I am a tenant at the Malibu Sands Shopping Center located at 22333 Pacific Coast Hwy. We pay a hefty common area maintenance fee but anyone visiting the plaza would wonder what it was used for. It is funny because a visit to the property manager’s WEB site describing the building states that it has been recently painted and has new landscaping. From the peeling paint, decaying wood, and weeds for landscaping, I wonder what prompted Robert Mellor to make those statements.
Our “maintenance guy” shows up once a month if we’re lucky. That means the public trashcan remains full and overflowing for weeks, the parking lot is never cleaned; the landscaping is a bunch of weeds. The parking lot is full of potholes, most of which get filled with concrete by another tenant tired of waiting for Robert.
I have had six water leaks in the past 12 months. None of them have been addressed or repaired. The last one on Dec. 17 had the fire department breaking into the unit above me to find the source of the water as the “emergency” number for Robert led to a cell phone voicemail. It took five calls and two and a half hours before I heard back from Robert who said he would take care of it. I still haven’t seen him or his maintenance guy.
We have ongoing electrical problems due to water. The last problem had water in the conduit of the main feed to our building, which caused the high voltage wires to fuse together. The maintenance man, not an electrician, replaced the wires. The water leak was never addressed, so you can imagine what will happen when the water starts to build up again.
My employees discovered the problem when they detected a burning wire smell. They turned off the power to the building otherwise there would have been a major fire, as the circuit breaker didn’t turn off this time.
This electrical problem was also a reason why my air conditioner wasn’t working all summer. It was detected that two main breakers in the back were melted, which caused my air conditioner to not work. I understand that it is the most “reasonable’ rent in Malibu, but that doesn’t justify the lack of maintenance. It is getting so people don’t want to come to the plaza because it looks so run down.
I have contacted the city and had the local inspector out. That was in October and still nothing has been done. Is this how Malibu wants to be known? It leaves me feeling that the “ultra wealthy” homeowners are all that matter in Malibu.
Darren F. Lenick
DFL Solutions/Pacific Computers