Disabled Woman Stuck In Her Flat

A disabled woman from Milton Keynes has not been able to leave her first floor flat for nearly two weeks because of a broken lift.

Melissa Chapin has had to rely on friends to take her 7 year old twins to school and in order to get food, she has had to explain her situation to the supermarket who wouldn't usually deliver groceries to a first floor flat without a working lift.

She has said she is also concerned about other residents in the building. She is not the only disable person and there are families with small children.

The stairs are not an option for Melissa she has a condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome meaning her bones will dislocate very easily. When the lift first broke she dislocated her hip trying to get back up to her flat.

She says she feels like a prisoner in her own home and being trapped in the flat for two weeks has caused her to miss out on important things:

"I've missed out on sharing assemblies, I’ve missed out on parent teacher meetings. On top of that I'm self employed so the fact that I've not been able to get out is going to seriously impact my financial situation"

Melissa says she reported the lift as broken on the 26th October to OM Property Management who deals with the maintenance of the building. OM Property Management issued Heart this statement:

"We would like to apologise for the considerable inconvenience caused to Ms Chapin and other residents at South Seventh Street by the failure of the lift.

The safety of all our residents is always our utmost priority. Since the lift developed a major fault we have been working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and been in constant contact with the lift maintenance contractor. Given the nature of the problem they in turn have had to involve the manufacturer of the lift who has informed us that its engineer will carry out repairs and reprogramming on Monday 14 November.

We have offered Ms Chapin and other residents who have accessibility problems alternative accommodation and assistance with deliveries.

We have also kept residents up to date through the OM Property Management customer services team (08453 370 272) and our development specific customer website ‘Your Property Online’ via www.ompropertymanagement.co.uk which has carried live updates on the work’s progress.

Our property management staff will continue to visit the development to monitor progress, meet residents and answer questions."