The building is a walkup with the parking on the street level, and the first floor of units is a flight up, and on top of the parking if that makes sense. It sounded like an external run wasn’t possible because the box where all the connections are is below in the parking area, or at least that’s along the lines of what the technician told me. I can try begging them to attempt something unconventional but I’m not sure what is and isn’t in the realm of possibility when it comes to something like that.
That sounds weird. They shouldn’t have to go through someone else’s apartment from what you describe. There should be some service runs to your place. The external run might be a condo rule. Cable guys are notorious for lazy runs even when it is easy and it sounds like you’re 4 stories up on top of it.
They made it sound like the wiring was just so old and the building was constructed without the thought of internet so the only way to run the cable is to go through all the units in the stack. The cable is shared by all the units in the stack though which is why they were offering to put the best one they had in to sweeten the pot, because in every sense of the word this would be an upgrade to the internet quality for the entire stack. No idea if this helps but this is the building. Mt unit is actually the corner unit at the top.
OK, that is pretty much what I was imagining.
There have to already be some runs up for Telephone, electric & pipes.
Maybe it is too hard to use these due to crowding issues, but that would actually be the normal method.
As far as external runs, I can see neither ISP or management wanting that. The tech would have to work his way up 3.5 stories to secure it properly or there will be a cable bouncing around on windy days.
It’s interesting you say that because there are telephone ports in my wall so I know for a fact that at the very least phone lines have been ran, but wouldn’t the ability to use those runs depend on them being from the same company? I have no idea how it works, but if I know what to ask I can at least toss it out there. An external run is too hard, but a run using the telephone pipes may not be? I have the foremans direct number for the ISP so if there’s anything that might possibly work I’d absolutely love to know if nothing else so I can shoot it by him on Monday!
I haven’t read every reply, and IANAL, but …
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In court, the party with the deeper pockets tends to win. Is that you ? Is that the property owner from whom you’re renting ? Or is it the defense attorneys paid for by you, your landlord, and the other tenants in the building ?
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Right and wrong don’t matter in court as much as winning and losing. Again: might makes right;
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Right and wrong also don’t tend to matter when you, effectively, sue all your neighbors;
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You’re new to Hawaii. I don’t know Hawaii at all, but lots of places don’t take too kindly to a new person coming into town and suing “one of theirs;”
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Hawaii is a Business Judgment Rule state for HOA’s. As a practical matter, this means that when you or the unit owner sue them, the HOA wins … unless there is unbelievably incontrovertible evidence that the HOA acted in egregious bad faith.
So I’m just talking about odds … and what things might militate against you.
And with those (IMHO) odds … I would do everything in my power to get my needs met without an attorney.
Including moving to another complex … if that were feasible, and if it would solve your issue.
Best of luck to you !
I appreciate the insight! I’d like to do this without going to the courts if possible because it would honestly be quicker that way. As it stands I have a few options, but I feel they could all turn up empty and my last resort would be trying to get a court order. If I can try to speak to someone on the board directly then maybe this will all start moving in the right direction.
As for suing all my neighbors I guess that’s technically true, but I’m not trying to clean house or get the flag of texas painted on the roof. I’m a hard-working citizen just like all of them and I just want the ISP to be able and come out, do their 15 minute run, and give the stack upgraded internet so I can make a living. I’m not a lawyer but I’d hope that after telling the board the cable that they allowed to be ran thirty years ago is now needing to be maintenanced, and lack of doing so is costing me my livelihood, and they still refused, that it would fall somewhat close to a bad faith decision.
I don’t think I’m Johnnie cochran and I know for a fact I can’t afford him, so I hope it doesn’t come to that. Maybe going off script with the fire hazard declaration by a fire marshal would be worth looking into further…I do live next door to a fire station after all.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and I don’t even play one on TV.
