Hackney residents raging over scaffolding saga
Taylor Wimpey has apologised after residents in an apartment block in east London have spent almost 10 months with scaffolding wrapped around their flats, leaving one agent considering legal action against the FTSE 100 housebuilder.
The company completed the 4.2 acre City Mills development on Lee St, Hackney E8, alongside freeholder L&Q in December 2017. A year later, scaffolding was erected around a block of nine flats to allow a water leak to be investigated. The scaffolding remains, meaning tenants have been unable to use their winter garden balconies, and people close to the issue claim limited work appears to have been done to fix it.
Taylor Wimpey has apologised after residents in an apartment block in east London have spent almost 10 months with scaffolding wrapped around their flats, leaving one agent considering legal action against the FTSE 100 housebuilder.
The company completed the 4.2 acre City Mills development on Lee St, Hackney E8, alongside freeholder L&Q in December 2017. A year later, scaffolding was erected around a block of nine flats to allow a water leak to be investigated. The scaffolding remains, meaning tenants have been unable to use their winter garden balconies, and people close to the issue claim limited work appears to have been done to fix it.
In a statement to EG, Taylor Wimpey said “workmanship issues” were discovered behind cladding panels on the building that required further remediation work, but that it expects to remove the scaffolding by the end of November.
London-based agent Base Property Specialists, which is marketing one of the flats affected, said the current tenants have been left “angry and upset” over the issue.
In an email sent to Taylor Wimpey from Base Property Specialists, seen by EG, the agent claims the tenants have given notice to leave after 12 months, despite initially intending to stay for a three-year tenancy. Base Property Specialists pinned the blame on “the appalling and shambolic handling” of the maintenance works.
The email reads: “Your handling of this matter could potentially cost thousands in compensation and may also mean we are unable to re-let the apartment, losing the leaseholders £500pw every week it is empty.”
The agent also said it is exploring a class action law suit involving other residents affected by the work.
“I am amazed to see a plc developer take such a poor approach to a maintenance issue that is affecting multiple leaseholders and, where applicable, their tenants,” said Kristjan Byfield, company director and co-founder of Base Property Specialists. “When you have a company such as Taylor Wimpey in this instance which, in February of this year, reported an [annual] operating profit of just over £880m, there is no viable excuse for not doing more and doing it a whole lot better.”
A spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey said: “We would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by necessary remediation works that we are carrying out at City Mills, Haggerston.
“On occasions where problems do occur, our priority is to make things right by carrying out any remediation work to the highest standards with as little disruption to residents as possible.”
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