fire detector beep next door

Why don't you go find the super instead of call him. Or get the managing company on it. This happens on occasion. Annoying, but the staff is able to address it in most coops. This shouldn't be going on a week.

idiotic that you cant resolve this on your own.

You cannot be serious. Find the super. Call the managing agent. Get it resolved. Outrageous that you've been living with this for a week.

just bang open the door and exchange the battery for him yourself

I'm surprised that you can't get this done on your own. This is New York, forget sensitivities, get it done, move on.

Call/email the owner. The building management will have contact details. Bang on the super door if in the building. Sometimes with the building management you will need more than a few calls. Keep calling till the time you get someone on the phone rather than just leaving a message.

OP, this is not a condo. You are in a coop. If your building is kind enough to allow a pied-à-terre, then there should have been ground rules set for this kind of issue. What if the absent owner had a leak? Personally, this is why I have always insisted on an owner occupied building. And I do mean occupied.

Yeah, and make sure all the people you live with are really boring and never go on vacation, either.

"Yeah, and make sure all the people you live with are really boring and never go on vacation, either."

Really, that's what you think? Any owner occupied owners I have known are well traveled and far from boring, but that's my life experiance. What's yours?

I guess you missed my point--this exact thing could happen if someone was on vacation, so you might be equally annoyed at your well-traveled owner-occupiers. Unless people are never away from their apartments for an extended period of time, there needs to be a solution other than "just hope they're around when it happens".

jordyn, Sorry, I get it. That's why in one coop that I was in (10 units) everyone traveled, yet someone always had a spare set of keys for another owner. Also, on holiday weekends, we would check to see who was remaining so that the building was not totally empty for say Fourth of July weekend. In a large building that isn't as easy but can be done and for part-time owners that doesn't seem to work at all. Thanks for the heads up and to me I say "Duh".

i remember this episode. what would kramer do?

Once again, the dangers of pied a terrorism are made evident. Zero tolerance for such absentee maintenance payers!!

LOL--but only because the same thing happened to me last week. Heard my neighbors' smoke & carbon monoxide detector going off (they're in Florida). Sent a message through Building Link to get it fixed. Beeping stopped. Two days later, my unit starts going off; it stopped when I reset it (i.e., I didn't have to change the battery). I noticed that it had just beeped and didn't announce, "low battery, low battery." I casually discussed this with a maintenance guy and he told me my unit probably needs to be replaced. Turns out even though the unit is hard-wired, it only has a five-year lifespan! Last week the management company sent a memo to everyone stating that all the units need to be replaced and that we will be charged $30 for this. There were also commercials by Kidde on WINS 1010 Radio a couple of weeks ago that mentioned the 5-year life span.

Well, they certainly don't make them like they use to. Don't be surprised if you hear additional beeping!

>There were also commercials by Kidde on WINS 1010 Radio a couple of weeks ago that mentioned the 5-year life span.

Rather ridiculously low lifespan.

Wavedeva - Thank you so much! I found the super and he said that he'd changed the battery days ago! He then suggested that maybe the unit needs to be replaced so he said he'll check it out again.

FWIW, they are the ideal neighbors .... if an annoying beep for a week is the worst from them in 6 years, I am pro-pieds.

It's the super who's annoying in this case, not the nabes. Should never have taken him a week to respond. Are you greasing him well?

Well, to be fair - he thought he fixed it by replacing the battery. The entire just needed to be replaced. I don't know frankly if I tip well enough. We have 15 staffers (doormen, handymen, super, etc) in my building and I give everyone the same - $100 each. I know most people tier it but I feel like the younger, more junior ones work as hard and may frankly need it more.

Super should get a higher tip than doormen.