Insofar as their refusal to cooperate is based on how it looks from a PR and marketing standpoint, it might be useful to realize that anybody can sue anybody. Doesn’t mean you’d win but that may not be relevant. If the condo association realizes you will sue and will draw media attention to the fact that you’re suing and why, they could relaize that not cooperating will also look bad from a PR / marketing standpoint.
Also, it costs them money to defend against the lawsuit. Cost you too of course, but it’s the cost to them that they’ll be paying attention to.
I am also not a lawyer, but I can’t imagine that suing the condo association or the building or whatever will get you internet. The most I can see you winning is the right to break your lease.
Internet service is not generally considered a necessary service. A place doesn’t need internet service to get a certificate of occupancy anyplace I’ve been. The odds that the old cable is actually dangerous (a fire hazard, or whatever) are negligible. You will likely be laughed out of court if you take that tack.
There’s no law that says every unit in a building has to be the same and offer the same services. It’s common for some units to be larger, some to have better views, some to have more bathrooms, and honestly, for some to have better water pressure, better internet, etc. I mean, IANAL, maybe Hawaii has such a law, but it would astonish me if they do.
I think you have two choices, which you can pursue simultaneously:
- find a new place to live
- persuade the building to let you run better internet.
(I’m not sure why your employer requires wired service – it’s also possible you could pick up a strong signal with an antenna of some sort, but you say you aren’t allowed to.)
Persuading means playing nice. It means offering to pay any extra costs. It means figuring out why they are reluctant, and addressing those concerns.
Good luck
I used to have a traditional POTS phone line and DSL service through it. A few years ago, wiring issues caused it to stop working and the technician would have needed access to the apartment below me to correct it. Instead, I upgraded my cable service to the triple-play package with internet and a VOIP phone line and cancelled the AT&T service.
So one question for the OP; do you have any alternatives?
The federal government has some weird rules regarding working via the internet, email addresses, and so on.
Someone I knew in Indonesia who worked for the State Department was getting married and trying to decide whether to keep her name or change it to her new husband’s. What clinched it for her was the fact that if she changed her name, and hence presumably her work email address which followed a set standard for her office and was something like first-initial-last-name-at-department-dot-gov, she would permanently lose access to all her emails under her original name.
Sound ridiculous, I know, but I swear that is a true story. Anyway, the OP works for the federal government so might face all kinds of restrictions on how they use the internet, regardless of whether those rules make sense.
I’m in total agreement that yes all units are not equal, and they don’t have to be. And I would completely bite the bullet if I were asking for something that wasn’t already there. This is the matter of the building at one point deciding to let my entire stack have cable internet access via the original wiring that was run thirty years ago, and now that said wiring is needing to be replaced they are not allowing it to be.
I’d like to think the difference between this and me expecting donuts in the lobby every morning because they did it once to be nice are different mostly because in installing the original service there is an obvious commitment to maintaining it. I understand it’s not something like water and I understand I’m not guaranteed it in my unit.
I keep looking at this from the point that due to the nature of how internet wiring works there would probably need to be some statement by the association saying that maintenance of the original service was not guaranteed, because I don’t understand in what world a building can decide to run a wire AND decide to not replace it if it goes bad just on the basis of what the wire provides.
The cable in question actually is the cable I would receive television from as well so no package upgrading will save me. Ironically enough we have a telephone dial up internet that is far below the required mbps laid out in my telework agreement, but for THAT service to be established they would have to run a line for it, and guess what that requires access to?
It’s incomprehensible that they wouldn’t provide a means for internet. Can you point out that your unit is un-rentable to anyone, not just you, if it doesn’t have internet access?
My landlord’s exact words were “I can’t rent that unit to anyone without it having internet.” And I thought that alone would really get them wound up to relentlessly pursue the repair, but last Friday after being told no by the property manager they have since rolled over, left me up the creek without a paddle, and committed to the idea of “finding the owner ourselves” and hoping they give us permission… it’s only two days in but I’m sure you can imagine how things are going on that front
Oh. Then i think you have a decent shot of that just working. The condo association (or whatever they are) has to contact owners in a somewhat regular basis, for instance, to collect fees, or tell owners that the fees are changing. They probably have contact info, and they are motivated to acquire it if they don’t.
