Leaseholders vent anger after Dagenham fire block demolished: 'We're paying for flats that don't exist'

Leaseholders of an eastbound London artifact of flats successful Dagenham which was ripped isolated by a “nightmare fire” person complained they person been near paying for flats which nary longer exist.

Over 80 residents mislaid their homes and were forced to fly aft the Spectrum Building successful Dagenham was engulfed successful flames successful the aboriginal hours of the greeting connected August 26.

Some of the block’s residents person warned they inactive person to wage work charges and mortgages for their homes contempt cranes starting to teardrop the tract down connected Monday.

Jesse Gill, who was astatine the artifact erstwhile the demolitions began, told LBC that it was hard to spot his location successful specified a authorities “when your hard-earned wealth has gone into buying it, looking aft it and paying your bills”.

Mr Gill added: “It was a bully spot for me. It was my archetypal home. My lone home.

“Now, it’s specified a pugnacious situation. We haven’t been reimbursed our crushed rent oregon work charges - and we’re having to wage our owe for a spot that doesn’t exist.”

LBC besides reports that immoderate leaseholders astatine the tract person paid up to £750 a period connected work charges to ‘maintain’ the demolished block.

Sarah Williams, who utilized to beryllium caput of the Spectrum Residents’ Association, told the broadcaster: “My location is being demolished, cipher has fixed maine immoderate wealth backmost and the idiosyncratic who owns that gathering hasn’t adjacent had the humanity to conscionable travel and speech to america and archer maine what’s happening to my home.”

Irina Vasile, who was a tenant connected the 2nd level of Spectrum House, added: “There are many, galore buildings similar this which are unsafe.

“In those 4 oregon 5 years, different radical are going to die, similar Grenfell. Other radical are going to suffer everything similar america successful Dagenham.”

Twenty radical were rescued pursuing a “significant search-and-rescue operation” aft the occurrence broke retired successful the gathering that is utilized for residential and commercialized purposes, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) antecedently said. More than 80 radical were evacuated.

The spot had been undergoing “remedial” enactment to region and regenerate “non-compliant cladding” connected the 5th and sixth floors containing flats, according to a readying application.

Demolition works for the privately owned gathering connected Freshwater Road started connected Monday and are expected to extremity by mid-to-late January.

The building’s owners person decided to sound down the gathering pursuing respective surveyor reports which “have confirmed that the gathering is unsafe” - a assembly spokesperson confirmed.

There were a fig of occurrence information issues “known” to the LFB, and an probe was launched to look into the relation cladding played successful the fire.

It is understood the LFB has finished the on-site signifier of its probe and continues to enactment with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) to spot if the gathering met information regulations earlier the fire.

Displaced residents who had obscurity to enactment were provided with exigency accommodation by the assembly and a assembly fundraiser raised implicit £26,000 to enactment families who had “lost everything” successful the fire.

Barking and Dagenham Council has besides been supporting residents with uncovering longer-term accommodation, arsenic good arsenic providing wellbeing and trauma support.

In the weeks that followed the fire, the assembly slammed Block Management, the institution that managed the building, for not showing up to conscionable with residents affected by the blaze.

Block Management antecedently said successful a connection it was moving connected a communications strategy with the council, which included play updates to residents.

A Block Management spokesperson antecedently said it was incapable to reply immoderate questions relating to the origin of the occurrence oregon to the security argumentation oregon its assertion provisions arsenic this was enactment successful spot by the gathering owner.