kitchen cupboards fell off wall

frank.hopper

Not all bodgers are immigrants.


Carol it's not law, but they would leave themselves wide open for a claim if someone were to be injured-they now know of a potential risk to their tenants.

Mojisola

Have the neighbours been told about this? The chances are that their kitchen cupboards are fitted the same way. You may be able to prevent serious injury to someone by warning them.

As well as talking to the HA, I would be having a word with the local paper and/or the local radio station. Things are usually sorted much more quickly when the press in involved.

Tom_Jones

amcluesent wrote: »

> in a housing association property<

No surprise, your housing is thrown together by immigrants on minimum wage who can't speak English and have never seen sight of a qualification for the building trade. The quicker they can bodge the job, the quicker they get cash in hand and back home on Ryanair for bevvies.

Jeeeeeeeeez how RACIST are you

littlesnuggy

ormus wrote: »

i am deadly serious.
the HSE have enough trouble with the average 365 deaths every year on building sites.

O/T but just had to correct your 'statistics': in 2009 there were 41 deaths on building sites, in 2008, 89. So nowhere near 365; the total number across all industries each year is thankfully even less than the figure you quoted.

gabyjane

Hi Carol i am so glad the baby is ok and i too would be shocked and very cross. Despite the fact the child was not hurt the fact that they are not fitted correctly is the issue here and needs addressing surely incase others have the same probs?

We live in a S/O house which was a new house when we bought it. We had a plumber round (a friend) who thought he could slate it as much as he liked..not quite sure really why as when i asked him what he thought was wrong with it he couldn't actually find anything! told him sour grapes over not getting contracts on the estate were not an attractive thing!..funnily enough our cupboards are fixed to on one wall to a plasterboard wall and seem to have so many fixings inside which is obviously good! they are also sealed to the wall which a friend said he had never seen before but they are hopefully there for a long time to come!

amcluesent your comment is racist and rude tbh, our house was built by english builders yet wouldn't bother me either way who built is so long as they did a good job.

I hope you get some results from them.

Owain_Moneysaver

Watchdog? Local paper?

hngrymummy

Ormus. The HSE requires near-misses on sites to be reported as well as injuries and fatalities (RIDDOR 95). They take everything seriously and would rather know about incidents than have people too afraid to 'bother' them. The more they know, the more fatalities can be avoided. Most construction/demolition companies require everything to be reported that could cause injury - such as a lorry reversing without a banksman, or a spoilheap collapsing, or someone wandering around without adequate PPE. Maybe no-one was hurt this time, but by reporting it, it could prevent an injury next time. I would call the HSE, even though this deosn't fall under RIDDOR, then THEY can tell you if it's something they need to know about, and who needs to know if not them.

This is why the OP needs to take this further. Maybe no-one was hurt this time, but by reporting it they can prevent the next one being a fatality. OP, you need to report this, and you could save a child's life. And before anyone thinks I'm being OTT, I work in the construction industry on construction sites and have seen how seriously these things are taken, I have also seen what happens when these things are not taken seriously.

carolwat

Thank you for the very helpful comments today. After some of last nights comments I was thinking that maybe I was too close to the situation and was over reacting and focusing on the what could have happened but it was all just so unexpected and such a shock.

I was also thinking about the papers too as this way people who have kitchen units installed the same way could take steps to ensure their families safety.

I was looking on the net last night for who to report it to but didnt think the HSE would be interested but I will call them and if they are the wrong people hopefully they can point me in the right direction. I know noone was hurt this time but that was purely luck and what happens next time if someones child is directly under the cupboards.

We did tell the neighbours so they are aware of it. Infact one of her neighbours refused to let them install her cupboards on the same wall and instead insisted they were put on a masonary wall.

Thanks again to those who have helped.

phill99

FYI, the HSE are not the appropriate authority in this matter, If this was still a building site then they are the the correct authority. However, as this is now a rented home, the appropriate authority is the EHO at your local council. As this is a HA property I think they will be very interested given the implications.

loracan1

I'd be wary of using those particular fixings on a small shelf, never mind wall cupboards, and wouldn't dream of putting wallcupboards on a plasterboard wall anyway unless using the method mentioned in '6' regardless of what fixings were available.