Unacceptable balcony

Tenant angry: “This will only increase the damage”

For years, the Salzburg housing cooperative GSWB has shown only limited interest in renovating Mr. Karl's balcony in Gnigl

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

Listening to the birds chirping and letting the gentle January sunshine shine on your face: That would have been Renate and Norbert Karl's plan in the mild weather last weekend. But no sooner had the former electrician opened his balcony door at Schulstraße 4 in Gnigl (Salzburg) than the couple were drawn back into their two-room apartment.

For more than five years, the pensioner has been annoyed about his feel-good oasis, which is no longer an oasis: "There was water damage in 2014, a few floors above us. In 2019, it wasn't just our balcony that started to rust. The tiles have buckled."

We received the latest news on January 24: There is not enough money at GSWB for the 2024 refurbishment.

Norbert Karl, GSWB-Mieter

All processes documented
"When we asked GSWB, we were told that everything would be completed by June 3 of the same year," says Karl, referring to his blue folder in which he has documented all the processes. He can even recite the order number A-21207 from memory.

Renate and Norbert Karl show the folder with the correspondence with Salzburg's GSWB. Incidentally, there was no answer from them - the apartment owner - when asked by Krone yesterday.

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

Nevertheless, two natural tiles were replaced in June 2020, a year later than announced. Nothing was done about the rust on the substructure and the balcony above. The balcony floor has long since become uneven again because the tiles have moved again.

"We have continued to complain"
At the edges, you can see through ever-widening gaps to the green of the meadow below. The Karls no longer want to enter their former sunbathing area. "We have continued to complain. It's not the only thing that's wrong with the house," says Norbert Karl. "We were always told that something would happen, but nothing did."

"At some point, the balcony will have to be completely replaced"
When the Karls read about the leaked internal emails from the GSWB housing cooperative at the beginning of the week, which suggested that the inspection office had been deceived, the pensioners contacted the "Krone" newspaper. "Perhaps everything is being systematically put on the back burner, is there a lack of money? In any case, it's stupid not to rectify such a minor issue immediately. The damage will only get worse - at some point, the balcony, which is less than 25 years old, will have to be completely replaced."