Residents of a flat on General Teynstraat in Eindhoven have been glued to home for ten days by a broken lift. Hospital agreements are postponed and the social life of a number of residents is on a break. The repair of the elevator will take a while, while the unrest among the residents only increases. “It is waiting for someone to be brought down by the fire brigade,” says a worried neighbor.
“I am locked up and can’t go anywhere for the whole week. My friend Hub can’t even come and have a drink, because he has a muscle disease and can’t get up the stairs. I can’t go outside either. That hurts me a lot,” says Jan van Beers who lives on the third floor of the flat.
Because of his poor health, he was glued to home and that worries him. “My feet are sometimes so thick that I don’t even get my shoes on. Because of injections in my eyes I don’t see good. I don’t know how I don’t get up with my condition and the quality of my eyes.”
Jan’s neighbor is in the same boat and has not been outside for ten days. “I have a heart rhythm disorder and my blood is too fat. I can do some shopping, but if I have to go up and down the stairs three times, I get a heart attack.”
The residents of the 32 apartments have sent a letter to the Trudo housing association. “But you will be sent from the box to the wall and nobody takes his responsibility,” says Jan.
The housing association announces in a response that they find it annoying for the residents, but because only 34 percent of Trudo homes can do nothing. “We refer the residents to the VVE (Association of Owners), but we do find out why it takes so long,” says a spokesperson.
The VVE of VB&T says that they received a report from the broken lift five days ago. “Such a report can come through a tenant from Trudo or an owner. A day later we made an emergency report for the repair. The parts have been ordered, but the delivery can take a while,” says Stefan Pater manager.
The VvE will make an inventory of whether there is a need for an interim solution. “For example, that a student comes up every Thursday at a certain time to bring groceries up”, Father brings up.
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Until then, the neighbor looks every half hour whether the elevator has already been made, but the button stays red. In the gallery of the flat, a chair at the top of the stairs is puffing. The neighbors are very concerned about two other residents. “On the eighth floor, an older man with two dogs lives, whom he cannot just lift to go down the stairs,” says Jan.
The consequences of the broken lift are serious for the older and less mobile flat residents. “My grandmother is very tough. She is locked up at six high and has to cry a lot,” says granddaughter Nilab. “She has high blood pressure and is demented. She always wants to go outside, but we cannot penetrate her that that is not possible. We have canceled her doctor and hospital appointments.”
The lift company informs Omroep Brabant that the lift will be repaired on Wednesday or Thursday. It had to take a while due to the delivery time of parts. “That is extra annoying when it comes to older people,” said the company.
KONE says he advises customers to do maintenance on time, but that customers do not always do that and wait until the lift is broken. This causes problems for them with a shortage of older material and a shortage of staff.
Neighbor Jan hopes that the lift will be repaired in a good way to prevent problems in the future. “This lift is already fifty years old, if you replace a screw, everything will wear out. They have to repair it well.”
Broken lifts provide much more misery in Brabant: