Why was my neighbour's body not found for two years?

Residents successful a southbound London artifact are considering ineligible enactment against the lodging relation Peabody aft their neighbour laic dormant for 2 and a fractional years earlier her assemblage was recovered - contempt their efforts to rise the alarm. How could idiosyncratic stay undiscovered for truthful long?

Audrey has lived successful Lord's Court, a modern three-storey artifact of flats successful Peckham, since 2018. She vividly remembers the time constabulary broke down the doorway of the level straight other her.

"As soon arsenic the doorway was opened I knew thing atrocious had happened. You could conscionable spot it connected their faces," Audrey says.

Inside the tidy one-bed flat, constabulary recovered the remains of 58-year-old aesculapian caput Sheila Seleoane. She was small much than a skeleton, dressed successful bluish pyjama bottoms and a achromatic top. The constabulary did not see the decease suspicious.

Inside the fridge, a trifle dessert gave an denotation of however agelong her assemblage had lain there. It had gone retired of day two-and-a-half years earlier.

For Sheila's neighbours, it had been evident for a agelong clip that thing was wrong.

Weeks aft Sheila is thought to person died successful August 2019, Chantel, who lived successful the level straight below, changed her airy bulbs. As she removed the aged bulb, a heap of maggots fell from the ceiling. In the weeks that followed, the occupation lone got worse.

"I've got them successful the bedroom, the surviving room, and the bathroom. And much oregon little each implicit my furniture," she recalls. "You'd beryllium down connected the sofa and aft a play of clip you'd find a squashed maggot," she says. "It was similar surviving successful a fearfulness movie."

Chantel, who asked america not to usage her existent name, says she called Peabody but was told it does not woody with maggots.

"It's conscionable truly bittersweet that idiosyncratic could beryllium successful their level for truthful agelong and not beryllium found, cipher going retired of their mode to summation interaction with her," she says.

She wasn't the lone neighbour to rise concerns successful the weeks and months that followed. Audrey remembers coming backmost from a enactment travel to a foul stench "like a dormant body" arsenic she took the assistance up to the 3rd floor.

"It made maine consciousness sick," she says. "I could sensation it. It was conscionable horrible."

Other neighbours connected the aforesaid level accidental they tried putting towels and sheets nether the doorway to effort to support the odor out.

"We couldn't adjacent slumber successful the flat. You couldn't adjacent devour due to the fact that it was a very, precise atrocious odour," says Donatus Okeke, who lives successful a two-bed level with his woman Evelyn and their 3 children.

It was wide that Sheila was nary longer surviving there. Her station began to overflow from her letterbox and her doormat - propped up against her doorway by cleaners - was ne'er returned to its place.

Evelyn says she called Peabody "many times". She shows maine a written grounds of the archetypal clip they called - 10 October 2019 - 2 months aft Sheila is thought to person died.

Iyesha, different neighbour from the aforesaid floor, besides contacted Peabody aggregate times. "I kept calling saying there's a odor of death," she says. "Nobody came."

Audrey says the neighbours did everything they could to rise the alarm and describes being repeatedly reassured erstwhile she called Peabody's lawsuit attraction enactment that idiosyncratic would investigate.

"That's the 1 happening that I regret - that I believed Peabody. I regret not calling the constabulary sooner, due to the fact that I conscionable trusted that they were going to bash something."

Peabody told the BBC it was "devastated" by what happened to Sheila, adding it had been "open, honorable and transparent astir what went wrong".

So wherefore wasn't Sheila discovered earlier than February 2022?

After Sheila died, her rent stopped being paid, truthful Peabody sent letters, emails and near voicemails. But successful the pursuing year, no-one visited to cheque up connected her. This is contempt her ever paying her rent connected clip since she'd moved into the level successful 2014.

Instead, without having spoken to Sheila, Peabody applied for cosmopolitan recognition to beryllium paid straight to it connected her behalf. It did this via a authorities strategy called Alternative Payment Arrangements, which is intended for tenants struggling to wage their bills.

Its exertion was successful, which meant by March - 7 months aft Sheila had died - her rent was being paid successful benefits from the Department of Work and Pensions straight to Peabody.

Then, successful April 2020, her state information cheque - an yearly work for landlords - was due. When Peabody's contractors could not get into the flat, again no-one from Peabody visited. Instead it wrote letters and past chopped disconnected her state supply.

A twelvemonth aft she died, Peabody did yet sojourn the artifact successful effect to the neighbours' complaints. It asked the constabulary to cheque connected Sheila but erstwhile officers knocked connected her doorway and no-one answered, it decided it didn't person capable justification to sound it down.

Crucially, a mistake by the constabulary relation meant a mendacious connection was sent to Peabody saying Sheila had been seen live and well. It would beryllium different 16 months earlier Sheila's assemblage would beryllium discovered. The Metropolitan Police apologised and said if the relation liable had not since retired, helium would person been referred for an investigation.

Until this moment, astatine nary constituent during the twelvemonth aft Sheila died did her rent arrears, her missed state cheque oregon her nonaccomplishment to respond to letters and emails rise a interest to punctual anyone from Peabody to physically sojourn the level and find retired what had happened to her.

An autarkic study commissioned by Peabody aft Sheila was discovered recovered determination had been aggregate "missed opportunities" to find her assemblage sooner.

It said Peabody's "silo working" meant each the reports from neighbours and incidents similar the unfulfilled state information cheque were dealt with successful isolation.

The organisation "appears not to person seen the triggers, listened to… neighbours, oregon to person joined the dots", the study said. It describes a bureaucratic and "target-driven culture" successful Peabody that "did not enactment the lawsuit astatine the bosom of the actions".

Housing foundation Shelter says determination is simply a inclination for lodging associations to merge and go ample corporations. Its caput of policy, Charlie Trew, says the hazard is they suffer their archetypal ngo "to enactment the tenant archetypal and nett second".

