Eleven tenants, many of whom are students, at a council-owned flat complex have received financial payouts after investigations found faults in the fire alarm system which would have put residents in danger in an emergency.
The boarding house on the upper two levels of the Moray Place carpark building (above Reading Cinemas) was formerly the Dunedin YMCA hostel. The council lets out nine apartments, although only four were occupied.
The DCC Group Manager for Property Services Laura McElhone says recent safety checks revealed a fault in the fire alarm system, which affected several of the flats. The fault meant that if a fire started in this area the alarm would not automatically activate.
“The affected flats have working smoke alarms. However, for these tenants to alert the rest of the building to a fire, one of them would have had to manually activate the fire alarm system.”
“We were not comfortable that the situation provided an adequate level of safety for our tenants and we therefore offered them either alternative short-term accommodation or financial assistance to find alternative long-term accommodation.”
Critic understands the financial payout to be in the realm of several thousand dollars per tenant.
Tenants were given four days to find somewhere else to stay. “They called us on Wednesday and said they wanted us out on Sunday, but they were very accommodating. Because it was a safety thing: they were fine with me leaving my stuff there longer, they just needed assurance that no people would be staying there,” said one former tenant, “They did everything right. I’d say the big scare came from the London fire.”
The DCC is currently working to install a new functional fire alarm system, although it is not yet confirmed when or if the apartment complex will be rented out again in the future. “The configuration of the building in terms of access, layout and shared facilities means it doesn’t meet the level of service expected by tenants,” McElhone says. The council will explore possible alternative uses for the building space.