Five weekends with only an intermittent water supply have left residents of a new-build apartment block furious with their landlord.

Tenants at Victory Place in Dynamo Way, Gillingham, say that prior to this weekend just gone, for more than a month, their taps — both hot and cold — have been cutting out repeatedly at weekends.

Young mum Abbey Chapman, who has children aged four and two, said: “It’s just not acceptable.

“There are 98 flats here, many with young families in them and others with disabled and vulnerable people.

“To not have any water is just not on. Apart from once, when the water first went off, we haven’t even been given any bottled water.”

Last Tuesday (March 11), the social housing residents received a written apology from the landlord, Southern Housing, blaming the problem on a faulty water pump.

Ms Chapman said that typically the water went off on Friday evening and was not fully restored until Sunday afternoon.

Speculating why it happens only at weekends, the 29-year-old mum said: “I guess that’s when most people are at home; the demand is highest and the pump just can’t cope.

“The whole block is suffering except for those on the ground floor, who seem to be okay.”

One resident who lives on the third floor in the seven-storey block was the first to move into his flat in October after the building was completed by the developer, Legal and General, last summer.

He said: “I have a heart problem, I have hyper-tension and diabetes and osteoarthritis.

“To have no water is a real problem for me.

We all fully expect our water to go off again this coming weekend

“Clearly the pump is not fit for purpose, but Southern Housing just keeps sending out an engineer to reset it instead of dealing with the problem.”

Speaking on Friday, he said: “We all fully expect our water to go off again this coming weekend.”

The resident said: “Part of the problem seems to be deciding who is responsible. Southern Housing blames the developer, Legal and General, but Legal and General says it is Southern Housing’s problem.”

He pays £652 a month for his one-bedroom flat.

He said: “Southern Housing is always slow to fix anything - there have been problems with the lift for a month. They just don’t seem very empathetic.

“For example, they could supply us with bottled water in advance knowing that the water is likely to go off again this weekend - but will they?”

A spokesman for Southern Housing said: “We understand Legal and General (L&G), the owner of these homes and where we provide management services to, were contacted by a number of residents left without water.

“The water service has now been fully restored to affected homes at Victory Place following an issue with a pump in the tank room.

“A repair has now been carried out and L&G are working with the manufacturer of the pump to ensure a solution is in place to avoid issues reoccurring. They have offered to reimburse any resident who had to purchase bottled water.“

A spokesman for Legal and General said: “A number of residents at Victory Place have recently experienced intermittent water supply issues as a result of a pump fault.

“A repair has now been carried out and we are working with the manufacturer of the pump to ensure a solution is in place to avoid issues re-occurring.

“We have offered to reimburse any resident who had to purchase bottled water.”

Ms Chapman said: “The supply did stay on this last weekend. But we haven’t been told whether they have fixed the problem permanently — we suspect not.”