Residents of a six-year-old block of flats in south-west London are warning that they are living in a “death trap” and fear a catastrophe similar to the Grenfell Tower fire.

The block’s managers have promised to address urgent problems after photographs of water-soaked electrics, black mould and severe damp were posted on Twitter. Residents have also reported frequent and prolonged lift breakdowns, which have created particular difficulties for a number of tenants who use wheelchairs.

Clyde House is a block of social housing, with 62 flats over eight floors, built as part of a private housing development in Wandsworth, close to the River Thames. Some of the properties are reserved for people with special needs.

Residents claim Clyde House was constructed with shoddy materials, and that the surrounding blocks were better built and have been properly maintained. “The other blocks look identical to ours, but we’re treated like second-class citizens,” said Shevonne Will, who posted pictures on Twitter last week.

Due to leaks that began 3-4 years ago we are constantly hearing electrical wires crackling in the walls, the building is flooding & there is mould growing everywhere.



There are BUCKETS OF WATER in electrical cupboards. It is a disaster waiting to happen. pic.twitter.com/l7Mf1c6H2E — shevonne will (@ShevonneLDN) February 16, 2019

Justine Greening, the Conservative MP for the area, who raised the issue in parliament last week, said the problems facing residents were “totally unacceptable”.

At an angry and at times chaotic meeting at Clyde House on Monday, many residents spoke of flooding from cracked pipes, light fittings filled with water, vermin, a pervasive smell of sewage, a lack of hot water, exposed and sparking electrical wires – and frustration that their complaints had been ignored.

Talha Khepi, an independent fire risk assessor who volunteered to inspect the block after seeing social media posts, said he rated the building at moderate to high risk. He was particularly concerned about unenclosed electrical wires and their exposure to water, he said.

David Fenton, 57, who lives on the sixth floor, said the building often shook and cracks had appeared. “Piping on the top floor has cracked and water has seeped into the electrics and down all the walls. It’s infested with vermin. It’s dangerous and uninhabitable.”

A single mother of an 11-year-old disabled child said she had been signed off work with back problems after being forced to drag her daughter up the stairs in her wheelchair to their eighth-floor flat.

Sophie, who did not want to give her full name, told A2Dominion representatives at the meeting: “My back hurts, my head hurts, I wake up at night worrying about whether the lifts will work. Why haven’t you listened?”

Other residents described being made to feel like “riff-raff” compared with their owner-occupier neighbours. Flats in neighbouring blocks have been on the market for up to £800,000.

Greening, who was at Monday’s meeting, said residents’ lives had been made “a misery”.

She added: “It’s taken chasing phone calls, on site meetings and raising it in parliament to get any sort of response. And even then promises on sorting out problems have been broken. It’s time for an overhaul of the system to better hold these organisations to account.”

David Lingeman, A2Dominion’s director of property services, told the meeting: “We recognise that things are not right and we’re going to put them right. We haven’t performed well, and you have my personal apology.”

Resolving the faults with the building would take four months, he said.

According to its website, A2Dominion is a “residential property group with a social purpose”. It has created 37,000 homes, with another 7,800 in development, and has a £300m-plus turnover.

In a statement, Andrew Evans, its executive director of operations, said: “We are aware of the ongoing issues at Clyde House. We apologise for the disruption it is causing our residents. Their safety and wellbeing is of the utmost importance to us and we are doing everything we can to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”

He said temporary heaters had been provided and residents were being offered temporary alternative accommodation. “We regret that the issues have not been resolved sooner,” Evans said.