Evacuees' fear as no return date is set for flats

People made homeless after being ordered to leave their structurally unsafe flats in east London have told the BBC of the devastating effect it is having on them.

More than 330 households and several businesses in the new Caxton Works development were told to leave without notice after the blocks were found to be in danger of collapse.

Some say they are paying for hotels as well as mortgages, with no financial help or return date, with one leaseholder saying "this could destroy my life".

The management firm said the development, also known as Royal Gateway, had been evacuated after expert advice and to "preserve life". It said it was trying to identify those responsible and fix the buildings.

In a letter to residents, Prime Property Management said problems with transfer slabs underneath the five buildings made them unsafe and ordered people to leave.

But it also said residents had to pay for their own emergency accommodation for the time being.

Some displaced residents have told the BBC they turned to Newham Council for help, but were told to rent emergency accommodation at the market rate.

On Monday, Newham Council said it owned the land on the site of the five towers and had deployed health and safety inspectors and buildings experts to carry out investigations.

It added it was trying to help the most vulnerable residents, but it did not have an automatic duty to house all displaced residents.

Among the affected residents is leaseholder Raquel Maio, whose block was evacuated without warning last Friday.

She described the structural issues with the nine-year-old building as "shocking".

"We have a mortgage on a flat, we have to pay council tax on a flat that we cannot enter," she said.

"We only have two choices. We either rent somewhere else, but the prices are excruciating, or there are hotels. The daily rate is really high and there's not a lot of options."

Raquel now fears she and her husband could "lose everything" due to the financial impact.

"This could completely destroy my life," she said.

"This could mean that I lose my job because I cannot continue to pay for my mortgage and I will never be able to buy a new house or rent again."

Raquel said many fellow residents were in a state of distress, with some people reporting suicidal thoughts.

"The amplitude of the impact of this on people's lives is immense and we haven't been provided any support whatsoever," she added.

Single mother Sarah Oyo, a private tenant of Sovereign Tower, had to leave her flat with her eight-year-old daughter on 22 October after receiving an evacuation notice.

"At first we thought it was just for the weekend," she said. "But as the days are going by and... there's no deadline, there's no return date.

"So at the moment, my daughter and I are homeless... it's like we have to start all over again."

Sarah said she had been refused any help to pay for emergency accommodation and would need to leave the area to find an alternative flat, which would mean her daughter having to move to another school.

She said: "My daughter is devastated. She didn't want to go to school this morning, she just wanted to go home.

"Now that I think about it, the fact that at any point the building could have just collapsed with us in it is scary.

"This is something that you never think that it could happen to you.

"I'm actually disgusted with the way everything has been handled."

The evacuation of the development began on the evening of 22 October, when residents of three blocks - Centurion Tower, Sovereign Tower and St Vincent Court - received notices ordering them to leave.

The letters from Prime Property Management said cracks and sagging had been discovered in transfer slabs underneath the blocks following structural inspections.

These posed an "imminent danger to life" of those inside the blocks, as there was a risk of building collapse.

Following assessments on the remaining two blocks on the development, Prince Court and Thanet Tower were evacuated on 30 October.

Here, transfer slabs under the buildings had been found to be "undersized and significantly overstressed, well beyond the safety margins that would normally be built into the design", the letter said.

As well as several hundred residents, 12 businesses located on the ground floors of the towers have stopped trading including Bright Sparks children's nursery.

A representative for parents whose children attend the nursery said: "Some families have not only lost their nursery but have also been evacuated from their homes.

"The most frightening part of this situation is that babies and young children had been spending their days in a building where structural engineers identified such serious concerns that they advised it should not be occupied."

In a letter to residents on Tuesday, Prime Property Management said it was working to establish accountability and had imposed deadlines on those involved to respond.

On Monday, the developer Galliard Homes said it was working with independent structural engineers to urgently investigate the concerns "and understand the findings while engaging constructively with the relevant parties to identify the appropriate next steps".

Galliard Homes added: "Our focus is on helping to establish a safe and effective solution that enables residents to return to their homes as soon as it is safe to do so."

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