Hornsey flat tenants want guarantee of no more sewage floods

Residents living on the ground floor of Colorado Apartments in Hornsey had to evacuate their homes when they were hit by a flood in July 2021 that left their flats uninhabitable and their belongings damaged or ruined.

Following a lengthy clean-up operation, during which residents were housed in temporary accommodation, landlord Clarion Housing Association told them at the end of last year that they could move back into the building.

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But the tenants want guarantees that they will not be flooded out again. With sewage repeatedly overflowing from a sewer and pooling outside their block – even in relatively dry weather – they fear it is only a matter of time before a major flood strikes again.

Iesha Plummer moved into Colorado Apartments in 2017 with her son Jamiah, now aged 12, who has autism and delayed speech. She said: “We were both in the property when this [the flooding] happened. [There was] raw sewage, human waste. All our stuff got ruined, the property got ruined.

“People should not be put on the ground floor. It is dangerous and disgusting.”

Flooding inside a room housing electrical equipment (submitted by Adnan Abo)

Colorado Apartments is a six-to-seven storey block of flats in Great Amwell Lane, built on the site of a former waterworks beside the New River that was owned by Thames Water. It is part of the 622-home, £70million New River Village scheme developed by St James – initially a partnership between the water company and Berkeley Group – between 2005 and 2007.

When she first saw the property, Iesha said it was “all being done up” and looked “fabulous”, adding it was in a “super calm, really quiet” area. But after moving in, she learned from long-term residents that the flats had been hit by flooding before – if she had known at the time, Iesha said she would not have moved in.

After being forced out by the flooding Iesha spent a year and three months in temporary accommodation, during which she had to continue paying rent for the property. Although Clarion paid the temporary accommodation costs, she paid for accommodation for one week so that her son could finish school.

Colorado Apartments

Now staying with family and friends, Iesha does not want to return to the property because she says Clarion cannot guarantee the flooding will not happen again, fearing for the safety of her son. A further flood in December had destroyed machines that were cleaning up after the previous flood, she added. But by refusing to go back, she was told she’d be making herself “intentionally homeless”.

“I don’t think I should have to move back there because it is not safe,” she said. “We could have been electrocuted. All the electrics were on and all this water was coming in.”

Iesha said health professionals had written letters stating that the property was not suitable for her son, which she made Clarion aware of. “I need somewhere safe for my child,” she said. “It is a priority to find somewhere safe for him.”

had also previously complained about rust-coloured water coming out of the taps. Iesha added: “If you can say to me and put it in black and white that ‘we fixed the pipes and it is safe’, I will move back.”

Adnan Abo

Adnan Abo, whose mother Fatima Omar moved into one of the ground floor apartments in 2006, described the flooding as “awful”, adding that it had affected all nine flats on the ground floor and another block.

“It is not something you would want to witness,” he said. “We had to walk through dirty, sewage-contaminated water to get outside the property.”

After being moved out, Adnan said his mother was housed in a hotel for more than six weeks before she was given temporary accommodation, and she was told she was entitled to £40 per day to cover expenses for herself and her children.

Waste water outside Colorado Apartments

Adnan’s mother was also expected to pay rent for the time she was not able to live in the property, he said, adding that she had been back in the flat for a month but no-one had told her what she was entitled to in terms of disrepair and damages.

Since Colorado Apartments was built, more developments have sprung up in the surrounding area, including 270-home Smithfield Square. The residents believe the sewage pipe that serves the blocks cannot cope with the volume of sewage and water now passing through it.

Adnan said overflowing sewage pooling outside the property had “become a daily occurrence”.

“We have to deal with sewage and wastewater [when we are] coming out of the main door,” he explained. “I have got two little kids, and when I take them to nursery, I have to take them through the smell.

“You have tissue and human faeces coming out,” he added. “That is a sewage system not working as it should.”

Iesha and Adnan said they had not been told they would receive compensation. They said Clarion had told them they should take out contents insurance, but that would be unaffordable for most residents given the likelihood of high premiums and the fact they are on low incomes. Adnan claimed Clarion wants to “push the blame” for the flooding on heavy rain.

Another resident, Anita Garczynski, said she and her daughter moved into Colorado Apartments during 2006 but had to move out months later after being affected by flooding.

She said remedial works on the building were eventually carried out to deal with problems caused by the flood but that workers told them they were effectively a “band aid” or “temporary measure”. The problem, she says, is that the flats are built on former marshland and the Victorian sewer is too small.

Anita said she eventually received compensation, but it took a lot of time and effort before it was finally paid. Despite being moved to the first floor, she said her new flat had its own set of problems, including water seeping in from the balcony. She claimed the block had been affected by flooding at least five times and didn’t think anything could be done to stop it from happening again.

“The constant flooding outside the block is because of the way the sewage systems have been laid,” Anita said. “We literally had another one the other day. That has been cleaned up. But the minute it starts raining or gets too cold, it starts backing up – and we are literally walking through sewage, human excrement.

“This can’t be normal, and it is unacceptable.”

Thames Water said it was not able to obtain information dating all the way back to 2006 but added that recent flooding at Colorado Apartments was caused by “a blockage in the main foul sewer which was cleared on 22nd January”, adding that there had also been blockages in December and October last year.

The company said its waste operations team would carry out a full investigation “to confirm if there are any operational issues that could be contributing to the blockages”, adding that “as it stands the issues appear to be from wet wipes and fat, oil and grease building up in the network”.

Thames Water said there were “instances of hydraulic overload during wet weather which caused sewer flooding in 2021 and an instance of sewer flooding in 2018”, which would be reviewed.

A Haringey Council spokesperson said more “extreme weather events” were impacting large parts of London and the authority had spent £870,000 on drainage improvements and flood prevention measures following the London-wide flooding in July 2021.

They added: “Flood risk has always been a key consideration when assessing planning applications. Developers must submit comprehensive drainage and flood prevention schemes to mitigate risks, and statutory organisations are always consulted.

“The applications for Colorado and Danube apartments, and Smithfield Square, included drainage enhancements to reduce surface water runoff. Smithfield Square was supported by a detailed flood risk assessment. Thames Water and the Environment Agency were satisfied with the drainage scheme provided and Thames Water did not raise any objection to the sewerage infrastructure for Colorado and Danube apartments.”

A Clarion spokesperson said: “We absolutely appreciate the inconvenience residents have experienced due to the flood, which arose as an unfortunate result of the storm drains not being able to withstand the volume of water from the flash floods at the time. We have supported the households impacted while they have been in temporary accommodation and now the refurbishment work is complete, the homes are ready to return to.”

The spokesperson added that Clarion had advised residents that it will “consider any claims for compensation via its complaints process”.

St James declined to comment.