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Hi all,
I'd like to get a bit of help and advice if possible. I recently had my pride and joy Zaskar Carbon stolen from my apartment block. I've reported it to the police and just about anyone who will listen.
The police have contacted the company who manage my apartment block for the CCTV footage (there are cameras overlooking the main security gates). There are warnings and notices everywhere saying that "CCTV is in operation".
However, upon asking for the footage, the police were informed that the cameras were, in fact, dummies.
I don't know a lot when it comes to legal business, but do the management company not have a legal responsibility if they're advertising the fact, to actually ensure that proper CCTV cameras are installed, rather than dummy ones.
I know that lots of businesses use dummy cameras as a deterrent, but I wondered if there was some kind of legal requirement for them to have at least one working camera if they're going to warn people that it's in operation.
Normally it wouldn't bother me one way or the other. However seeing as my bike just got stolen from a supposedly secure apartment complex because I was not allowed to store it either in my apartment or directly outside it, locked to the metal banisters, and was advised to lock it downstairs, in the communal hallway, and I was relying on the CCTV footage to at least provide a clue as to the identity of the SCROTE who nicked it, I feel a little put out by the fact that there are notices emblazoned all over the place, and not one single working CCTV camera on the whole complex.
If it was a shop, they'd have been done for false advertising!
Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks
Can't help with advice, but that's a real bummer. Looking to the future is there no way you could store the bike in a bike box/bag inside the flat?
Good luck with finding it in good condition and the scrote not!
Shouldn't you change your forum name now ?
thats awful, you had you hopes of at least ID-ing the scrote, then are hit with the secondary whammy. Crap m8 really crap.
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No use now, but for the future I'd invest in a bike bag so you can bring it into the apartment - either that or just ignore the rules. My m8 uses a bike bag all the time, and basically the bike lives in the bag when not in use (dries out fine).
I have no real legal knowledge but if you just saw the signs and assumed the building had working CCTV, then I guess you don't have a case. It's proper shite though! If on the other hand you where told by the management or letting agency that there was CCTV, or they implied that the building was secure because of CCTV in anyway, then you might have some grounds for a complaint. Still don't know what, if anything, you could achieve though.
hmmm... I live across the road from a police station.. it's bristling with cctv cameras.. I left my bike locked downstairs a few years back for a couple of nights while work was happening inside our quite compact flat.. not an expensive bike by any stretch of the imagination.. or even very desirable (bargain bucket bitsa)...
It was stolen on the second night.. in full view of the copshop and their cctv.. (the cams were pointing the other way at the time)..
My bike comes inside my flat with me every time.. full stop.. no excuses.. ever..
Edric 64 - MemberShouldn't you change your forum name now ?
Yeah, thanks for that. It's taken me the best part of 12 months to get the money together to buy the bike only for some little shitbag to come and take it away. I did everything I could to make sure that it was secure given the fact that I wasn't allowed to store it in my apartment, or directly outside, and now I get told that the CCTV which I was relying on was, in fact, a dummy camera.
And then you come along with your little comment. **** off and be a prick somewhere else instead of trying to be funny by essentially taking the piss out of someone else's misfortune. ****.
I don't see how you have a claim against the factors, sorry.
yunki - MemberMy bike comes inside my flat with me every time.. full stop.. no excuses.. ever..
I am not able to bring my bike inside my flat. I will be penalised by the landlord. I have already been warned for doing it. I cannot store it outside the flat (I live on the 3rd floor) chained to the banister because of fire regs. I have been warned by the management company about this. The only, and I mean only, place I could store it was in the communal hallway, downstairs, hidden from view. The bike was still locked. Even then I wasn't supposed to, as we have an 'allocated storage area' for bikes, which basically consists of a couple of racks outside, in the corner of the car park.
If I was able to bring the bike inside, it would have been. No questions.
cynic-al - MemberI don't see how you have a claim against the factors, sorry.
That's fair enough. To be honest I knew I was clutching at straws. Just made all the more frustrating by the fact that I've had my bike nicked, and the fact that the management company couldn't really give two shits about it.
They kept saying that there was an allocated area for bikes outside.... If the thief had managed to get through a security gate, and a security door, and break the lock, and get away without being noticed, then I'm pretty sure the bike wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes chained outside in the corner of the car park!
What have your insurers said? (Assuming one still has contents insurance in a flat?)
I wonder if you would get away with quickly popping your bike in a bike bag and then taking it inside? Not a useful suggestion now I appreciate, but for the next one. A non bikey person probably wouldn't know what it was.
Twunts. Move house!
I guess it really depends on what evidence you have of being told/informed of the security arrangements in the building by the owner. If they directly said there are security cameras and there aren't then yes, you'd certainly have some recourse. Otherwise it's just pretty rotten luck I'd think.
My view on bike bags is that they have no business asking you what is in your bag. You are not bringing in a bike, you are bringing in a large bag. They don't have the right to look in it, or at least I'd hope they don't, since that'd be tantamount to a search.
I've used that tactic before (on trains) and I know of others who do it in their flats.
Bike theft sucks tho, commiserations. I was lucky (relatively) when I got burgled and cleaned out - I'd just changed my insurance to one that covered me for the circumstances in which the theft happened.
Again, this isn't going to help now, but I've learnt your lessons my self, several times. What sort of lock did you use? My experience tells me that anything short of the biggest badest D lock you can get, is pretty much useless. Even inside a building. I've had a bike taken from my garden locked with a flat section abuse (solid steal plates, rivitted together), now my bike lives in the flat always and I'm even thinking of installing a ground anchor in there.
I had the same at uni - no bikes inside. So I put it in my bike bag in my room, it just meant taking the wheels off and turning the bars, the bag zipped up almost entirely and I just threw a towel over the top of it. None of the people who did room inspections ever said anything.
Used that trick throughout 3 years of uni accommodation, never had a problem.
Bad luck BTW - its an expensive lesson but to me Bikes live inside always.
Is this in the UK? Would no bikes inside be enforceable as a condition of a lease ?