"We feel fooled": tenants have been living in alternative quarters for months

Created: 04/06/2022, 20:50

Martin Ginz (left) and Klaus Schmack regularly check on their apartments.

The block of houses on the corner of Florstädter Straße and Löwengasse is currently being modernized.

You think a lot of things are going wrong.

© Holger Menzel

The renovation of a block of flats in Frankfurt has been delayed.

The tenants are angry.

Not just because of the waiting.

They complain about burglaries and rent increases.

Frankfurt - Bankruptcies, bad luck and breakdowns: According to Martin Ginz and Klaus Schmack, this says everything about the course of the renovation of the apartment blocks on the corner of Florstädter Straße and Löwengasse in Frankfurt*.

Nassauische Heimstätte Wohnstadt (NHW), which owns the houses, did almost everything wrong.

The biggest point of criticism is the poor information policy.

No one can be reached for telephone inquiries.

"The Pope is easier to reach than the NH," complains Schmack.

And: "We don't know when it's going back."

Most recently, the 48 tenants in five houses were informed that March 11th would be the day - but the date had passed and a new date had not been given.

The end of 2021 was originally promised.

Schmack shrugs and only says that his partner has lived in the apartment for 40 years, as fnp.de reports *.

Frankfurter annoyed: Already eight months spent in the alternative quarters in Offenbach

On August 11, the couple moved into a furnished alternative quarters in Offenbach.

Schmack and his partner had looked for it themselves because they didn't want to move into the two-room apartment in a boarding house on Merianplatz in Frankfurt - one of several that NH offered its tenants.

"We've been in Offenbach for more than eight months now."

Ginz also scratches his hooves and wants to go back to his own four walls.

The fact that it takes so long has something to do with the fact that "something went wrong right from the start during the renovation," he says.

He regularly checks in his attic apartment whether everything is in order.

Unfortunately, there are often nasty surprises.

Because the roof was sloppy when the roof was renewed, it rained in.

Burglars would have made use of it in the cellar compartments and occasionally in apartments, since apartment and entrance doors are often not locked in the evening.

And after the renovation, his bathroom is smaller than before.

Lines and cables were also not laid properly.

And work had been done that had not been previously announced.

According to Schmack, as a thank you for all the inconvenience, the housing association has announced a rent increase of 130 to 150 euros.

He finds that outrageous.

Anger about apartment renovation in Frankfurt: NHW explains itself

On request, the NHW states that the increase is very moderate.

Tenants benefited from an energy-efficient house with significantly reduced heating energy requirements and a modern infrastructure.

Among other things, the facade and the attic ceilings will be insulated, the roof renewed, triple-glazed windows and a new heating system installed.

Electrical installations in the bathroom, hallway and kitchen as well as the floor there will be renewed, the bathrooms renovated and new doors installed.

The canal will then be renovated and the outdoor facilities will be revised.

The NHW assumes that the calculated renovation costs of 4.9 million euros will increase.

According to NHW, there are several reasons for the delay in work.

A tenants' initiative rejected the energetic refurbishment.

The result: a four-month delay and completion at the end of April instead of the end of December 2021. Material bottlenecks and longer delivery times would have done the rest.

At the beginning of March, heating lines in the bathrooms and electrical lines were severed in several apartments.

Work in Frankfurt-Bornheim announced well in advance

The fact that the entrance and apartment doors are not locked sounds strange.

The company commissioned with the modernization has been instructed to lock external and apartment doors after work.

There is also a locksmith who hands out keys and checks when they are returned in the evening.

The respective tenants would also have access to the apartments.

NHW works with an external call center outside normal working hours.

There may well have been waiting times here.

Because there are more email inquiries during the pandemic and staff are sometimes absent due to corona, the processing time is longer.

NHW cannot be accused of a lack of information about the construction project in Frankfurt.

There were several announced inspections, the first in March 2017. All tenants were informed about the modernization at least three months before the start of the measure by letter dated November 30, 2020.

And on January 20, 2021 there was a virtual tenants' meeting.

(Matthias Bittner)

A case from the Frankfurt area recently also made waves: In Oberursel, several residents complained because years after the renovation of their street they are now supposed to pay tens of thousands of euros*.