the problem is, as thought, a cracked membrane on a balcony.

Still waiting to hear that the quote has been submitted, let alone approved. Why didn't somebody warn me about strata properties?

As a result, and after being quite ill with breathing difficulties and a chest infection, I'm now sleeping in the downstairs guest room on an ageing sofabed. Neo's done his best to scrub the mould off the ceiling and is sleeping upstairs as the sofabed really isn't big enough for five. Or very comfortable these days - so I'm shopping for a new bed.

worst come to worst: the outdoor furniture?

Crikey kooky, must've been a Malaysian build. All roofs leak here

Is it the kind with the bar that cuts side to side across your back? I slept on a sofabed like that once, and the following night just opted for sleeping on the couch instead. Didn't bother pulling the damn thing out.

Good luck with the ceiling.

FurBaby wrote:worst come to worst: the outdoor furniture?

Certainly not outside - we're down to 10C overnight

The sofabed has earned its keep, we bought it when we first got to Singapore in 2002. We've slept on it for up to a fortnight at a time when we've had guests and it's been surprisingly comfortable - mattress just getting past it I think.

Decided last night that I missed my husband (and he's going away tomorrow) and slept upstairs. There's another thread coming...

(Oh my life, all go at the moment!)

Kooky!! Those were the days!!

So it's still not fixed. Due to everything having to go to the committee, and crap weather meaning they couldn't go on the roof to investigate, it has taken until today for them to actually DO anything.

The engineers arrived at 7am and have just left (3pm-ish) after pouring red dye down one place they thought it might be coming from and yellow dye down another, doing flood tests, running back down and looking at the ceiling numerous times and, would you believe it, the ceiling is still dry. So now they know where it's NOT coming from. Just not where it's coming from.

PS: Spammers, don't bother. I'm not in Singapore.

Time to get out of those pre-fabs and buy a proper house

Yeah. Thought a fairly young apartment would be low-maintenance

So I know you're all wondering, so I thought I'd let you know I haven't slept in my bedroom for nearly 22 weeks now, and we still don't know the cause of the leak.

I'm over it. Seriously.

You didn't buy a unit in a warehouse convert did you ?

Nope, can't say it, it's just to mean while it's still happening to you.

No we didn't, we chose this unit over a warehouse conversion, and over the Alcatel building conversion over the courtyard that's separately managed, because we heard it had problems.

I am however doing my best to get the Property Management company sacked, and I think it may happen once these current problems are resolved. Not just our manager, the whole company. (How in this day and age can a person that by definition spend most of her time out of the office, claim she can't pick up her emails?)

A fairly common scam in Aus is for the builder/developer to stack the number of units where they have the proxies to vote in the elections. That way they can keep a developer friendly PM company in place who will keep the serfs at bay until the building warranty expires.

Not sure how old your place is but if it's less than 10 years then you may find that the developer is still linked into the PM company.