Im absolutely livid...thinking about sending a strongly worded email...

[Twdfn123]

Hi,

So my partner and I were at our local peacocks browsing the clothes and we had our 1 year old son with us. I usually push the pram as i look at baby clothes but my partner took him to go to the mens. thank god! Because as i was browsing a bit of the roof fell down about 2 ft in front of me!

Now if I had been pushing my son, that would have caved in over his pram and he could have been injured! I just sort of stood there frozen and the woman at the till noticed and came over. She said did that just happen and said yes. All she said is they should have fixed it months ago as there is a massive leak up there. Then that was it and she turned around and went about her business.

I get its not her fault, but 1) to not even ask if i was okay (i am just a bit shocked and grateful at the same time my son was with his dad) 2) for the store to not even cordon that corner off if they knew it was dangerous because of the 'bad leak'.
After the lady said that I looked at the ceiling and there was lots of brown patches and drips down the wall as well.

I feel like contacting customer service as i find this all quite appaling to be honest.

Please do report it to HSE. It's worth them checking up on the store to make sure nothing else is being left like that.

The photo looks worse than it sounded from the OP. I'm glad you've reported it, OP - definitely the right thing to do.

You've done the right thing OP, and thank you for having the sense of civic duty to think about the possible future risk to others rather than just being glad you're OK.

When H&S accidents do actually happen so many people say "why didn't someone do something?!" The fact is loads of near misses don't get reported because people think someone else will sort it and it's not their problem. Good on OP for trying to make her bit of the world a bit better.

And if more of the roof comes down next weekend and a child gets injured or worse? Not your problem I guess right?

OMG I am glad you're OK now @Twdfn123 Yes of course you should write a letter of complaint!!! You MAY be OK thank fook, but how do we know the roof is safe all over? It needs checking to make sure it's safe.

the ceiling is falling in and your response is 'oh well, so long as it doesnt fall on me'
what about alerting the general public that the premises is not safe?

Thank you exactly. This is pretty much my concern at the moment 👍

Thank you for saying this. This is what is getting a bit frustrating in this thread. I know nothing happened to me or my son personally but it's not to say it won't happen to someone else tomorrow 🥲

I’d be emailing them re their H&S. don’t know why some people here are down playing it. It’s neglect and hazardous.

I was in a department store with my mum a few years back and a load of lights and the rack holding them fell on my mum. She got a dreadful fright and the store worker didn’t even apologise, just started putting them back up. We didn’t do anything about it but did comment how dangerous it was.

That sounds more serious than mine to be fair with you. Sorry that happened. If that was me I probably would have made a complaint but these things make me a bit annoyed if you can't already tell 😬

Hope your mum was ok after x

I can't believe people are asking why you are livid. It's bloody dangerous and it could seriously injure someone next time. Absolutely take it further...

It’s likely that peacocks are tenants so ultimately the maintenance is not their responsibility. I sincerely doubt the store manager is going to neglect to report a roof tile falling. People have been bandying about the word negligence and it may well be so but it is also equally as likely that the leak has been reported, has been investigated and they are waiting on a team to repair or cannot actually find the cause of the leak. No offence to the shop assistant but having worked in many shops in my youth I certainly wasn’t appraised of the building’s owner’s maintenance schedule. Besides which the owner of the building only needs to show that there is a reasonable system of inspection and maintenance to avoid liability for negligence. Not that the unit is in 100% pristine condition. No one actually knows the situation here. Thankfully it didn’t fall on your baby OP but you have reported it, I would not have given this incident a second thought.

Me neither - what is actually wrong with some people???!! I bet they wouldn't be so smug and complacent if something happened to them!

I think people are entitled to expect to go shopping without having a badly maintained ceiling fall on them! Such a cavalier attitude towards the health and safety of staff and customers isn't acceptable, and neither was the response of the retail assistant who didn't even ask if you were ok! There was a known issue, and nothing was done to rectify it.

Sure, you and your baby weren't injured, thankfully - but that is so far from the point! You are perfectly entitled to be angry, and I'm sure you got a shock at the time. Fair play to you for doing the morally right thing here - someone else might not be so fortunate.

If this was in a shopping centre, alert the centre management as well. Would make you wonder what other 'accidents are waiting to happen'!

I can understand why you are angry and upset. I appreciate all the people saying "be grateful it wasn't worse" but I think you do need to write to them. Near miss reporting is an important part of minimising risk, and it is an essential indicator to determine if risk is being managed appropriately.

I would highlight that:

-There was a known issue with leaking water.
-Failure to rectify this issue resulted in the collapsed ceiling, which presented a safety risk to staff and customers.
-The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a legal requirement on employers to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare of employees, and to ensure that employees and others are kept safe. Allowing the water leak to remain unresolved has allowed a potential breach of those regulations.

I would then ask:
-For confirmation that there were no hazardous materials (i.e. asbestos) released from the collapsed roof.
-What investigations/actions had taken place as a result of this incident to ensure that (a) it had been recorded; (b) the root cause had been identified and rectified; (c) process had been put in place to ensure that this could not happen again.

Thank you this is a very helpful response. I've been a little blindsided by some of the responses on here to be honest. I will definitely ask those questions.

Thanks again I don't think I word things very well so that helps a lot

You don't know the circs - only what the assistant said - and she just wanted to smooth it over and get you to leave without a fuss.

You don't need to "alert" them - I think the chunk of tile on the shop floor already did that.

It must have been a bit of a shock - admittedly - but luckily no harm done.

You don't care about other people, (I work in complaints and people aways say "I don't want this to happen to anyone else - perhaps a child or a little old lady" (always a child 😬) - but they're never actually happy until they get some money or, second best, someone has been punished).

I see you've already written though - as you were always going to.

Thank you so much! 💓

How dare you say I don't care about other people you don't know me at all. Some people actually just like to do the decent thing. I've asked for no compensation ( don't need or want any) and asked for no one to be punished just the ceiling to be fixed and health and safety to look in to it. So you can kindly take your comment and sod off.

As with any unsafe environment, report it to the Health & Safety Executive.

The staff are entitled to a bit of protection too as well as the general public.

Keep your correspondence short and to the point, explaining the background of what happened (in shop, browsing with child, times/dates etc), what happened (ceiling collapsed) and what you would done about it (apology, compensation, urgent repairs). Keep the language measured m& businesslike.

https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/business/health-and-safety-work

People, the 60cm square tiles weigh about 175g when dry and are designed to disintegrate when wet. The weight hitting anybody's head and immediately splatting (so the impact is dissipated) is going to be about the same as, like I said, a wet piece of cotton wool. A dry one weighs less than 6 roses. Nobody is going to have their brains spread over the shopfloor from about 30g of soggy tile.

@ThisTimeNext agree with all of what you have said

Thank you very much. That is exactly what I've done.

This is a huge health and safety issue, write immediately to management. Do not leave this! Could have been fatal!

@Wibbly1008 fgs the chance of this incident being fatal even if the debris fell on a baby are close to zero, barring some other freak factor. Please see @NeverDropYourMooncup post above for a seriously needed injection of common sense