From the outside, building 116 on Urzaiz Street in the heart of Vigo is a normal building. There are hundreds, if not thousands, in the rest of Galicia. Granite slabs, balconies and windows. Behind closed doors, a situation too strange to be worthy of the best pages of Franz Kafka has been brewing for months. Although there is an elevator in the building, their neighbors have not been able to use the elevator for a year. The resulting discomfort and resulting anger was evident considering the block was eight storeys high and elderly people lived there.

The most striking thing about the case is why they couldn’t use it. If no one has been able to use this bridge since last year, it is because – residents condemn – one of the residents of the block refused to give consent and paid his part of the payment.

Schrödinger’s elevator. Located in the heart of Vigo city centre, at 116 Urzaiz Street, the building is, in a way, Schrödinger’s elevator. This. And it’s not there. The story developed a few days ago Vigo Lighthouse: The elevator works smoothly, but no one has been able to use the elevator for a year, even if it is to go up and down floors, the residents of the apartment have to carry shopping bags and need crutches. The reason for this is simple; always according to the version that the neighbors conveyed to the Galician newspaper: one of the owners flatly refuses to bear his share of the payments, which leads to the blockage of the cabin.

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“Just because he doesn’t want to”. To understand the problem, we need to go back to the past; to when the building contacted the company tasked with repairing the only elevator in the eight-story building where 15 families lived. The arriving technician left the installation ready for use, but since then (and some time has passed) none of the residents of the block have been able to get on the installation and reach their flats.

Neighbors insist that this congestion is explained by the location of one of the property owners, emphasizing that this is so “only because he does not want to bear his expenses.” “” they insist Lighthouse.

From landings to courthouse. The situation has escalated to the point that it no longer goes beyond the landing, owner meetings, and newspaper pages. Citizens who could not reach an agreement decided to apply to a lawyer to take their demands to court, if necessary. “We have already retained an attorney to mediate and try to resolve a situation that is causing a lot of problems in the community.”

Eight floors on foot. In order to understand the problem well, it is necessary to know the characteristics of the property, which has 8 floors, a single elevator, and where 15 families with different characteristics live. The block is inhabited by elderly people and even an 80-year-old woman who recently had hip surgery. One of the residents of the apartments on the upper floor of the building had already packed his bags when he encountered problems such as not being able to take a butane cylinder home.

Radio Vigo adds a little more touch. He states that all those affected are tenants and many of them do not even know the owners of their flats. Contact with the manager will also be through real estate agents, and as one of his neighbors told the station, the property suffers from other major problems, such as moisture in the garage or a lack of fire extinguishers. “They fear they will try to throw them out of the building,” the network concludes.

What does the regulation say?. Article 9 of the Horizontal Property Law clarifies that owners must, among other obligations, “contribute to general expenses for the adequate maintenance of the property, services, in accordance with the participation fee specified in the title deed or specifically determined.” Burdens and responsibilities that are not open to individualization”. The same law states that some works are “essential in nature”, including those “necessary to guarantee reasonable adjustments to accessibility”.

Curious yes; an icon. The incident in Vigo is not the only example of a dispute between neighbors over elevator payment; this can lead to legal action, as in this case. This is not the only case where these differences lead to Kafkaesque situations. Recently, a video went viral on the internet; tik toker It shows an elevator with panels showing only the numbers 0, 2, 4 and 7. Missing intermediate numbers is not a result of an error. “During the first, third and sixth installation, they did not pay. There are no doors on their floor, there are walls,” explains the author of the recording, joking: “You do not pay? There is no door.”

Image | Vigo Free Trade Zone Consortium (Wikipedia)

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