Flooding causes a ‘five-day nightmare’ (From Times Series)

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Flooding causes a ‘five-day nightmare’

8:23am Thursday 22nd May 2008

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By Rebecca Lowe »

Elderly residents say they were forced to "live in a nightmare" after renovation work caused flooding in their flats.

Water poured through light fittings in the block of flats at Hart Lodge, in Salisbury Road, damaging residents' belongings and soaking the carpets.

The floods, at the flats designated for independent older residents, occurred while Apollo Property Services Group was upgrading the residents' kitchens, bathrooms and windows on behalf of Barnet Homes.

The first instance was on May 8, when a leaking water tank flooded a flat on the second floor and, two days later, leaking pipes, detached from a washing machine by builders, deluged another.

Catherine Doran, 78, had been told on May 6 by workers refurbishing her kitchen that the room would have electricity and running water in four days. But when she returned from a friend's house, three days later she discovered only drenched carpets and a dehumidifier.

She said: "Nothing was finished and the whole place was a mess. It wasn't habitable at all. Appar-ently a tank had broken upstairs and water was still cascading down the walls through the bathroom lights.

"Now my bedroom is my kitchen, my living room, my everything. I can't tell you how horrific it has been."

Ray Reilly, 69, woke up one night to find water running through his ceiling. "I've been living in a nightmare," he explained.

"There was water running everywhere, all through the light fittings and smoke alarm. Electricity and water don't mix so well, so you can imagine how dangerous that was. For five days my carpets were completely soaked."

A Barnet Homes spokesman said it had dealt with the problem as quickly and effectively as possible.

He said: "When we became aware of the leak on Friday, our contractors, Apollo, isolated the water supply and removed the cylinder. We installed dehumidifiers, made the electrics safe, and offered temporary lighting.

"Since then Barnet Homes's supported housing team has offered ongoing support and is doing everything possible to ensure residents' comfort.

"The situation was exacerbated when we discovered a leaking washing machine in one of the flats involved."

She added the company was reviewing the works to minimise disruption.

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Your Say Your Times

What Decent Home Standard, says...
11:49am Fri 23 May 08

Apollo has some previous history with Barnet and as the archives may show, and if memory recall is correct had their tender withdrawn in the not so recent past, charging for work that had never been done. Did Barnet at that time, make any effort to recover the monies? One doubts it. Some people responsible for that instance are now in charge of Barnet Homes, it is them that tenants should be suing for negligent negotiations and vetting of the Directors of Apollo. It is amazing the Public Sector never considers this. Some links of Apollo handy work on Decent Homes Standard in a neighbouring borough:
http://www.mwuk.net/

tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR2.p

df

http://www.mwuk.net/

tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR2.p

df

http://www.mwuk.net/

tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR8.p

df

http://www.mwuk.net/

tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR10.

pdf

http://www.mwuk.net/

tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR14.

pdf

The above are all examples of Apollo PSG, and don't forget you'll be told that it's not the same group of Managing Directors. That maybe true now, but was it when it decided to re-consider them,then why did the now Barnet Homes Chief Executive, Deputy and it's Resident Particiaption Head stifle the questions from the Tenants with a nice piece of semantics?

Complain about the ALMO Barnet Homes: complaints@audit-com

mission.gov.uk

The same can be said of other contracting companies performing Decent Homes Standard
modernisation such as Balfour Beatty and of course, the company with the Red vans, that had everything transferred to them including staff under TUPE regulations,that works in Partnership with Barnet Homes.

It's a long history of incompetence ineptitiude and disgrace from people who regard themeselves as PROFESSIONALS, paid by the public purse and from rents and service charges, Professionals who sold the idea of Barnet Homes to a very select few and then denied the rest a Ballot, through the medium of Residents Participation and its manipulation, in the hope of THREE STARS. The Director of Resident Participation department is also a man that should be resigning his post along with the others, because he has failed one of the major conditions, the 1990s 'E' word (Empowerment!!?), for tenants to get extra funding.Some good workers in this area resigned their posts. One would doubt the morality of some senior managers'GIVING BACK' to the community. No pay cuts for them.

As Tenants and Leaseholders we should demand that once the Decent Homes Standard is fulfilled that Barnet Homes, be taken back into FULL COUNCIL CONTROL.

This is the time when more COUNCIL or State Housing,is an absolute must, something that Defend Council Housing supporters have been campaigning for and winning. DECENT STANDARDS of Maintenance, Accountability, Affordable Rents, The Right to Rent.
Hey, that's probably never going to happen under NEW Labour Or NEW Conservative.After all they are now selling us a 'Share' of the council house, the Hallway or Two Steps of the ladder.I'm sure we can afford all the other running costs on minimum wage.

Apollo has some previous history with Barnet and as the archives may show, and if memory recall is correct had their tender withdrawn in the not so recent past, charging for work that had never been done. Did Barnet at that time, make any effort to recover the monies? One doubts it. Some people responsible for that instance are now in charge of Barnet Homes, it is them that tenants should be suing for negligent negotiations and vetting of the Directors of Apollo. It is amazing the Public Sector never considers this. Some links of Apollo handy work on Decent Homes Standard in a neighbouring borough: http://www.mwuk.net/ tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR2.p df http://www.mwuk.net/ tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR2.p df http://www.mwuk.net/ tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR8.p df http://www.mwuk.net/ tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR10. pdf http://www.mwuk.net/ tchi/PDFs/MSLA-PR14. pdf The above are all examples of Apollo PSG, and don't forget you'll be told that it's not the same group of Managing Directors. That maybe true now, but was it when it decided to re-consider them,then why did the now Barnet Homes Chief Executive, Deputy and it's Resident Particiaption Head stifle the questions from the Tenants with a nice piece of semantics? Complain about the ALMO Barnet Homes: complaints@audit-com mission.gov.uk The same can be said of other contracting companies performing Decent Homes Standard modernisation such as Balfour Beatty and of course, the company with the Red vans, that had everything transferred to them including staff under TUPE regulations,that works in Partnership with Barnet Homes. It's a long history of incompetence ineptitiude and disgrace from people who regard themeselves as PROFESSIONALS, paid by the public purse and from rents and service charges, Professionals who sold the idea of Barnet Homes to a very select few and then denied the rest a Ballot, through the medium of Residents Participation and its manipulation, in the hope of THREE STARS. The Director of Resident Participation department is also a man that should be resigning his post along with the others, because he has failed one of the major conditions, the 1990s 'E' word (Empowerment!!?), for tenants to get extra funding.Some good workers in this area resigned their posts. One would doubt the morality of some senior managers'GIVING BACK' to the community. No pay cuts for them. As Tenants and Leaseholders we should demand that once the Decent Homes Standard is fulfilled that Barnet Homes, be taken back into FULL COUNCIL CONTROL. [bold]This is the time when more COUNCIL or State Housing,is an absolute must, something that Defend Council Housing supporters have been campaigning for and winning. DECENT STANDARDS of Maintenance, Accountability, Affordable Rents, The Right to Rent.[/bold] Hey, that's probably never going to happen under NEW Labour Or NEW Conservative.After all they are now selling us a 'Share' of the council house, the Hallway or Two Steps of the ladder.I'm sure we can afford all the other running costs on minimum wage.

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