Southwark Council Building Surveyor Visit

On 6th June 2017, a Southwark Council Senior Building Surveyor, visited my home. I had reported concerns to Southwark Council that gaps and cracks affecting my 12th floor flat on the Ledbury Estate were widening in the hot weather. There were vertical gaps in the corners of my bedrooms where the two walls meet, as well as horizontal gaps where the floor meets the wall and the wall meets the ceiling. They had always been there, but I had never seen them become so wide. I could fit my fingers inside the gaps and was concerned about the structure of the tower block as a result.

Southwark Council's Senior Building Surveyor assessed and told me that the gaps were caused by 'natural movement of the building' and were not a cause for concern.

I spoke to one of my neighbours who informed me that she also had gaps in her property that were increasing in size. She also informed me that her bedroom window had recently cracked, of it's own accord.

Assured by the Southwark Council Surveyor I tried to believe that this was nothing to worry about.

I spoke to several more neighbours in my tower block at this time, and discovered that many other residents also had these gaps, many residents had been reporting the cracks to Southwark Council for many years, some even decades. The cracls all seemed to be affecting the front part of the buildings, where the large windows are. One neighbour told me that her children used to push paper and card into the gaps and down to the flat below.