“I feel like a prisoner in my own home”: Sale woman unable to leave flat due to faulty lift

A woman has been left unable to leave her home freely due to a regularly broken lift in her building. 

Natasha Freedman, 34, has used a wheelchair since a childhood spinal cord injury left her paralysed when she was nine-years-old.  

She began renting the flat, which is on the first floor, with her partner in 2018, but it wasn’t until last year that she began experiencing issues with lift. 

Issues began in July last year when the only lift in the building, which is managed by property management company Residential Management Group (RMG), was unusable for four weeks. At the time, Natasha contacted her local Labour councillor Shona Gilbert which was “somewhat effective” in escalating the issue with the property manager. 

“However,” says Natasha, “since then it doesn’t appear that RMG have improved processes to ensure swift action or alternative solutions have been implemented for disabled residents if the lift is out of service.” 

Since December, however, the lift has broken at least seven times – at one point for six whole weeks – leaving Natasha in a “state of limbo”. 

“Without a working lift, I'm unable to enter or exit my property, I've become solely reliant on others around me to help,” she tells The Altrincham & Sale Lead. “I feel like a prisoner in my own home.” 

Despite reporting the issue to RMG on numerous occasions, little has been done to resolve the issue, and Natasha has become afraid to leave her flat when she’s alone after she was left stranded at the bottom of the stairs when the lift broke for the sixth time in mid-March.

At the time, she contacted RMG customer service, but they weren't able to provide any timescales on when the lift would be fixed or how she should get upstairs without access to the lift. 

“This is what has caused most of my anxiety,” says Natasha. “I had to try to get up the stairs by myself, just on my hands and bum, which was completely demoralising and humiliating. 

“Obviously, I can't carry my wheelchair as I'm trying to hobble up the stairs on my own hands.

“It was an awful experience, I felt terrible.

“If the lift is broken, and there's no other alternative, I’m not sure what RMG expects me to do, and I tried to express that when I got on to customer services, but they offered absolutely no alternatives or solutions in that situation.” 

The issues with the lift have meant that Natasha, who has to rely on her partner to carry her up and down the stairs when he’s around, has been unable to go into the office for work and has had to cancel numerous physiotherapy appointments. 

“That’s made my condition worse, because I needed to do physio to improve my physical health,” she says.

“I am also supposed to go into the office and I can’t while the lift is broken, and although my employer has been really good, I still worry about that aspect of it, and how this might impact my performance reviews and personal development.

“You need to go into the office to be a valuable team member, and to be successful, so it’s worrying.” 

Natasha, who has experienced periods of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation in the past, says these feelings have been exacerbated by her living situation.

“When accessibility issues arise, it tends to bring out a lot of internalised ableism, which many disabled people tend to feel in these situations,” she says.

“When I do encounter these types of issues, I kind of just try my hardest to shrug it off, but you can’t shrug off being unable to leave your property independently for months. 

“I just feel like RMG pressed pause on my life.”

Sadly, Kacey Chambers, an independent leasehold advisor, explains that property management firms are currently under no obligation to provide residents with alternative accommodation in this event.

“What the property manager could have done, if they were aware, would have been to write to the other residents to ask them to assist the wheelchair user with travelling, whilst the lift was out of use,” she says .

“They aren't obliged to do this though.

“It does go to show that there is an issue within the property sector in terms of accessibility, which does need highlighting.”

In an attempt to find a solution, Natasha contacted her local MP, Sir Graham Brady, the Conservative MP for Altrincham & Sale West. 

Although Mr Brady did respond to one of Natasha’s emails at the beginning of March, stating that he hoped his correspondence with RMG would help with the situation, he has since failed to respond to any of her subsequent emails.

“I'm really disappointed as a constituent to basically receive no help whatsoever from an MP that's supposed to represent our community,” says Natasha.

“I think it's outrageous.”

She has also considered writing to Mayor Andy Burnham and her local Labour councillors, but feels as though it would be futile.

“It really does feel like a situation where nobody wants to help,” she continues. “Maybe that’s because it's a systematic issue, and there are so many other disabled people that will be in similar situations, so I don’t really know what they could do to improve it.

“It feels very hopeless.” 

Mr Brady did not respond to The Altrincham & Sale Lead’s request for comment. 

When Natasha contacted Shona Gilbert, now leader of Trafford Council, last year, she was advised to move to a ground floor flat. 

However, with the rental market in disarray, this is easier said than done. 

“We did look for a ground floor flat, but it was just extremely difficult to come by, because I'm sure you can imagine the rental sector is a nightmare and conditions are always varied.”

When Natasha  and her partner did manage to find ground floor flats, they were inaccessible in other ways, such as having tight spaces making it difficult to manoeuvre a wheelchair, no wide-bay parking spaces, or no wheelchair ramps.

Natasha also says she has experienced discrimination when looking for rental properties.

“We did identify a nice flat in Sale, but when I tried to ask for a reasonable adjustment, the landlord basically withdrew the offer,” she says.

“I obviously couldn’t prove that it was due to discrimination, but it felt like it was intrinsically linked.”

The Altrincham & Sale Lead contacted Gilbert, who said: “I can confirm I helped Natasha with this issue and I’m very sorry to hear it has continued.

“I understand there are challenges with the supply chain for parts to fix lifts, so there are regular issues like this.

“However, this is not excusable and cannot be accepted long term.  It is also no excuse for poor service and residents deserve daily updates as a minimum.

“I think there needs to be improved regulation of landlords and faster complaint and escalation routes for important issues like this.”

RMG has become infamous for its inability to deal with maintenance issues. A Facebook group called Residential Management Group rip off people's pockets has 5,700 members at the time of writing (up by more than 1,000 in a year). 

Last year, The Lead reported on a group of leaseholders in Urmston who were being charged large and often unexplained maintenance fees despite none of the issues in their communal spaces – which included leaks, caved-in roofs, black mould and security issues – getting fixed. 

A spokesperson for RMG said:  “We totally sympathise with the residents at Maple Court who have experienced the lift being out of action for three weeks in total. 

“The delay was due to awaiting parts which were required to get the lift operational, but we kept all leaseholders updated throughout this period. 

“It is now fully functioning and we can reassure the residents that the lift is regularly serviced and inspected by a qualified engineer.”

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