Housing Ass. Contractors didn’t finish job and comm. staircase is now lethal danger.

[GreenAndSpringy]

Contractors (Gilmartins) for our Housing Association (Origin) came in last week, started a job but didn’t have the materials to finish it (found out it won’t be delivered until next week).

Two flights of stairs have been covered in a fragile underlay which immediately rips and tears creating trip hazards from the unavoidable footfall.
The danger is exacerbated by thousands of razor sharp pins and tacks that rim each of the individual stairs.

You are more likely to trip than ever before and a recovered stumble can rip your hands to shreds, if you fall you could lose your face.

Housing Associations don’t seem to be accountable to anybody and my protest and escalation of complaints is not affecting the decision to do absolutely nothing to mitigate the dangers. It seems they are set to continue as planned with the aim of finishing the job only once the carpet is delivered.

The galling part is that there have been plenty of contractors on the ground floor of this property all week emptying a newly vacated flat and getting it ready for occupancy/income generation.

Opening my front door on Thursday to find an unaccompanied 3 year old on this “saw” themed staircase was a surreal and macabre surprise (I explained to the child that where she was playing was very dangerous only to have a male voice shout at me to mind my own business who only got more angry and abusive when I tried to advocate for her safety - no idea who he was, might be a new sub tenant).

The complaints process takes weeks, what do I do?
I spoke to my local councillor today (Camden), his experience with Origin is that they are not very receptive or communicative.

Here are photos, but you have to look very carefully to really start noticing the many, many dangers and opportunities for laceration.

So I'm not a lawyer and have no legal training of any sort. I would email both the housing association and the contractors with photos etc and state that the condition they have left the stairs is grossly negligent. Tell them that if you or any family you have responsibility for injure themselves on the stairs you will pursue them for maximum damages, with the fact they are well aware of the dangers being evidence of negligence.
Make the language you use in the emails as formal as possible, outline the occasions you have already contacted them about this, name individuals you have spoken to etc.

I used this with a council who refused to repair a slip hazard on the pavement. Various neighbours had been trying for a few weeks to get them to sort it out with no success. A couple of days later the pavement had been fixed. The timing could all have been a co-incidence of course.

You shouldn't have to threaten to sue people, but if they've left the property in an unsafe condition then this might just provide the impetus to get them to fix it a bit quicker.

Thank you @AnotherCunningPlan
I have been writing and phoning and was told that an operations manager would be sending - quote - “an engineer to attend and make safe the stair treads which has the treads exposed”

The guy arrived, young man, refused to confirm that the staircase was dangerous and his “making safe” procedure was to staple down underlay that was sticking up. The photos I’ve posted are of the stairs AFTER this was performed. And I did tell him at the time that it had only taken a few hours after it was originally laid for it to rip into trip hazards.
The latchkey 3 year old might have had her own hand in undoing his performative stapling task (I know my own kid once had a wonderful time shredding an old memory foam topper we had into filigree when I went to have a shower back when she was a toddler - when you’re that age, foamy wadding is FUN!). I pressed the contractor, asking if he genuinely couldn’t see how dangerous it was, his response: “you just have to be careful when you go up and down”.

This was after days of pushing and pushing for action.

The complaints procedure has a 10 working days time line. There seems to be a determination not to deviate from the initial plan which is to leave it as it is until the carpet that was ordered arrives.

I am grateful to see your opinion that what has been done is “grossly negligent”. There was no glimmer of acknowledgment from the engineer sent “to make the stair treads safe” and part of me wonders if it isn’t actually as bad as it appears to me and I’m just exaggerating what to someone who does this job is an acceptable risk.

If they have social media pages I'd be posting your concerns there too as sometimes this is the only way they'll take action unfortunately.