Fellows Court in Hackney has been hit by serious flooding just two weeks after a fire displaced several of the tower block’s residents and hospitalised two children.
Residents in the council-owned building reported severe leaks through multiple floors, beginning on 8 March due to a burst mains pipe. Four flats were left uninhabitable.
Around 70 firefighters were earlier involved in tackling a blaze which broke out on the evening of 27 February. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “There are long-standing issues with the central heating in the building that are also causing worry and frustration.
“We are committed to finding a long-term solution to resolve the issues.”
Residents of Fellows Court have documented the problems in their building extensively on X since August 2025.
On 26 February, the day before the fire broke out, posted: “Multiple faults on fire alarm reported to Hackney Council with no action, so this 15-storey tower block has no fire alarm. Residents are at risk.”
Hackney Council said: “The fault affecting the fire alarm, which was completed ahead of the incident on Friday, was not system wide and would not have stopped the fire alarm sounding when the fire broke out.”
The Council will now be carrying out a fire risk assessment review as the most recent fire safety inspections were carried out in November 2024.
Elsewhere in Hackney repeated complaints about social housing have been ignored, according to one Homerton resident.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Hackney Post that she had brought the same complaint about a leak in her one-bedroom flat four times.
She added that she has “put up” with the leak in her hallway “for over a year” and said she feels “obliged” to contact Hackney Council again this week.
Photos from unnamed source of the damage to her flat [credit: anonymous].
According to the woman, even when work to try and fix the leak was completed two years ago, it “still hadn’t disappeared” and “clearly wasn’t done properly”.
“It’s extremely frustrating because every year council tax increases and I end up paying all this money just for their poor management,” she added.
The Hackney resident said she feels “frustrated” at the “laziness of the contractors and council”, adding that “it’s always the small guys that suffer”.
Hackney Council has been approached for comment.
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Edie Holt is an MA Newspaper Journalism student at City St George’s. She has previously written for The Daily Mail, The New World, and The Student (University of Edinburgh) on Culture, Sport, News, and Opinion.
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