An 81 year old woman is exhausted by long term neglect in a tower block, citing leaks, damp, and mold making her flat “uninhabitable.”
Jay Allen lives in Rundell Tower, which is on Clapham Road in Stockwell. Lambeth Council manages the tower. She calls her home “the tower of nightmares” and says leaks, damp, and mold make it “uninhabitable”.
Ms. Allen says they pay rent to be bothered. Many flats in the tower have ceiling leaks. One tenant on the 17th floor uses a bucket to catch the leaks in her lounge.
A leak started on the top floor in December 2024; water went down through the floors and through the ductwork. The waste pipe’s duct flooded, creating a bad smell from dust and dirt. Small black flies then appeared, crawling from the waste pipe ducting through cracks and holes in the toilet.
Lambeth Council says contractors are looking into it and working to find the leak’s source. It’s hard to find the exact location because it is often behind panels and units, not always easy to see. Getting into other flats is also hard, especially during work hours. The council says it will deal with leaks quickly.
Ms. Allen’s flat has had problems since 1991, including damp, mold, leaks, and flooding. She has told the council about them. A 2004 letter from Lambeth Council shows surveyors needed to access 11 flats for repairs. The letter mentioned “most properties” were affected on Ms. Allen’s side of the tower.
Anthony Bottrall, a Stockwell councillor then, wrote to the council in 2005 about the condition of Ms. Allen’s flat. The letter said water had been getting in and penetrating for over ten years. He found the lack of solutions “most depressing”.
Ms. Allen thinks the tower needs a full update to avoid future decay and leaks. She says the council wasted money due to incompetence.
Lambeth Council said they prioritize safe homes and want all 33,000 council homes well-kept. The council said they quickly fix reported problems. Despite funding cuts, they spend millions to improve council homes and estates. They are using ten new contracts to improve standards for tenants.