Following fires, burst water pipes and power outages, residents in a block of flats in East Sheen do not know what to do anymore.

Since the 17 families moved in to the flats in Garden Road in March 2012, there have been fires in some people’s heating systems and one woman with a baby was left without heat for a large part of the winter.

In the latest incident a young woman fell down dark stairs after slipping on water from a burst pipe in the flats, which had also wiped out all the electrics.

The flats, managed by housing association Network Stadium, were plunged into darkness on May 8 after the pipe burst and soaked electrics.

The woman, in her 20s, was taken to West Middlesex Hospital and was not believed to have been seriously injured, but the incident has further outraged residents.

Resident Dorothy Williams said Network Stadium were very hard to contact and regularly did not sort out problems for residents.

On May 8, when the power and water first went, she said: “We are really worried. Seventeen families live in this block – it’s terrible for them.

“It hasn’t been a good experience and there are so many people that have wanted to get out of here. We just all don’t know what to do any more. [Network Stadium] just doesn’t care about us.”

Richmond Council’s tenants’ champion Councillor Lisa Blakemore has said she had tried to contact the housing association and arrange meetings on numerous occasions.

Coun Blakemore said: “Network was absolutely useless at contacting people. It has got to do something, on a number of levels.”

Coun Blakemore finally arranged a meeting with Network Stadium and residents on May 15, where the housing association promised to improve contact.

She added: “They’ve just turned it around, they had to because I said you better because we can make things most difficult.”

Susmita Sen, executive director for Network Stadium said the company took safety and quality of life very seriously.

She said: “We regret that residents of Garden Road feel they have not been kept informed of progress dealing with issues that have arisen at the property.

“We are listening to residents and taking every step possible to respond to and resolve these problems to the satisfaction of all concerned.

“We can’t comment on individual cases but we are aware of ongoing issues with the air source heat pump system and have been working with residents to ensure they understand fully how it works.

“There has been an issue with faulty thermostats. We have identified and disabled these and they pose no further risk to residents.

“Temporary heating was provided to those properties that were without heating for a period of time.

“We were alerted to the water leak on May 8, at 8am. By 9am an emergency repairs crew were on hand to repair the leak and make homes safe. By noon the water supplies were reinstated and the source of the leak repaired by the end of the day.”