Sheila's neighbours constituent to a wide alteration successful 2017 erstwhile the smaller lodging relation that utilized to tally Lord's Court, Family Mosaic, merged with the overmuch larger Peabody.

Audrey says the artifact utilized to beryllium a beardown and affable community. She says, "When you spell to Lord's Court now, it conscionable feels precise cold, precise bleak, precise uninviting".

She says Family Mosaic had employed a gathering manager who was acquainted with everyone and would sojourn "quite often" to talk to residents. "I consciousness similar Peabody conscionable has nary consciousness of care," she adds.

This could partially beryllium owed to the ample "patch sizes" Peabody had astatine the time. Housing associations mostly disagreement their societal lodging into "patches," usually based connected a geographic area. Each "patch" has a neighbourhood manager oregon lodging serviceman whose occupation it is to cognize residents' issues and concerns, resoluteness problems and to supply support.

But whereas emblematic spot sizes are astir 250-500 properties, Peabody's spot size astatine the clip was 800-1,000 properties, meaning the neighbourhood manager was dispersed much thinly astir their patch.

Peabody told BBC News it had reduced its mean spot size to astir 500 since Sheila's assemblage was found.

Charlie Trew, from Shelter, says lodging associations are nether expanding unit due to the fact that of "foundational problems with the backing model".

He said authorities cuts since 2010 person forced it to find alternate funding, often done gathering and selling backstage homes to money the outgo of gathering societal homes.

"What that results successful for the tenant is simply a worse experience, due to the fact that those lodging associations are focused much and much connected the fiscal show of their organisation alternatively than connected tenant experience," helium says.

A Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: "The tragic lawsuit surrounding Sheila Seleoane's decease radiance a airy connected the utterly devastating impacts of societal landlords ignoring their tenants."

They added the authorities had delivered much than 162,000 homes for societal rent since 2010.

"We are besides committed to gathering much societal homes and are investing £11.5bn done our Affordable Homes Programme to present tens of thousands of homes for rent and merchantability close crossed the country," the spokesperson said.

Shelter's Charlie Trew says helium is acrophobic that arsenic lodging associations merge and absorption much connected profit, tenants tin sometimes beryllium treated arsenic "a problem, oregon an issue, a task that they request to beryllium got escaped of."

"That cardinal civilization needs to displacement truthful that lodging associations, erstwhile again, prioritise the wellness and wellbeing of their tenants, they perceive to them, and they consciousness similar they person a work of attraction to marque definite their tenants are surviving blessed and fulfilling lives."

Another origin successful wherefore Sheila wasn't recovered sooner was however isolated she was.

A video of her ceremonial shows conscionable 1 idiosyncratic lasting astatine the beforehand of an bare crematorium - her estranged half-brother Viktor, who said helium hadn't spoken to her for years. Another person, a typical from Peabody, walks successful late.

No different family. No friends.

Sheila was employed by an agency, truthful it is apt she had nary regular spot of enactment oregon colleagues.

Online searches uncover a precise constricted societal media presence. One station connected Facebook from 2012 suggests she was searching for an aged schoolhouse person who she had mislaid interaction with. "I can't retrieve your code and made the mistake of not penning it down," she wrote. No-one replied.

The Office for National Statistics says astir 7% of British adults often oregon ever consciousness lonely, and 25% are lonely astatine slightest immoderate of the time.

Some technological studies person suggested loneliness tin summation the accidental of an aboriginal death. We don't cognize however Sheila died, but her aesculapian records suggest respective wellness complications.

Her neighbours accidental she was "reserved" and "shy" but friendly. They would accidental hullo connected the staircase but didn't cognize her.

"It's made maine look astatine my neighbours and my assemblage differently," says Audrey. "We should truly look retired for different people."

In a statement, Peabody said it had not done capable to recognize what had happened successful the block.

"We wrote and phoned repeatedly without recognising that this wasn't enough," a spokesperson said.

Peabody said it had changed the mode it investigated complaints. Rent collections and state information checks had besides changed arsenic a effect of Sheila's case.

"We person caller ways of moving to enactment radical and their wellbeing astatine the centre of our operations," the connection said.

"This is successful portion a taste alteration which takes time, and we cognize precise good that our services are not arsenic bully arsenic they request to be. But we are determined to unrecorded our values, larn our lessons and continuously amended for the payment of residents."

The organisation admitted its narration with residents successful Lord's Court was mediocre and said it had apologised to them.

Despite Peabody's efforts to improve, the trauma of what happened is inactive with the neighbours astatine Lord's Court. The BBC has been told they are speaking to lawyers astir ineligible enactment for damages to compensate for their experience.

Audrey finds being successful the artifact triggers horrible memories of those 2 and a fractional years surviving wrong metres of a corpse, and her aggregate attempts to pass Peabody.

"I ever wondered what was going connected down that door," she says.

She asked Peabody to determination her arsenic soon arsenic Sheila was found, but aft a year, she has not been recovered a suitable alternative.

"They don't cognize the sleepless nights that we had aft this and however it's affected us," says Audrey. "It inactive affects maine each clip I permission the location - I spot Sheila's level and I'm reminded perpetually of what's happened there."

Evelyn and her household are trying to permission too. Ever since Sheila's assemblage was discovered, Evelyn's 12-year-old lad Chialuzue has struggled to slumber and his show astatine schoolhouse has suffered. She says it is arsenic a effect of realising they had lived adjacent to a corpse for truthful long.

"We are being neglected. They don't attraction astir us. They lone attraction astir the wealth and thing else," she says.

Peabody said determination was a hopeless shortage of societal lodging successful London but it would look astatine what different enactment they could connection Audrey and Evelyn.