Pitcairn House tenant experiences leak again week after repairs completed

Nuivene Facey, a social services tenant who lives on the second floor of Pitcairn House, spoke to Hackney Gazette earlier this month after water leaks damaged their kitchen and living room.

She was forced to move her refrigerator to a communal hallway in the apartment block and her living room furniture to her balcony while repairs were being carried out.

After more than two months of this condition, the final repairs – described by Hackney Council as “remedial works” – were completed two weeks ago.

Nuivene had to move her refrigerator to a hallway outside her apartment during repair work (Image: Newsquest)

This also included painting over Nuivene’s damaged living room walls, which were heavily soiled.

But the mother, who has lived in the water-damaged building with her husband and son for 13 years, claims the leak in the kitchen recurred within a week of repairs being completed on August 21.

Water had dripped through the ceiling next to her kitchen window, revealing a damp patch that was simply painted over during the city council’s last visit, Nuivene said.

She explained: “It’s still leaking from the area in the kitchen that they’ve already repainted. As soon as they put the paint on it, that part of the ceiling fell down.

“The city administration thinks it’s coming from my upstairs neighbor’s balcony. But they haven’t called me this week.”

The leak in Nuivene’s kitchen returned last week (Image: Nuivene Facey)

Nuivene said that because the leak had recurred, she had to keep her window open at all times and was unable to put up new curtains for fear of damaging them.

She added: “I can’t live like this again.”

This comes as the city council plans to conduct a block-wide survey to review “the condition of the houses” in Pitcairn House.

Residents of the block say they have suffered from leaks and “sloppy” repairs for years.

The Social Housing Regulatory Authority recently found that Hackney Council had committed “serious failings” as a landlord.

The authority has now acknowledged “how frustrating” the situation has become for Nuivene and said it contacted them yesterday (28 August) to update them.

Kain Roach, operations manager for property services in Hackney, claimed that the repair team were doing everything possible to gain “access to the neighbouring property” above.

He added: “Because this is a moisture problem and the water is not actively coming through the ceiling, we cannot carry out our emergency procedure to get into the apartment above.”