Stuck at home while lift is out of order

So much for getting up early to go to work! The lift was not working!
Hello I thought, thank goodness it was working when I got home last night or I would have been homeless. And the landlady came on Monday night to check the place out as she said,

Her point was that she is new to this letting business and she wanted to see the flat. Fair enough except that Newmans had already came and checked it out. Maybe she didnt trust them. I am not too sure about letting agents myself. They seem very keen to help but they are not exactly proactive. You do have to nag them a long time. I have been in this flat in Beauchamp Hoouse now for more than 3 months and I still do not have a second key. It is supposed to be a safety precaution but the keys cannot be cut without permission from the owners and it costs about 30 pounds or so and a 2 week wait.

Beauchamp House, Greyfriars Road CV1

I've a 2 bedroom flat and only one key! the landlady quibble about my need for another - I was fuming mad. She wanted me to pay for another to be cut. I said if I paid for the key it was mine for keeps - she will have to change the locks.

This is a brand new apartment block and there are all sorts of aggravating things wrong with it. Am I jaundiced in thinking that the French have got the hang of modern apartment living more than the Brits?  The garage door seems to be always having problems, the place do not seem to be well maintained - no concierge. The rubbish spills out. My washing machine had the plumbing wrong and for the first 3 weeks I couldnt wash my clothes. The electricity keeps cutting out - light bulbs blow easily. BT took several weeks to fix broadband in for me. I had no telephone neither - I was incommunicado for several weeks. and now the lift doesnt work. I reported it because I had the forsight to get the phone number out of the engineer when he was fixing another lift.