A resident has said that the company that looks after his building has been drastically failing its tenants.

Former mental health nurse Andy Smith, who lives at Mayer House in Chatham Place, said that the housing association company Peabody which owns the building has fallen short on every complaint from its inhabitants.

“They’re terrible. It's also a consistent thing with every property they own, they just don’t get anything done,” he said.

Mr Smith, who is visually impaired, said that Peabody also hasn’t been understanding about his disability, and even refused to send him his letters in a larger print.

The person on the phone allegedly used the excuse that she ‘didn’t know how to’ when he pressed why she couldn’t do this.

They also took a very long time to install special lights to help Mr Smith’s sight. It took them 10 months to fit lighting that would help his quality of life.

The block of flats has had issues with anti-social behaviour due faulty door systems, meaning that rough sleepers have come into the property on multiple occasions. 

Mr Smith also reported that there is currently a cockroach infestation four floors down from his flat.

“Peabody is consistently lying to people. It took me over two hours on the phone the other day to establish that the rent had gone up. No one who works there has the knowledge to help.”

Mr Smith said that there have been multiple occasions where toilets in the building have flooded with sewage.

After the same thing happened to Mr Smith’s bathroom, the company that dealt with the former blockages called him and said that Peabody had stopped them from flushing the main pipes since they gained ownership of the property.

Peabody has subsequently failed to remove limescale from the pipes meaning that two flats remain empty and many others are at risk of blockages.

Mr Smith said “To me that’s amazing really, it’s just incompetence. They’re beyond a joke really, it’s affecting both my mental and physical health.”

He said that the issues that he has faced are not unique to him in any way and that as a system and organisation Peabody needs to be looked at.

Peabody has said that they are looking into all the concerns Mr Smith has raised.

A spokesperson for said: “We’re really sorry that residents of Mayer House are experiencing these problems. We’re making urgent repairs and dealing with the pest problem.

“Our teams have already taken action to tackle the anti-social behaviour here and are continuing to work with partners, including the police, to see what else can be done.”