A family say someone could have died when the ceiling above their toilet collapsed after a leak wasn’t fixed.
Watford Community Housing was made aware of a leak in September, but it was not dealt with until the ceiling collapsed into their flat on Thursday, November 3.
The family did not wish to be named but said they were “let down” and “depressed” thinking of what could have happened.
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The father, who lives in the flat with his wife and four-year-old daughter, told the Watford Observer they had all been in the living room when the ceiling collapsed.
He said: “We heard a huge banging, our neighbours did too, we were lucky that nobody was on the toilet at the time as we could've died.
“I feel very let down by the council as we pay a lot of money. My wife is very emotional about it, and we felt very depressed to think of what could have happened.”
Although the flat is rented privately, the flats below and the roof are owned by Watford Community Housing.
The family contacted Watford Community Housing through their letting agent to have the leak fixed.
They say they were promised it would be fixed within a week multiple times, but no one ever dealt with the problem.
A Watford Community Housing spokesperson said: “Customer wellbeing is always our highest priority – we take customer safety very seriously and we aim to complete all repairs as quickly as possible.
“We were first made aware of this previously undetected leak in September 2022 and acted swiftly to authorise our specialist contractor to carry out the necessary repairs.
“Unfortunately, the repairs have not been completed within the timescales we would expect and we have raised this with the contractor.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience to our customer and have liaised with them directly to ensure that all necessary works are completed early next week.”
The father confirmed that contractors inspected the ceiling at around midday on Friday (November 4), and he was told the issue will be resolved next week.
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