Heating failures ‘My toddler had to sleep in a coat’
PEOPLE living at an awardwinning apartment complex in south Bristol have spoken out about the ‘terrible’ management and maintenance of the building, which left them without heating and hot water for several days.
Alice Clark, who has lived at Lakeshore for 10 years, told the Post the situation was so bad she and her partner wanted to leave.
After being left for over a week without heating and hot water, Ms Clark says things in her flat improved but added some residents were without services for longer. She estimates over the past five years, failures with the heating and hot water have occurred as regularly as twice a month, particularly in the winter and at weekends when demand is highest.
To cope with icy weather earlier this month, she said her family had to rely on small electric heaters and her twoyear-old daughter slept in a hoodie and coat because her bedroom was so cold.
Residents claim the lack of hot water and heating continued for some flats despite management company Residential Management Group installing three temporary gas oil boilers on the site after the system failed on March 3. One occupant said the bill for these boilers is estimated to be £38,000 and residents, most of whom saw a 35% increase in management fees last year, will have to cover it.
The Post understands contractors are still on site to resolve ongoing issues with the temporary boilers and that, as of the end of last week residents were reporting improvements in water temperature.
In a statement, RMG said that it ‘completely understand the customer’s concerns’ that were due to ‘historic problems.’ It said it was already working on a project to replace the heating system. The statement added: “Temporary boilers were always required during the transition from the old to the new boiler system and are already built into the project’s overall costs.”
The ‘historic problems’ with the boilers at Lakeshore are a contentious issue for many residents.
Ms Clark says that along with its help-to-buy scheme and design plaudits, the biggest draw for her family to move into the building was its eco-credentials. It has a green energy boiler system comprising a ground source heat pump, a biomass boiler, and a backup gas boiler. But multiple residents say the green energy systems were never bought into full operation and the building has relied on the backup unit, which is now beyond repair.
In correspondence with residents, RMG sets out its position that the original system was never fit for purpose, saying that: “The issue with the ground source heat pumps is that the water that was being pumped around the system was progressively getting hotter to scalding temperatures, and it was, therefore, too dangerous for the tenant and potentially damaging to the pipework, so it was turned off.
“The biomass flue has been incorrectly installed horizontally in the incorrect position, and the chips used were becoming wet from leaking seals, turning the chips into mulch, which was clogging the system, and therefore, it was decided that the biomass should not be used.”
Formerly the headquarters of Imperial Tobacco, the seven-storey, Grade II-listed building was re-opened in 2012 as Lakeshore and is home to almost 300 apartments. Lakeshore, its developer Urban Splash and architects Fergusson Mann garnered several prizes for the conversion, including the RIBA South West Sustainability Award and the Bristol Civic Society Environmental Award.