Housing company unable to tell flood victims when they can return home (From Times Series)

Metropolitan unable to tell flood victims when they can return home

2:58pm Monday 10th September 2012 in News By Natalie O'Neill

A housing company is unable to tell “irate” families when they can move back into their homes following a burst water pipe.

Seventy-one flats were evacuated from Glebelands Close, Finchley, last Friday after water started gushing from the ceilings.

But three days later, the leak has still not been fixed and residents are growing tired of living out of suitcases in hotels across north London.

The social housing is managed by Metropolitan which arrived at the scene three hours after the pipe burst and took several more hours to find accommodation for the flood victims.

A spokeswoman for Metropolitan said: “Finding this amount of accommodation in the local area and at such short-notice was a challenge, and Metropolitan staff worked with our accommodation suppliers until midnight on Friday to find suitable hotels for customers who needed somewhere to stay.”

But speaking to the Times Series today, Zaby Begum, 38, who has lived in the building for seven years, said: “The situation is getting worse.

“It’s going to take more than a week to get everything sorted and we’re going to be in temporary accommodation for a lot longer than we originally thought.  Metropolitan doesn’t have an action plan at all – they’re very disorganised and all the residents are irate.”

Metropolitan says it has a contractor onsite today to investigate the cause of the leak and, hopefully fix it.

The spokeswoman for Metropolitan added: “Once this is fixed we can assess how long drying out will take before residents can safely return to the building.

"We will be updating residents regularly about what is happening and when they will be able to safely move back into their homes.”

Two security guards were on site over the weekend to ensure the building remained secure and additional locks are being installed on the front and back of the building, which residents will have keys to in case they need to access their homes.