A MAN claims he had to fight for an electrician to be sent to his mother’s care flat after it flooded.
Stephen Brown, 67, said his 87-year-old mother was told it could take up to 24 hours for an electrician to be called to her retirement care flat, despite the lights and smoke detector being flooded with water.
Mr Brown claims that his mother’s flat at Yates Court (ran by Rooftop Housing Group) in Evesham had flooded after the woman in the flat above left her tap running on Tuesday night.
He said he was initially told it would take up to 24 hours for an electrician to go and check if the flat was safe or not.
“24 hours to see is it’s safe and if it’s not, make it safe – that is unacceptable,” he said. “You can’t tell us it’s possibly going to take up to 24 hours, it’s an emergency.
“They are just totally not bothered. I was gobsmacked.”
Mr Brown added he was then informed over the phone by Rooftop that an electrician would not be sent at all, because she owns a leasehold for the flat rather than renting.
“She pays £700 or £800 service charge a month,” he said. “Because she owns it herself, they said it was up to us, the family, to get an electrician out to make it safe.”
However, after his brother-in-law was able to speak to the on-site manager, Mr Brown said he was called and ‘profusely apologised’ to, with an electrician sent out soon after.
“I got an apologetic call and they said they had got it so wrong and they would get someone there,” he said. “He told me they had put measures in place to make sure nobody when through what our family went through last night.
“The guy from head office couldn’t have been more apologetic, he said ‘we failed’.”
An electrician came that evening and reported to Rooftop that the light needed to be urgently fixed.
He added while his family were able to visit his mother, he believes the other lady was by herself, with no staff sitting with her.
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“The lady upstairs was sat in slipper socks with an inch of water around her,” he said.
“It’s worrying that old, vulnerable people are left to fend for themselves.”
A spokesperson for Rooftop Housing Group said: “As an organisation that strives to provide reliable landlord services, we have a responsibility to ensure our customers’ homes are safe, sound and secure and that maintenance is completed within our target timescales.
“In this instance, our out-of-hours team responded to a report of faulty electrics due to a flood within our agreed target timescale of 24 hours. The property was made safe and follow on work to replace a light fitting has been scheduled.
“We’re aware there was some initial confusion about who should carry out the work, and we apologise for any distress this may have caused those involved.
“We are working with the care provider at Yates Court to ensure this does not happen again in future.”
