‘Held hostage’: Residents slam ‘dangerous’ lift failures at council block

Rozel Court on Haggerston’s De Beauvoir Estate. Image: Google

Residents have hit out at Hackney Council over persistent lift failures on their housing estate, and the “huge and unaffordable” cost of service charges for maintenance.

Last week a leaseholder living in Rozel Court, part of the De Beauvoir Estate, contacted the Citizen to report ongoing failures with the building’s two lifts.

Kadir Karababa said on one occasion he had been stuck inside for 90 minutes until the fire brigade came to release him.

“I’ve lived here nine years and it’s been a constant problem, along with a number of other issues, that I have raised many, many times, but [it gets] me nowhere,” he said.

Mr Karababa added that despite his warning the council the lifts were failing for increasingly longer periods and were “in danger of failing altogether”, each time the Town Hall told him an engineer had visited and found it to be functioning.

“I started collecting evidence to the contrary and sending videos, but still I got the same answer,” he said.

As a result of the failures, leaseholders had grown frustrated at the thousands they were paying in service charges, he said.

“But more importantly, all residents deserve better.”

Mr Karababa added that the social tenants in the block were scared to speak up out of fear of losing their tenancy, leaving all residents “held hostage”.

A Hackney Council spokesperson said: “We understand the frustrations about the reliability of the lifts at Rozel Court, which is why we are fully replacing both lifts in the block as part of a £24m investment in new lifts across the homes we manage.

“While we finalise these plans, we are committed to maintaining addressing faults with the lifts as quickly as possible and expect to have the current issue resolved by the end of the week.

“We are also working to improve communication with residents so that residents are aware when lifts are temporarily out of order and understand how long a repair is expected to take.”

Mr Karababa yesterday said residents had not been given any information on lift upgrades in their block.

Rozel Court’s most recent fire risk assessment (FRA), carried out in December 2024, showed that inspectors had flagged “combustible and obstructive materials on the means of escape” on the building’s 16th and 17th floors.

The items were classed as ‘low-risk’, but the report gave the council a deadline of just over a week to address the hazard.

The Citizen asked the council to confirm if these items had been completed, but also asked how often the lifts had been out of service in the last five years.

Following a staff visit to the building this week, the Town Hall confirmed all actions identified in the FRA had been completed.

The council said it had received 60 call-outs to the two lifts serving Rozel Court residents since the start of 2023, but did not provide any information on the three years prior, as was requested.

For the vast majority (52) of call-outs, the lifts were found to be operational on attendance, or were brought back into use within 24 hours, the Town Hall added.