Oldham flat owners have been waiting to go home for five years

Residents who have been waiting nearly five years to go back home have been told their return date has been pushed back once again.

The Victory apartments in Oldham was served a prohibition notice in November 2020, with tenants and owners told to leave while work was carried out to make the building safe again.

The building, which is owned by Drakehall Ltd and has been managed by Residential Management Group (RMG) since 2021, has now had its prohibition order lifted, but multiple water leaks mean residents still cannot return.

RMG has said the leaks were recently discovered when the water supply was isolated to deal with contamination.

Lee and Susan Ashworth own two of the 32 apartments in the building. Their daughter Sara Servio says she feels like “pulling her hair out” due to how “frustrating” the situation has become.

She said: “We’re actually paying a lot of money to RMG – £600 a month – to manage the building and I feel I could manage it better myself.”

In a statement, RMG said: “We would remind customers that the remit of the managing agent does not extend to the plumbing within the properties.

“We are conducting a report as a gesture of goodwill and will give residents the option of a repair. This report will be issued before the end of this week.”

Ms Servio’s parents are both ill, so she stepped in around two years go to help them liaise with RMG when she became concerned over the time it was taking to reopen the building.

“I think they could have been a lot more proactive,” she said.

Another resident, 49-year-old Fozia Malik, has been living in student accommodation while the prohibition notice has been in place.

She believes RMG should “compensate us” due to the time they have been out of their homes.

She said the length of time it had taken was “insane” and that at one stage she had “given up hope” that she ever would be able to return.

RMG said the fire safety works had been “complex” and funding had caused delays. It said it had also had to carry out major refurbishments.

“We recognise how difficult this situation has been for residents and have great sympathy for the position they have been in,” it said.

“We have remained committed to getting this building back open as soon as possible throughout the whole process and have continued to keep everyone informed through regular written updates and resident meetings.”

Giles Grover, from the campaign group Manchester Cladiators, wants the government to do more to protect leaseholders from similar delays in future.

He said: “It’s what we’ve been saying to the government all along in terms of them getting a proper grip of all buildings that are unsafe and just making sure as soon as there’s a prohibition notice, the work is done to remedy that as soon as possible.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We are taking decisive action and going further than ever before to speed up the unacceptably slow pace of remediation.

“Our Remediation Acceleration Plan will ensure regulators can enforce remediation and fix problems quickly so residents can return to their homes as soon as possible.”

For now, all flat owners can do is access their apartments to clean them. Ms Malik said despite this, she was still delighted to be a step closer to moving back home.

“Mentally, physically, I have gone through a lot with so many panic attacks, depression, anxiety. Five years was non-stop torture,” she said.

“When you work day and night and think and think you are going back to your own home, I think that feeling, you can’t replace with anything else in this world. Your home is your home.”