A woman who unwittingly lived in a flat below her neighbour's dead body for more than TWO years has told how maggots infested her home.
Now residents in the Peckham, south London, housing block are debating taking legal action against housing association Peabody after the remains lay undiscovered for two-and-a-half years.
Chantel - which is not her real name - has told how larvae took over her flat after Sheila Seleoane, 58, died in August 2019 and was not found until February 2022.
Her skeletal remains, dressed in blue pyjama bottoms and a white top, were only found when police finally knocked down her door after years of complaints from residents.
They claim the issues weren't dealt with by the landlord.
Her death was not considered suspicious by cops.
An out-of-date trifle in her fridge indicated how long her death remained undiscovered.
Neighbour Audrey moved into Lord's Court in 2018 and lived opposite Sheila's flat.
She was at home the day officers found her remains.
"As soon as the door was opened I knew something bad had happened. You could just see it on their faces," Audrey told the BBC.
Meanwhile, Chantel, who lived below Sheila, changed her lights bulbs weeks after her neighbour is thought to have died and maggots fell from the ceiling.
The problem persisted, and she would find maggots all over her flat in the coming months, describing it as "like living in a horror movie".
Chantel called Peabody but was told the firm does not deal with maggots.
Audrey said she arrived home after a work trip and recalled a foul stench "like a dead body" as she went up in the lift.
Other neighbours tried putting towels and sheets under the door to keep the smell out.
Donatus Okeke, who lives with his wife Evelyn and their three kids, said they couldn't eat or sleep in their flat due to the odour.
Sheila's post began to overflow from her letterbox and doormat.
Evelyn called Peabody "many times", she said, beginning on October 10, 2019 - two weeks after Sheila is thought to have died.
Iyesha said she called the housing association regularly, telling them there was a "smell of death" but nobody ever came to check it out.
Audrey said neighbours were always told by the company's customer care line that someone would be out to investigate.
"That's the one thing that I regret - that I believed Peabody. I regret not calling the police sooner, because I just trusted that they were going to do something," she said.
Peabody told the Mirror it was "devastated" by what happened to Sheila, adding it had been "open, honest and transparent about what went wrong".
Sheila's rent stopped being paid after she died and the housing association sent letters and emails and left voicemails but no-one ever visited to check up on her.
Instead, it applied for Universal Credit to be paid directly to it on her behalf through the government scheme Alternative Payment Arrangements.
It was a success, and seven months later Sheila's rent was getting paid by the Department for Work and Pensions.
In April 2020 when contractors couldn't gain access to the flat for a gas safety check, the supply was eventually cut off.
She worked through a temporary job agency and so didn't have a permanent position.
A year after her death, Peabody asked police to check on her but after knocking on the door officers decided they didn't have enough justification to break in.
A mistake by a police operator meant Peabody was told Sheila was alive and well.
Her remains weren't found for another 16 months.
An independent report commissioned by the housing association found there were multiple "missed opportunities" to have found her sooner.
The organisation "appears not to have seen the triggers, listened to… neighbours, or to have joined the dots", the report said.
It describes a bureaucratic and "target-driven culture" in Peabody that "did not put the customer at the heart of the actions".
In 2017 smaller housing association Family Mosaic - that previously ran the complex - merged with the much bigger Peabody.
Audrey said the previous firm had employed a building manager who was familiar with all the tenants, and would often visit.
"We are being neglected. They don't care about us. They only care about the money and nothing else," she added.
Peabody told the BBC it had reduced its average patch size to around 500 after Sheila's body was found.
A spokesperson for the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government said the tragic incident shined a light on the "utterly devastating impacts of social landlords ignoring their tenants".
A Peabody spokesperson said: “In February last year we realised that Sheila Seleoane had died in her flat and had remained there for more than two years. We were, and remain, devastated that this could have happened.
"We must and will learn from what happened to make sure we always put our residents first and that this never happens again.
“We understand how devastating this has been for residents of Lords Court. We’ve apologised and have been working hard since to try and repair the relationship with residents over the past year since Sheila was found.
"We are so sorry that this happened. Clearly we still have a long way to go. We’re continuing to try and find new homes for residents who wish to move.
"While we have moved some families, the desperate shortage of suitable affordable homes in London means that we have not been able to move everyone.
“We have been open, honest and transparent about what went wrong. We immediately commissioned an independent report which we published in full and are acting on all 37 recommendations the report raised.
"We have to strike a balance between residents’ right to peaceful enjoyment of their homes and the desire to make sure that people are safe and well. But through better use of data, better teamwork across our organisation and more locally focused colleagues, we can be much better at spotting the signs that something isn’t right without intruding in people’s lives.
“From the way we allocate patch sizes and carry out estate inspections, to how we fulfil our gas servicing obligations or support residents with their rent payments, we have new ways of working to put people and their wellbeing at the centre of our operations.
"This is in part a cultural change which takes time, and we know very well that our services are not as good as they need to be. But we are determined to live our values, learn our lessons and continuously improve for the benefit of residents.”
