A mother has revealed how her family has been living with "human waste" flooding her building on and off for six months. Klara Topinkova, who lives in a flat in Greenwich borough, London, with her husband and two children, told MyLondon that the trouble began half a year ago when excrement started seeping into the building's car park.
She said that the car park has been flooding around once every couple of months, meaning residents can not access the communal bin storage and bin bags pile up at the car park entrance. She said: “People wouldn't even be able to go through the car park to get to their car unless they went through waste.”
Ms Topinkova also said that when contractors tried pushing blocked waste through pipes in the car park two months ago, a new problem arose in the former concierge office for the building. She said: “The toilet has been disabled for a couple of months now because it basically exploded, burst with all the human waste.”
She said the stream of waste and its smell has attracted countless flies to the building in Plumstead, which affected her on the 18th floor. Ms Topinkova said: “Flies are all over the building, everywhere and on every single floor. You walk in and can still smell a certain scent.”
Due to flooding, the mum said tiles on the ground floor have been removed for access, with a leak also starting in the office last week. To add to this, another leak above the main entrance of the building had put a hole through the ceiling. “The contractors don't want to fix it because it's too dangerous for them to go on that roof and fix it. So it's just really getting worse and worse,” she said.
Maria Frawley, Assistant Director of Property Services and Repairs at PA Housing, confirmed that the car park flooding was caused by a blocked drain in the building, and was first reported to PA Housing in July. She said: “Whilst this was dealt with, we are aware that there have been further issues with drainage and a leak coming into the office from the flat above.”
"Our surveyor who visited the building on Monday (October 3) confirmed that the water leaking into the office is [now] clear of waste but that some of the existing pipes need to be replaced to prevent the same issue occurring again." She added that a plumber was sent to the building on Wednesday to start work after the leaks were "isolated".
The representative also said that a temporary toilet has been provided for staff and that repair works in the office are underway. She added: “We want to apologise for the inconvenience caused and the time it has taken to resolve the leak. Once the repair has been completed, a full clean-up of the building will be carried out including remedial works to the office, at the earliest possible time.”
As well as worrying about the car park situation, Ms Topinkova said she hasn’t had hot water in her flat for three weeks. “There was a pump that burst so they removed it to replace it with just normal pipes because there was not enough pressure," she said. "So at the lower levels they have boiling hot water and for the rest of the building, they have nothing.”
Living on the top floor of the building has caused further issues, the mum claimed. Last Sunday, the lift in the apartment building broke meaning she was faced with the prospect of carrying her 18-month-old son in a buggy up 18 flights of stairs after dropping her eldest son at school in the morning.
She said: “I’ve raised all these issues so many times, and they really do nothing. And now, with the lifts, I've been stuck here since the morning when I dropped off my son.”
Ms Topinkova also fears for her and her family’s safety. The mother says the agency recently reduced the number of fire marshalls working in the building, and that the entrance from the car park is held shut only by a magnet. She said: “Criminals and homeless people keep getting in through the side gate because it’s not secure. It’s easy to kick it open wide.”
Ms Topinkova has warned PA Housing that she will be calling the ombudsman if the situation continues. She said: “They always say, ‘Yes, it's been reported to the contractor, and somebody will be coming within two to four hours to have a look.’ If it can be fixed at that point, they will fix it. But if not, then it can take days or weeks to fix it or even months.”
When the other issues were put to PA Housing, Ms Frawley said: “We are really sorry that our customers living in Elmgrove Point, as well as our staff working in the building, have experienced problems following a leak.”
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