A deaf 87-year-old widow’s home floods with filthy water whenever it rains and says the the council has done nothing about it.
Since problems began in March at Lilian Williams’ Yarnfield Square home, Clifton Estate, Peckham, six separate floods have ruined her carpet and drenched her walls.
Lillian, whose husband Mike Williams died last year, has lost one-and-a-half stone and barely sleeps due to stress.
The grandmother, an estate resident for fifty years said: “I lost my husband last April and that was bad enough. I’m hardly sleeping at night.”
Lilian, whose mobility issues mean she needs a stairlift, often has to get up in the middle of the night to use towels to soak up flood water.
Some nights, the “house proud” grandmother spends all night mopping up torrents of filthy water that pour into her hallway.
Worried son Nick Williams, 65, said: “She’s lost a hell of a lot of weight in the last two months and there is a noticeable deterioration in her health because she’s not sleeping out of the worry.”
He says the flooding is caused by a blocked pipe meant to transfer roof water away from the property.
Collectively, the family has exchanged dozens of emails and phone calls with the council but claim they have come up against “pig-headed” and “obstinate council staff”.
Shockingly, one council worker allegedly said on the phone that “there is no evidence rainwater is harmful”.
Some council staff have said council repair services are unavailable to leaseholders, even though council guidance says communal water pipes are always council responsibility.
The council says its “investigations to pinpoint the the source of the leak are still ongoing” even though contractors have already been in and told the family the source of the leak is the drainage pipe.
Without the support of their late-father, Nick says his mum is like a “lost child”.
“He used to take care of everything – pay the bills, do the shopping and now dad is gone and she’s like a lost child”, Nick said.
He says this highlights the council’s “incompetence”.
Last year a neighbour’s 50-year-old water tank exploded. Because she had no confidence the council would help her, Lilian paid over £300 in redecorating fees herself.