Vocal Voices

I live in the top right of a block of four two-bedroomed flats.

The bottom left flat has been recently bought and part of the deal was that the footpaths around the building perimeter had to be re-laid. This raised questions with the communal grounds staff who passed their concerns up the food chain. The upshot is that we are to have a survey done looking into ground subsidence.

Over the past 18 months we have had one large Oak, one Elm, one Willow and one Leylandii taken out and the roots killed. A ground floor flat in the next block has had to have repairs done to cracks in the walls and work has been done to collapsed drains between the two blocks.

I just had words with the man who bought the downstairs flat and he is concerned about his purchase. We are all a bit on edge and my landlord is coming round on Monday to have a looksee. She is a property solicitor so is in the know about how these things can go.

Doesn't sound too good and I can well imagine you're all a bit on edge.
Still, let's not pre-empt the survey - hopefully whatever is happening is minor and can be easily fixed.

Ossie the blocks are built on deep stem walls (crawlspaces) to raise the properties above ground level, we have a high water table here. I think that most of us will live in similar builds unless you are in newer houses using slab foundations. Stems are more the norm for older properties.

However, stem walls apparently need maintenance and checking and nobody knows when ours were last checked - if ever! Did anybody know that? When were yours last done?

The survey will tell us, so we wait.