I can completely understand the manager not being interesting in breaking into an apartment for a non-emergency upgrade without first at least making a good faith effort to get permission from the owner.
This is not a leaking pipe that will cause immediate damage if it takes a while to address. Honestly, if I were the absentee landlord, I’d be pissed if they didn’t check with me before opening the door. I mean, I’d give permission of course, but I’d want to be asked!
I realize this feels urgent to you. And given the weird answers you are getting from management, you should probably be looking for other places to live, as a backup. But now I’m wondering if maybe you have annoyed the people who you need to do work on your behalf by blustering about breaking into apartments and your rights and stuff.
The property manager has already tried to reach out to the unit via email, phone calls, and a posted notice. This was attempted three weeks ago now with no response, and due to the fact that my supervisor is not going to sit by indefinitely and let me get paid a salary without so much as doing an hour of work, this is a time sensitive situation, and thats something I’ve made abundantly clear to everyone from the property manager, to the ISP, and to of course my landlord.
I’ve not pestered anyone (but I know you’ve got enough faith in me to know that ), and I wouldnt be dancing with the idea of lawyering up if these were just “reasonable people who needed time”. There is an explicit commitment to not fixing this issue, and a sense of being left out to rot praying that someone who has already been contacted in everyway possible will decide to not only respond, but agree to letting the work be done. I’ve managed to briefly run the whole issue by a lawyer (on a Sunday no less!). And they seem to think that from the quick and dry details that a small claims court hearing would probably do the job, the size of the building being a mere 18 units would probably mean their war chest and sense of crushing legal opposition might not be as bad I think, and the fact that in small claims court things do not get drawn out like they do in usual average joe vs large conglomerate situations, means that a lawyer may be able to make them buckle with a strongly worded letter, or the case will go through in my favor because I’m asking for maintenance of an established service that was not put in place on a temporary basis, and refusal to do so is directly impacting my ability to make a living.
This is a small building, and I’m all for letting current routes play out (finding the ghost owner, seeing if the ISP can try a crazy new wire run, and flat out waiting for the ghost owner to descend from the heavens with their blessing), but if they dont I’m willing to be the obnoxious new kid on the block from Texas who want’s it all to go their way. I’ve been reasonable, and my job is at stake and the only options they have given me are to deal with it or hope and pray. I’ll rally in the media, I’ll start a petition, and fight and claw and put any amount of pressure on these people that I can if it goes the legal route because it’s truly my last resort. If I’ve been annoying up until that point well they’re really not gonna know what hit them.
You admit that “playing the race card” would be tasteless and shameless, but you’re considering doing it anyway? 
It was 4am and I was on a tear, I assumed since everyone else has given me the luxury of glazing past it that it was a mutually understood bad idea. Hence why I haven’t said anything about it, but I appreciate you keeping me honest. No I’m not considering it, but from this and the “what law entitles you to make a living” comment I feel like asking you if you have any helpful or reasonable input/advice to contribute to moving forward towards a solution? I’m not policing, but I’d like to assume you might have an angle that’s yet to come up.
Is moving an option? If so, I’d consider letting your landlord know when this needs to be resolved by. Although, honestly, it sounds like it might already be late for that. If you literally are unable to work, and, I’m assuming you need your job, you need to solve that problem by other means first. Clearly fighting with the association is taking to long for that to be the solution. Get a hotspot, move, get satellite internet, whatever you have to to solve the work problem, at least temporarily.
Consulting a lawyer doesn’t mean you “lawyer up.” It means having some advice about which avenues to pursue, who to direct your requests to, knowing whether you have a right to something, or are asking for a favor. The OP question was already about going to court, and I’m saying consulting a lawyer might help to resolve it with a letter than a lawsuit.