'Soon there will be rats running the building': Pipers Court two months on
When Ipswich.co.uk first visited Pipers Court in April, we found black mould, broken tiles, blood-stained lights and "cleaning in progress" signs lining the dirtiest corridors. Two months later, with fly-infested bin liners stacking up inside, frustrated residents tell us little has improved.
Our April investigation into conditions and service charges at Pipers Court, the 103-home apartment block on Old Foundry Road, prompted a swift response from residents. Within days of publication, emails began arriving in our inbox. One resident who had lived there for over a decade described a building in a state of ongoing neglect — dirty communal areas, a housing officer frequently unreachable, and a string of maintenance promises that had gone unfulfilled. Two other residents came forward in person but declined to go on record, citing fears of retaliation from Oak Housing, the block's operator.
On Tuesday, 23 June, the resident who had been corresponding with us since April contacted us again to say that little had improved and the bins were overflowing. We went back to look.
Oliver Rouane-Williams
'Every bin chute is stacked up'
The bin chutes at Pipers Court run along the inside of each end of every floor. On our return visit, every one of them was stacked with rubbish. In outside temperatures of around 30°C, the stench was significant, and flies were present throughout. It was not a new problem – two weeks, according to residents.
A resident, who has lived at the block for more than a decade and asked to remain anonymous due to fears about retaliation from management, told us they had raised the bin situation directly with Oak Housing's head office. They said they had received no response.
They explained that Oak Housing had recently introduced a recycling system requiring residents to take rubbish to a garage area — but that not all residents had the key fob needed to access it. The result, they said, was rubbish building up in the chutes. They added that she had heard the garage was only being cleared once a week, and when we arrived, one chute appeared to be blocked.
"In this heat, it's bad," they said. And it was. The smell in some rooms was enough to make even the strongest of stomachs wretch.
Rubbish filled rooms at each end of every floor (Photo: Oliver Rouane-Williams/Ipswich.co.uk)
Maintenance issues
In April, we reported that communal cleaning — the largest single line item on the service charge bill at £21,370.44 per year across the building — appeared to bear little relation to the state of the communal areas.
On our return visit, the hallways appeared somewhat cleaner than in April, which a resident attributed to a cleaning company brought in approximately four weeks before our visit.
But one resident was clear that underlying problems remained. "They think one person can do all the roles — it's not the case," they said, referring to the building's caretaker.
They said they had been told that the maintenance worker was only permitted to carry out repairs when specifically authorised to do so, and that each job was allocated approximately two hours, regardless of the work required.
The maintenance worker, they said, had apparently had enough and was understood to be leaving.
"There will be no one here," they said, "and the building will be worse."
No window cleaning had taken place, they added. In April, we noted that external window cleaning accounts for £10,176.40 of the annual service charge. The windows remained visibly dirty on our return. If they had been cleaned, it was hard to tell, with black mould still present throughout.
'Promise after promise'
The resident described a pattern of commitments made and not kept stretching back to when Oak Housing took over the block in October 2018. They said the company had held a meeting with residents at the time, promising new kitchens, bathrooms and a refurbishment of the communal corridors. None of it, they said, had materialised.
"Promise after promise — they don't come down for meetings, and people won't listen anymore as they're frustrated with the building falling apart," they said.
One resident claimed they had been promised a new bathroom four years ago — and that the replacement bath had been sitting in the building's office ever since.
When we followed up, they told us that they had raised it at a recent inspection meeting. The response, they said, was that the bath was no longer being stored in the office and its whereabouts were unknown. They said they had been told there was nothing wrong with her current bathroom.
They added that Oak Housing had told residents the building was significantly behind on rent payments and had outstanding arrears. They acknowledged this but argued it did not absolve the company of its maintenance obligations. "They still need to put the work in," they said.
They also described a practical barrier that they believed was contributing to the rent arrears problem. As a full-time worker, they said they were unable to speak to anyone from the housing office in the evenings, and that the rent department was effectively unreachable by phone. "That's why people fall into debt," they said.
The rubbish, they told us, had now been building up for two weeks. Oak Housing had been informed and had not acted. "Soon there will be rats running the building and maggots up the walls," they said.
"The council need to take the building on and have a maintenance team on-site," they said. "Maybe then we shall see changes."
Fear and silence
The atmosphere among residents since April has been one of anxiety as much as frustration. Two residents who approached us at the time of our original visit declined to go on the record, saying they had heard that Oak Housing was angry about our first article and was attempting to identify who had spoken to us.
The resident who has continued to correspond with us asked to remain anonymous for the same reason. They work and pay their full rent and service charge each week. They said they felt those who paid in full received no additional consideration or support from the operator.
Oak Housing breaks its silence
Oak Housing Limited is a For Profit Registered Provider of social housing, regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing. Its most recent accounts record a customer satisfaction rate of 63%. The company says homes under its care "are safe, well managed and exceed the expectations of our customers."
Pipers Court is held under a sale and leaseback arrangement entered into with CBRE Global Investment Fund in December 2019, under which the block is held on a 250-year headlease and subleased back to Oak Housing.
Oak Housing did not respond to our original request for comment ahead of our April investigation. Following a second approach ahead of this article, the company's Senior Housing Officer, Rebecca Greenhalgh, replied. The response did not address any of the six specific questions put to the company.
In her reply, Greenhalgh said Oak Housing "takes all concerns raised by customers seriously" and that the company was "actively reviewing estate management, cleaning, waste management and communal repair issues at the scheme." She added: "Where issues are identified, we will ensure that appropriate action is taken with our contractors and local management arrangements."
On the specific concerns raised, Greenhalgh said some matters "appear to relate to individual customers and specific repair histories," and that the company would "need to be careful not to disclose personal information or comment on individual cases without the appropriate consent." She asked for "specific dates, photographs, flat references or further details that residents have authorised us to share" to allow Oak Housing to "investigate the matters fully and respond accurately."
The company added that it "does not accept any suggestion that customer concerns are ignored."
How to raise a complaint
Residents at Pipers Court and similar blocks have several routes available to them, depending on their tenancy type.
The first step is always to raise concerns in writing directly with Oak Housing, keeping a record of all correspondence. If the issue is not resolved, residents can escalate to the Housing Ombudsman Service, which handles complaints against registered social landlords. The Ombudsman can be contacted at housing-ombudsman.org.uk or by calling 0300 111 3000. There is no charge for using the service.
Residents who believe their service charges do not reflect services actually delivered may also wish to seek advice from Citizens Advice (citizensadvice.org.uk) or Shelter (shelter.org.uk), both of which offer free guidance on housing rights.
The Regulator of Social Housing, which oversees providers including Oak Housing, can be contacted at gov.uk/government/organisations/regulator-of-social-housing if residents have concerns about a landlord's conduct more broadly.
The bottom line
Two months on from our original investigation, the fundamental picture at Pipers Court has not changed. A cleaning company has been brought in, but the bins have been overflowing for two weeks in summer heat, the windows have not been cleaned, the maintenance worker is understood to be leaving, repairs that were needed two months ago remain untouched, and at least one resident is still waiting for work promised when Oak Housing took over the block in 2018.
Oak Housing says it is actively reviewing the situation. The residents of Pipers Court have heard that before.
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