Woodlands Place Rental Apartments

On 14 December 2023 while I was working from home, I heard the sound of my microwave going on and off and I could not understand what was going, as I stood up to go and check, but then I could smell something burning, when I looked at the plug that had my work laptop plugged in there was smoke. I immediately ran to switch off the main switch, but I was too late. My work and personal laptop chargers were damaged by the burn so was my microwave. I immediately tried to call the emergency number for the complex but it was unreachable so I sent a WhatsApp message to notify them about why was happening but there was no immediate response, I then sent a message to the manager of the complex who then said that they are aware of the electricity fault and he told me to keep everything switched up until the electricians come in to do repairs.. There was no communication from them so I kept following up, I even went to the maintenance office twice and found nobody there. I was given a number to call but it was off… Later that day I had to assume that the issue was resolved and I took it upon myself to switch on the lights because they were just not communicating. When I initially reported the damage caused by the fault which affected my block, I also enquired about when they would repair or replace the damaged appliances, I did not get a response. I followed up a couple of times and there was no response. I spoke to a neighbour who’s appliances were damaged as well and he informed me that most of the tenants in our block had their appliances damaged as well. After following up for a while, I eventually received a response which reads

“Good day,

Please note that unfortunately you are responsible for appliances in your unit that have surged. We advise on getting house hold insurance for these reasons as it is unfortunately not our responsibility should anything be damaged inside the unit that belongs to you. We also suggest that you get power surge plugs for such reasons.”

I was shocked to receive such a response because they were taking no accountability for the damage caused and at no point did they “advise” on household insurance or surge plugs. The damage could have been minimised had they sent out communication immediately when they picked up on the issue, but I had to send a message myself only to be told that they are aware. If you are aware, why are you not advising the tenants to switch off all appliances and also communicating when the issue has been resolved? Till this day my block does not have lights outside, it is not safe to walk outside our block without a flashlight. The outside lights have been off since the incident on 14 December 2023.