We have been left cold and wet in our leaking retirement home

I am 80 and my wife 79, and we live in a McCarthy Stone retirement development. The main reason we moved was to relieve ourselves of building maintenance worries, one of the advertised selling points. For the last 10 months, a leak in the communal roof has caused rainwater to drip through our bedroom ceiling. We have had to move all the furniture, and place buckets across the floor. Water has also run down the wall. The roof insulation is apparently now sodden, so the room is very cold. McCarthy Stone has relied on contractors who are seemingly not up to the job, and there has been a succession of missed appointments. They have never sent one of their staff, or an independent surveyor, to investigate. The worry is affecting our health.
C and JT, Manchester

Another appointment was missed just after you originally wrote to me in January – but there was a miraculous turnaround when McCarthy Stone realised a headline loomed. You were suddenly told a building expert would visit straight away. Within a week it had arranged for the section of roof to be relined and retiled, and insisted yours was an isolated incident. Work was completed two months later in April.

The company congratulated itself on offering you accommodation in its guest suite, a kit to clean the damp, and help to move your furniture before I got in touch – a reasonable option for a short period but outrageous for 10 months, during which time you were expected to pay the substantial service charge.

It told me back in February: “We have completed various repairs to the roof over the last 10 months, and it has taken some time to identify the exact cause of the leak. We will be covering costs for all of the work, and discussing an offer of compensation with the couple.” However, come May, there was still no sign of compensation, and residents were billed for the abortive roof repairs in their service charge.

McCarthy Stone’s initial promise to pay for “all of the work” actually meant, it has since told me, repairs within your flat. You were offered, and accepted, compensation - four months after I got involved. It’s worth knowing that residents of sheltered accommodation can take unresolved complaints to the Housing Ombudsman for arbitration.

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