No water in housing association building

[Lau2108]

I'll try to keep this brief. I've tried a few things to get this sorted but run out of ideas, I'm hoping the hive mind of mumsnet can give me something to work with.

My mum lives in 55+ flats run by a housing association. Its a building of flats with elderly, disabled and vulnerable people. They have had no running water since Friday night. The water company responsible for supply attended yesterday (saturday) morning and advised it was caused by an ongoing leak on the building side and therefore the responsibility of the housing association to repair. They also noted that this leak has been ongoing for months, leaking in to the street and the company have been refusing to repair, but now this has become an emergency issue as the building is getting no water supply.
The water company reported it to the housing association at 13.15 yesterday. Residents of the building have received no communication in regards to the repair and have not been provided with bottled water for the interim.
I have contacted the housing association multiple times to chase up what's going on and been told its been passed over to be reviewed by someone senior who should call me back. I have repeatedly explained to them the vulnerability of the residents and that the main thing they need right now is reassurance (even a text to say they're aware) and bottled water supplied until it is repaired.
I have contacted the local mp who has been great and is also contacting the housing association.
I've contacted the water company again to see if there's anything more they can do.... there isn't.
When I spoke to the housing association this morning, I told them that if they hadn't made contact with residents and provided bottled water by 13.15 (by which point they would have been aware for 24 hours), I would be going to the local press in the hopes that would put some pressure on them to get it sorted.

To leave these vulnerable people with no drinking water, or able to clean themselves or flush their toilets quite frankly is inhumane.

Can anyone advise on anything else that I can do to try and get them some support?

*residents of the block have gone out to buy bottles of water, the housing association are not aware of this. Not everyone is able to get out and do so.
*I can bring my mum to my house but that doesn't sort the problem for around 50 other elderly, vulnerable people.

Does your mum have a housing officer? It might be an idea to contact them.

The local council adult safeguarding. They will have an OOH number.

Perhaps Shelter for further advice.

I'll be contacting the housing officer first thing tomorrow morning (they work mon-fri)

I've tried shelter, I can't get through as its Sunday.

I will try the council Safeguarding now - thanks!

Normally a threat to go to the press and getting the MP involved will get arses in gear so it's shocking they are dragging their heels like this.
It's a Sunday but this should certainly be sitting with senior management now and they should be taking urgent action. Also start the formal complaint process now. It doesn't sound like they're recording your contacts very well if things aren't moving along already so that should make them sit up and pay attention and will be logged somewhere if they've failed to do that so far.

I'd contact The Council

If theres no water the building isnt inhabitable

they can either arrange alternative accommodation or do work in default

thetenantsvoice.co.uk/advice_from_us/landlord-repairs-basins-sinks-bath-and-other-sanitary-fittings/#:~:text=However%2C%20lack%20of%20running%20water,the%20boundaries%20in%20the%20property.

You should also tweet your mother's local Councillors and the Cabinet member for Housing... HAs do not like being chased by the LA. And, this is one of the rare occasions where I would contact your local newspapers... this should be enough to get bottled water to the residents and further action from the HA.

If you can find out who the CEO is I would email them too. I had to do this due to our local HA not adequately dealing with an issue. Making sure that the very high ups are aware of the failure of their local teams often shines a spotlight which gets action.

I appreciate this doesn’t help with your immediate concern but is something you could do this afternoon which will be picked up tomorrow morning.

Of course - social media now. Someone should be looking at that as things come in, whereas MPs, most journos won't really be catching up with this until tomorrow morning.

Hope this gets sorted.

Environmental health department at the council.
Threaten the housing association with the media/MP/Ombudsman.

Can't go to the ombudsman until the HA's formal complaints process has been completed and is still found wanting, which is why I suggested starting the ball rolling with that asap.

Thank you everyone for the replies!

This afternoon I found out that the engineer who attended last night closed the job down this morning saying it had been resolved (a lie). After giving the housing association another piece of my mind, they agreed to send an engineer out again. He was just as useless as the first, couldn't find the stop tap and disappeared.

The MP has been great and has applied a lot of pressure on the out of hours repair team as well as making contact with the CEO of the housing association.

Tomorrow morning we need to start a new urgent repair job with the main team. I'm also going over there to help each resident individually raise a formal complaint and will be contacting environmental health as soon as their office opens (I was unable to find an ooh contact for the local department).

The local press are also aware and working on the story.

Fingers crossed tomorrow will be more successful.

Oh I hope so Lau and good luck to you - I say that as someone who works for a HA! If all these very credible threats don't work they deserve everything they get.